Silva Pais

He was born in Barreiro in 1905.⁴ A major, in 1974 he was the director of the political police, the PIDE/DGS.¹ At 05:00 on 25 April he telephoned the President of the Council (head of government), Marcelo Caetano: “Mr President, the Revolution is out in the streets! This is very serious.” Shortly afterwards, in another call, he advised him to take refuge in the Carmo Barracks, “because the GNR is solid”.²¹

During the day, the crowd surrounded the DGS headquarters on Rua António Maria Cardoso. Early in the evening, the agents fired on the crowd from the windows: four dead and 45 wounded.²⁵ Later, at Otelo’s request, Spínola asked the former Interior Minister, César Moreira Baptista, who was being held at Pontinha, to persuade Silva Pais to surrender; the director of the DGS said he was willing to do so, if the Armed Forces protected the agents.²³

On the morning of 26 April he received Lieutenant Commander Costa Correia, of the Navy, at the headquarters and told him that the organisation he headed was joining the Movement. Costa Correia asked him why, in that case, the portraits of the regime’s leaders were still on the wall; Silva Pais asked for chairs and took down one of the photographs himself. It was the surrender of the DGS.² He died in Lisbon in 1981.⁴