Marcelo Caetano

He was born in Lisbon in 1906 and had headed the government, as President of the Council of Ministers, since 1968.⁴ At 05:00 on 25 April 1974, the director of the PIDE/DGS, Silva Pais, telephoned him: “Mr President, the Revolution is out in the streets!” (Senhor Presidente, a Revolução está na rua!) In a second call he advised him to leave home as a matter of the utmost urgency and go to the Carmo barracks, “because the GNR is sound”.²¹

In the Carmo Barracks he spent the day with the Minister of the Interior, César Moreira Baptista, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rui Patrício, and other members of the government, while the column of Salgueiro Maia besieged the barracks and a crowd filled the square.²¹ In mid-afternoon he decided to surrender — “so that power does not fall into the street” (assim o poder não cai na rua), he confided — but not to a captain: he asked for a general officer to receive power and summoned General Spínola to the Carmo.² Late in the afternoon he handed power over to him and left the barracks in the Chaimite armoured car “Bula”, slowly, through the crowd, on the way to the MFA Command Post at Pontinha.³²

On the morning of 26 April he was taken to the airport, as was the President of the Republic, Américo Tomás, and, with the former ministers Silva Cunha and Moreira Baptista, boarded an Air Force plane for Funchal, where they were held under guard.² He died in Rio de Janeiro in 1980.⁴