People
José Barneto
José James Harteley Barneto
- Born
- 8 December 1935, Vendas Novas
- Died
- 25 April 1974, Rua António Maria Cardoso, Lisbon
A 38-year-old clerk and father of four, he was killed by DGS gunfire outside the headquarters of the political police, at the end of the day on 25 April 1974.
He was born in Vendas Novas on 8 December 1935, the youngest son of the Spaniard Venceslau Barneto Delgado and of Júlia da Conceição Fernandes. He grew up in Olivais, in Lisbon, lived in Benfica with his wife and four children and was a clerk at the National Guild of Confectionery Manufacturers.1
On the morning of 25 April 1974 he apparently left for work and, on hearing of the coup, went down to the Baixa. At the end of the day he was in the crowd that, outside the DGS headquarters on Rua António Maria Cardoso, was demanding the surrender of the political police, when the agents fired from the windows.12 Hit in the liver, he died almost instantly, even though those who tried to help him dragged him along the street. He was one of the four people killed by those shots, with João Arruda, Fernando Giesteira and Fernando Reis.12 To this day, no one knows who fired.1
On Rua António Maria Cardoso, the four dead are remembered by a plaque put up in 1980 on the initiative of citizens and, since 2010, by another from Lisbon City Council.1
On the walks
Places
In the timeline
They crossed paths with him
Fernando Giesteira
1955–1974
An 18-year-old waiter from Trás-os-Montes, he was the youngest of the four civilians killed by DGS gunfire on Rua António Maria Cardoso, at the end of the day on 25 April 1974.
Fernando Reis
1950–1974
A 23-year-old soldier on leave in Lisbon, he was one of the four people killed when the DGS fired on the crowd on Rua António Maria Cardoso, on the night of 25 April 1974.
João Arruda
1954–1974
A 20-year-old student from the Azores at the Lisbon Faculty of Letters, he was hit in the head by DGS gunfire at around 20:30 on 25 April 1974 and died at São José Hospital at 00:30 on 26 April.
Silva Pais
1905–1981
Director of the political police, he warned Marcelo Caetano at 05:00 on 25 April that “the Revolution is out on the streets”. He only surrendered the DGS headquarters on the morning of the 26th, after the agents had killed four people on Rua António Maria Cardoso.
Conceição Matos
b. 1936
A communist activist arrested in 1965 and in 1968, she suffered at the PIDE headquarters some of the cruellest and most humiliating torture methods used on a woman, and never talked. Decades later, she spoke about it publicly to denounce the political police.
Helena Pato
b. 1939
A student leader in the 1962 academic crisis, she was arrested in 1967 and suffered long isolation, beatings and sleep torture in Caxias. She later led the Não Apaguem a Memória (Do Not Erase Memory) movement.
Notes on the sources1
- His age: 38, according to the Aljube Museum and Time Out, which matches the date of birth; 37, according to “O Século” of 28 April 1974, cited by Esquerda.net.
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Sources
- 1José James Harteley Barneto (biografia). Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2Esta semana, e sempre, a rua lembra os quatro homens assassinados pela PIDE/DGS. Time Out Lisboa (1/4/2024) — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3Os mortos pela PIDE em 25 de Abril. Esquerda.net — consulted on 2 October 2026