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Militão Ribeiro

1896–1950

Militão Bessa Ribeiro

A communist leader, he was in the group of prisoners who inaugurated the Tarrafal camp in 1936. Arrested again in 1949, with Álvaro Cunhal and Sofia Ferreira, he died in isolation in Lisbon Penitentiary, on hunger strike, on 2 January 1950.

Repressiontextile workerPCP leaderpolitical prisoner, deported to Tarrafal
Born
13 August 1896, Murça
Died
2 January 1950, Lisbon (Lisbon Penitentiary)
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Biography

He was born in Murça on 13 August 1896. At 13 he emigrated to Brazil, where he was a textile worker and a trade union leader. In the early 1930s he was repatriated to Portugal and joined the PCP.1

Arrested in July 1934, he was sentenced by the Special Military Court and passed through the prisons of Peniche and Angra do Heroísmo. In October 1936 he was one of the group of prisoners who inaugurated the Tarrafal concentration camp, in Cape Verde.1 Freed by an amnesty in 1940, he was imprisoned again in November 1942, in the Aljube, and in 1944 he was sent back to Tarrafal.1

On 25 March 1949, the PIDE arrested him in a clandestine house in Luso, with Álvaro Cunhal and Sofia Ferreira.2 On 10 May, ill, he was transferred to Lisbon Penitentiary, where he remained, until his death, in strict isolation, without medical care worthy of the name. In letters written two months before he died, he accused the PIDE of “poisoning”.1 He went on hunger strike in protest and died in prison on 2 January 1950.13

Sources4
  1. 1Militão Bessa Ribeiro (biografia). Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade — consulted on 2 October 2026
  2. 2Prisão de Álvaro Cunhal, Militão Ribeiro e Sofia Ferreira. Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade (EGEAC) — consulted on 2 October 2026
  3. 3Os que ficaram pelo caminho (lista, páginas 1 a 7). Memória Comum – Memorial aos Presos e Perseguidos Políticos — consulted on 2 October 2026
  4. 4Consulta SPARQL de identificadores e datas (P569/P570) de pessoas. Wikidata Query Service — consulted on 2 October 2026
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