Beja: Assault on the barracks was there 58 year old. "Intentona of Beja", the 25 April postponed.
it was there 58 year old, at night 31 December 1961 to 1 January 1962, that two dozen men between military and civilian, undertaken with courage and determination, an attempted coup, aimed at the overthrow of the fascist regime controlled by António Oliveira Salazar, what became known as the "Conspiracy of Beja".
Humberto Delgado, It has always been identified as the man who was behind the coup, but never have appeared. The "General Fearless", who was in hiding came to Lisbon and then to Vila de Frades (Vidigueira) which followed the course of the revolt. Failure the coup, Delgado returns to exile.
Commanded by Captain Varela Gomes, the assault on the barracks of the Infantry Regiment 3 (RI3), in Beja, He had the strong presence of major Francisco Vasconcelos Pestana, son of the former Minister of the First Republic, Pestana Junior, Captain Pedro Marques, the Brissos Oak lieutenant, first Civil Governor of Beja after 25 April, as well as civil Manuel Serra and Fernando Piteira Santos.
In the barracks would be half the garrison, next to 300 men, most of the barracks when they hear the machine-gun fire. "It was not yet midnight, I had just gone to bed when I heard the shots. The night was time. Despite the rain and wind have heard the shots ", Benedict recalled (fictitious name), Prime Cable quartermaster in Public Order company RI3, who had entered the service 23 hours that day 31 of December.
The rebels are directed to the command, where the major Calapez, second-commander, to take unit. The group of insurgents open fire, and reach the major chest Calapez, This snapped and immediately and Varela Gomes is badly injured in basso, They are taken to the hospital in Beja. During Melee, He was killed Lieutenant Colonel Jaime Filipe da Fonseca, then Secretary of State Army.
"I ran the duty officer's office to receive orders and I stumbled over a dozen civilians", remembering Benedict, that the aftermath of two of them died. "One was in charge of the building and the other was picked up by the infirmary", recalling the first cable that "were taken, it is not known by whom, or where ", ends.
Benedict and the other soldiers were prevention, closed in the barracks, ten days. The first cable recalls that it was "heard in an auto", by a brigadier and a half dozen officers to "know whether there were accomplices in the barracks", the result never knew.
Captain Varela Gomes was kicked out of the Army, tried and imprisoned by the PIDE, while the major Calapez was considered "hero" by the Salazar regime. In 1987, during an Open Presidency, Mário Soares, the then President of the Republic, He said on arrival in Beja: "If not a Major Calapez, the 25 April would have happened 15 years before ".
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
Photo: Army newspaper
