People
Joaquim Furtado
- Born
- 20 April 1948, Penamacor
The announcer on duty at Rádio Clube Português in the early hours of 25 April 1974, he volunteered to read the MFA’s first communiqué, which went on the air at 04:26.
A journalist, he was born in Penamacor on 20 April 1948.6 In the early hours of 25 April 1974 he was the announcer on duty at Rádio Clube Português, which the soldiers of the Movement occupied.2 The MFA’s communiqués were supposed to be read by Major Costa Neves, but Joaquim Furtado, on learning of the Movement’s intentions, immediately volunteered to do it.1
At 04:26 he read the MFA’s first communiqué, drafted by Major Vítor Alves: it asked the population to remain calm and called doctors to the hospitals.132 At 04:45 he read the second, which reinforced those recommendations.4
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Clarisse Guerra
At around 14:30 on 25 April 1974 she read, on Rádio Clube Português, the MFA communiqué announcing the objectives taken and the siege of Marcelo Caetano in the Carmo Barracks — a communiqué “now read by a woman”.
Marcelo Caetano
1906–1980
The last head of government of the Estado Novo, he took refuge in the Carmo Barracks in the early hours of 25 April 1974 and, besieged, handed power over to General Spínola. The next day he was taken to Madeira.
Notes on the sources2
- The date and place of birth are only in Wikidata.
- That it was also he who read the second communiqué, at 04:45: the chronology by Jofre Alves says so; the 25 April Association records the communiqué without saying who read it.
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Sources
- 1Movimentações do dia 25 de Abril. Associação 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2Rádio Clube Português (Lugares de Abril). Associação 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3Operação Viragem Histórica. Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 4Cronologia do 25 de Abril, por Jofre Alves (blogue Abril de Novo, 2010), na Biblioteca Digital do CD25A. Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril – Universidade de Coimbra — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 528 de Setembro. Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 6Joaquim Furtado (Q6206313). Wikidata — consulted on 2 October 2026