Key dates in the history of the Popular Forces 25th of April (FP-25):

1980

March 28 - The Popular Unity Force (FUP) is created, a far-left political organization that would later be associated with the FP-25, considered to be the armed wing of this party.

April 20 - The FP-25 announces its emergence with the publication of the "Manifesto to the Working People", which is distributed throughout the country in a spectacular operation of bursting firecrackers. In the manifesto, the FP states that its emergence occurs for "the overthrow of the regime, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the creation of the Popular Army and the implementation of socialism".

May 5 - First violent action of the organization, in which the GNR soldier Henrique Hipólito is assassinated in Meirinhos, Mogadouro, in an assault on the branches of Banco Totta and Açores and Caixa de Crédito e Providência, in Cacém.

May 13 - Assassination of Agostinho Ferreira, commander of the GNR post in Alcoutim.

1982

December 6 - Assassination of Diamantino Bernardo Monteiro Pereira, administrator of the Fábrica de Loiças de Sacavém, in Almada.

1984

February 7 - One of the largest and most emblematic "fund recovery operations" of the organization. Assault on a vehicle of a security company that was carrying 108,000 contos (538,701.70 euros).

April 30 - Death of a four-month-old baby in a bomb attack on his family's house in São Mansos, Évora.

June 19 - Beginning of the dismantling of the FP-25 with Operation Orion, coordinated between the PJ, PSP and GNR. At the center of this operation was the raid carried out at the FUP headquarters and the subsequent illegalization of the party.

June 20 - Arrest of Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

October 15 - The Public Ministry accuses Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho of having "founded, promoted and directed a terrorist organization", configured in the FP-25 of April.

1985

July 19 - José Manuel Barradas, repentant of the FP-25, is shot in Costa de Caparica

September 21 - Escape of nine members of the FP-25 from the Lisbon Prison Establishment

October 7 - The trial of the FP-25 begins.

1986

February 15 - Assassination of the General Director of Prison Services Gaspar Castelo-Branco, at the door of his house in Lisbon.

1987

May 20 - The Monsanto Criminal Court sentences Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho to 15 years in prison, after having proven his involvement in the actions of the FP-25.

August 16 - Last assassination of the FP-25. The PJ agent Álvaro Militão is killed during a chase of three members of the organization in Lisbon.

1989

May 17 - Release of Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho.

1996

March 1 - The Assembly of the Republic approves amnesty for the imprisoned members of the Popular Forces 25th of April.

March 6 - Mário Soares, President of the Republic, promulgates law 9/96, which amnesties "offenses of political motivation committed between July 27 and June 21, 1991.

2003

July 9 - The process of the so-called blood crimes expires, in which almost all the defendants were acquitted and two repentants were convicted, because the Public Ministry lets the deadline for appealing the sentence to the Supreme Court of Justice expire.

2004

June - The then Attorney General of the Republic, Souto Moura, applies a disciplinary penalty of warning to the magistrate Gomes Pereira, to whom the FP-25 process was assigned in the Court of Appeal. The magistrate appeals.

2010

April - In an interview with Lusa, on the 30th anniversary of its creation, Gobern Lopes, one of the founders of the FP-25 and the first to assume himself in court as a member of the organization, stated that "in the context in which they emerged, the FP-25 had a strong purpose", adding that, although he does not feel sorry, he recognizes that there were times when the organization lost its footing.

Judge Martinho de Almeida Cruz, who ordered the arrest of the FP-25 operatives, criticized the amnesty: "In absolutely serious crimes like this, I did not and will never accept such an idea. I would defend, at most, a pardon of part of the sentences. Because to forgive is one thing, to forget is another."

And Manuel Castelo-Branco, son of the director-general of the Prison Services shot dead in February 1986, stated that "the country has been more than benevolent" with the FP-25, pointed out the "disrespect for the families of the victims", and criticized the judicial process: "Justice was perhaps the biggest failure of this country after April 25".

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