Salgueiro Maia

He was born in Castelo de Vide on 1 July 1944, the son of a railwayman; his father’s job took him, as a child and a young man, from Coruche to Tomar, Pombal and Leiria. He entered the Military Academy in October 1964 and, once he had finished the course, was posted for his training period to the Cavalry Practical School (EPC), in Santarém, as an officer cadet, on 1 February 1967 (the 25 April Documentation Centre says 1966, but this entry follows the Commemorative Commission, which gives the dates of his career day by day), and he fought in Mozambique and Guinea.¹² At the Óbidos meeting of the Captains’ Movement, on 1 December 1973, he joined the Coordinating Committee as one of the representatives of the Cavalry.⁴ On 17 April 1974, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho gave him the EPC’s operational mission, and the school’s officers chose him, at 29, to command the column that was to march on Lisbon.¹

The column left Santarém at 03:30 on 25 April and occupied the Terreiro do Paço.⁵ On Avenida da Ribeira das Naus, Maia walked with a white handkerchief towards the forces of Brigadier Junqueira dos Reis. The brigadier ordered them to open fire on him, but Officer Cadet Fernando Sottomayor and the tank gunners refused, and the troops went over to the MFA’s side. “That was where 25 April was won”, Maia would say.³

At 12:30, amid a crowd shouting “Victory!” (Vitória!), the column surrounded the Carmo Barracks, where Marcelo Caetano had taken refuge. Maia negotiated for hours. At around 17:00 he was taken to Caetano, who said he was willing to surrender and asked for power to be handed over to a general officer; Maia then accompanied General António de Spínola to him. At 18:30 he had the Chaimite armoured car “Bula” reversed through the barracks’ main gate, so that Caetano and his ministers could leave safely.³¹

He did not accept political posts after 25 April.² On 11 March 1975, his trip to Tancos with the EPC’s second-in-command helped to defeat the coup attempt in which Spínola had been involved. On 25 November he kept his forces in reserve, in the eastern part of Lisbon.¹

In November 1976 he was sidelined to desk duties in Lisbon and, in March 1977, sent to the Azores. He graduated in Political and Social Sciences and in Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.¹ He died of cancer in Lisbon, at the Military Hospital, on 3 April 1992 — the news was on that day’s Telejornal — and is buried in Castelo de Vide.¹⁸⁹