Fernando José Salgueiro Maia,

GOTE Gote or Göte can refer to the following: People *Göte Almqvist (1921 – 1994), Swedish ice hockey player *Göte Andersson (1909 – 1975), Swedish water polo player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics *Göte Blomqvist (1928 – 2003), Swed ...

, GCIH, GCL (1 July 1944 – 4 April 1992 in Santarém), commonly known as Salgueiro Maia (), was a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the

Portuguese army The Portuguese Army ( pt, Exército Português) is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces. With its ...

. He made a significant contribution to the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

, which resulted in the fall of the ruling dictatorship.

Early life

Maia was born in 1944 in

Castelo de Vide Castelo de Vide () is a municipality in Portugal, with a population of 3,407 inhabitants in 2011, in an area of . History It is unclear when humans settled Castelo de Vide, although archaeologists suggest the decision came from the morphology of ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, the son of Francisco da Luz Maia, a railway worker, and Francisca Silvéria Salgueiro. He attended primary school in São Torcato, Coruche, and later moved to Tomar where he studied at Colégio Nun'Álvares, but finished his secondary school education in the National Liceu of Leiria. Maia graduated in Social and Political Sciences and Ethnological and Anthropological Sciences.

Carnation Revolution

In 1974, Salgueiro Maia was one of the captains of the Portuguese Army who led the revolutionary forces during the Carnation Revolution. As a young captain stationed at Santarém, who drilled officers-in-training and sergeants-in-training, he was informed about the plans of the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA) to bring down the dictatorship. Maia's mission was to take and hold "Vienna", the government quarter in the centre of Lisbon. In the early hours of 25 April, having taken control of the base and holding senior officers who supported the regime at gunpoint, he assembled his troops and asked for their support in a short and famous speech:

Gentlemen, as you all know, there are three kinds of states:
capitalist states The capitalist state is the state, its functions and the form of organization it takes within capitalist socioeconomic systems.Jessop, Bob (January 1977). "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State". ''Soviet Studies''. 1: 4. pp. 353–373. This ...
,
socialist states Several past and present states have declared themselves socialist states or in the process of building socialism. The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist or inspired by it, following the model of the Sovi ...
, and the state we've come to. Now, in this solemn night, we are going to end this state! So that anyone who wants to come with me, we go to Lisbon and finish it. This is voluntary. Who does not want to leave, stay here!

All his troops volunteered, and they left in military convoy for Lisbon about 60 km away, arriving at the government quarter at about 6am. The regime quickly tried to mobilise pro-government forces to defend them, but Maia persuaded them to join the revolution. A further attempt to place the revolutionary forces under naval bombardment was defeated after an onboard mutiny (and a threat to use artillery against the ship). Ministers fled the government quarters and retired to a barracks, where Maia's forces surrounded them and opened fire to show they were serious about their mission. Maia eventually arranged for the Prime Minister to surrender to General Spinola, and led the imprisoned former government away to chants of "Vitória!" from assembled crowds. Salgueiro Maia and his troops had forced the ruling dictatorship to resign peacefully, without bloodshed. During the Revolution, the only four killings were carried out by

PIDE The International and State Defense Police ( pt, Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the ...

, the regime's security agency, when civilians were demonstrating in front of its headquarters in Lisbon. Red carnations became the symbol of the peaceful revolution when some of Maia's soldiers and civilians asked a nearby

flower seller A flower seller, normally a woman, traditionally sells flowers on the street. Often the flowers are carried in a basket, for example. The subject matter has been a favorite of artists.Diego RiveraThe Flower Seller, 1942. The profession has mostly d ...

for some flowers to put in the muzzles of their guns and tanks, as a sign that there would be no bloodshed.

After the Revolution

Salgueiro Maia did not seek any position of political power after the Revolution. He became a major in 1981. He later adopted two children. In 1989 he was diagnosed with cancer and died three years later on 4 April 1992, at the age of 47. In the 2000 film ''

Capitães de Abril ''April Captains'' ( pt, Capitães de Abril) is a 2000 film telling the story of the '' Carnation Revolution'', the military coup that overthrew the corporatist dictatorship (known as the '' Estado Novo'') in Portugal on 25 April 1974. Although d ...

'' about the Carnation Revolution, the character of Salgueiro Maia was played by the Italian actor Stefano Accorsi.

Awards and decorations

In 1983 he received the Grand Cross of the

Order of Liberty The Order of Liberty, or the Order of Freedom ( pt, Ordem da Liberdade), is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human di ...

; in 1992, posthumously, the degree of Grand Officer of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit; in 2007, the Gold Medal of the city of Santarém; and in 2016, the Grand Cross of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

References

External links

Article about the Carnation Revolution

includes pictures of Maia in uniform and as a civilian. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maia, Salgueiro 1944 births 1992 deaths People from Castelo de Vide People from Santarém, Portugal Portuguese soldiers Carnation Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Tower and Sword Grand Crosses of the Order of Prince Henry Grand Crosses of the Order of Liberty Portuguese revolutionaries