People
António Tereso
A mechanic imprisoned in Caxias, he posed for months as a “rachado” (turncoat), at the PCP’s request, to prepare the escape of 4 December 1961, and it was with him at the wheel of Salazar’s armoured car that eight prisoners got out of the fort.
A car mechanic and PCP activist, he was imprisoned in Caxias when José Magro, a party leader with long years in jail behind him, gave him the task of studying the possibilities of escape. To do so he had to pass himself off as a “rachado” (turncoat) — to pretend he had gone over to the jailers’ side — and put up with the contempt of his comrades. He resisted, but accepted.1 He kept it up for 19 months, Domingos Abrantes recalled in 2021, paying tribute to him as a hero of the anti-fascist resistance.2
He won the trust of the guards and the prison management and, with it, a freedom of movement rare for a prisoner. That is how he found Salazar’s armoured car in the garage, a 1937 Chrysler Imperial, whose repair was entrusted to him.13 He was about to be released, and his comrades, already sentenced, were to be transferred to Peniche: he had to get the car running, make it a familiar sight in the prison and work out how to bring it into the inner moat, the only place the other prisoners had access to. He also sabotaged the other cars, to prevent a chase.1
On the morning of 4 December 1961 he reversed the Chrysler through the tunnel into the inner moat of the North Redoubt, where the prisoners were pretending to play football during exercise time. At the shout of “Goal!” (Golo!), given by José Magro, seven prisoners got into the car, which smashed through the outer gate and left the prison under fire from the GNR.31 Escaping with him were António Gervásio, Domingos Abrantes, Francisco Miguel, Guilherme Costa Carvalho, Ilídio Esteves, José Magro and Rolando Verdial.2
From the archives
On the day of its 60th anniversary, Domingos Abrantes, one of the eight leaders of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) who escaped from Caxias Fort on 4 December 1961, recalls the escape. The prisoners got out in the armoured Chrysler that had once served Salazar, driven by António Tereso, smashing through the fort’s outer gate.
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On the walks
Places
In the timeline
They crossed paths with him
Domingos Abrantes
b. 1936
A communist leader, he was one of the eight prisoners who escaped from Caxias in Salazar’s armoured car, in 1961. Arrested in 1959 and again in 1965, he withstood PIDE torture without talking.
Aida Magro
1918–2011
A chemical engineer and underground PCP activist, she was in charge of the Eastern Zone of the Lisbon Local Committee, “the most important working-class zone of the capital”. Arrested by the PIDE in 1957, she was, in Caxias, one of the authors of the letters of the Caxias Manifesto.
Albina Fernandes
1928–1970
A communist activist arrested in 1961 with her two small children, whom she kept with her in Caxias. She spent six years and seven months in prison and took her own life in 1970, her nervous system weakened by the years in jail.
Alda do Espírito Santo
1926–2010
A poet from São Tomé whose Lisbon home, on Rua Actor Vale, housed the Centre for African Studies from 1951. Arrested in 1965 and imprisoned in Caxias, she later wrote the words of the anthem of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Aurora Rodrigues
b. 1952
A law student, she witnessed the murder of Ribeiro Santos in 1972. Arrested in 1973, she was one of the women students most savagely tortured by the political police in Caxias, and she never talked.
Cesina Bermudes
1908–2001
An obstetrician and pioneer of “painless childbirth” in Portugal. She campaigned for Norton de Matos in 1949, on the Central Committee of the National Democratic Women’s Movement, and for that she was imprisoned in Caxias and barred from teaching at the Faculty of Medicine.
Notes on the sources1
- His dates of birth and death: the URAP published a note, “Na morte de António Tereso” (On the death of António Tereso), which could not be read.
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Sources
- 1Fuga de Caxias. Dedicação à prova de bala. URAP – União de Resistentes Antifascistas Portugueses — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2A fuga de Caxias, um acto de resistência antifascista rumo à vitória, foi há 60 anos. URAP – União de Resistentes Antifascistas Portugueses — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3Fuga de Caxias. Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade (EGEAC) — consulted on 2 October 2026