An Artillery major, he drew up the operations plan for 25 April and directed the operations from the clandestine Command Post at Pontinha; he later commanded COPCON and the Lisbon Military Region.
RevolutionArtillery majorauthor of the 25 April operations plancommander of COPCON and of the Lisbon Military Regionmember of the Council of the Revolutionpresidential candidate (1976 and 1980)
Born
31 August 1936, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique
He was born in 1936 in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo.18 An Artillery officer, he fought in Angola and Guinea and was one of the main drivers of the protest against Decree-Law no. 353/73, which gave rise to the Captains’ Movement.1 In December 1973 he was elected, with Vasco Lourenço and Vítor Alves, to the leadership of the movement’s Coordinating Committee.53 At the Committee’s last meeting, on 24 March 1974, he took on the task of drawing up the operations plan, which he named “Viragem Histórica” (Historic Turning Point).32
On 23 April, in Parque Eduardo VII, he handed the liaison officers the “Final Instructions”.4 From the night of the 24th he directed the operations from the Command Post set up at Engineering Regiment No. 1, in Pontinha.21 It was he who pressed Salgueiro Maia to force the surrender of the Carmo Barracks, and who, on behalf of the captains, mandated António de Spínola to receive power from Marcelo Caetano.2
Given the acting rank of Brigadier, he commanded COPCON and the Lisbon Military Region.1 In the crisis of 28 September 1974 he was reportedly held, with Vasco Gonçalves, at the Palácio de Belém.6 He sat on the Council of the Revolution from its creation, in March 1975, and in May he joined Costa Gomes and Vasco Gonçalves in the Directorate, the top political body of the Fourth and Fifth Provisional Governments.1 On 20 November 1975 he was replaced as commander of the Lisbon Military Region by Vasco Lourenço, a decision that lay at the origin of the crisis of 25 November.7 Associated with the most radical wing of the MFA, he was arrested in the wake of those events and released three months later. He stood for President of the Republic in 1976 and in 1980. In 1985 he was arrested again, in the FP-25 (Popular Forces of 25 April) case; he was released five years later, after appealing against his conviction, and in 1996 the Assembly of the Republic passed an amnesty for the prisoners in that case.1 He died in Lisbon in 2021.8
Se ficou de facto retido no Palácio de Belém no 28 de Setembro: a Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos diz que ele e Vasco Gonçalves estiveram «aparentemente detidos».
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Sources13
1Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril – Universidade de Coimbra — consulted on 2 October 2026
9Morreu Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. Observador, 2021 — consulted on 4 October 2026Nascido a 31 de agosto de 1936 em Lourenço Marques; morreu internado no Hospital das Forças Armadas.
