José Rodrigues Vitoriano (1918, Silves – 3 February 2006) was a Portuguese politician and a major figure in the struggle against the Portuguese fascist regime led by

António Oliveira Salazar Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

Early life

Vitoriano started work at the age of 13 in a

cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

factory in

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

and joined the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

in 1941. Between 1945 and 1948 he was the president of the cork workers'

Trade Union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. After that, in 1951, he became a cadre of the Party.

Imprisonment

Meanwhile, in 1948, he had been imprisoned by the regime's political police, the

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

, only leaving jail in 1950. In 1953 he was arrested once more, and was sentenced to four years; however, as the fascist sentences for political prisoners were open-ended, Vitoriano only left jail in 1966. In January 1967, he became a clandestine, a usual method used by the members of the Communist Party to avoid detentions. He would only leave that status after the democratic revolution of 1974. Vitoriano spent a total of 17 years in jail.

Political career

Vitoriano was a member of the Party's Central Committee between 1968 and 2000 and a member of its

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who was the ninth winn ...

between 1968 and 1972. Between 1977 and 1987, he was a member of the

Portuguese Parliament The Assembly of the Republic (, ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens". Th ...

, being its vice-president between 1977 and 1984.

Death

José Vitoriano died on 3 February 2006 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

References

1918 births 2006 deaths People from Silves, Portugal Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese anti-fascists Portuguese prisoners and detainees {{Portugal-politician-stub