The Forças Populares 25 de Abril (; FP 25 de Abril or FP-25) was a far-left militant political organization operating in Portugal between 1980 and 1987, having been allegedly led by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. At the end of the judicial process known as "FUP/FP-25", Otelo and other accused members were amnestied of moral authorship and were found innocent of material authorship.
Between 1980 and 1987, the organisation FP-25 was directly responsible for 12Silva, Raquel e Ana Sofia Ferreira (2020). «From the Armed Struggle against the Dictatorship to the Socialist Revolution: The Narrative Restraints to Lethal Violence among Radical Left Organisations in Portugal». Perspectives on Terrorism (14). to 14 deaths. Half were planned targets, mostly businessmen or managers involved in labour conflicts or retaliation of the organisation against who harmed members of the organisation. The other half were non-intended targets, mostly members of the police forces, and a few civilians, including that of a child. There are also 6 deaths of its members. These followed dozens of shootings, attacks with explosives, and bank robberies.
The Orion operation (1984) led to the temporary arrest of more than 70 people, in what became known as the FUP/FP-25 process. The most famous members included Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, José Mouta Liz and Pedro Goulart, among others. These three in specific stressed to belong exclusively to the political party Força de Unidade Popular (FUP).Mouta Liz, J. e R. Francês (2023) Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. Acusação e Absolvição. O Projecto Global e as FP-25 de Abril. Âncora Editora. The defendants were later accused and charged in court for being a part of a terrorist organization, but the initial sentence would be partially annulled for unconstitutionality twice in 1989 and 1996.Noronha do Nascimento (2021). «Símbolo mítico do 25 de Abril» (PDF). O Referencial: 109
After 12 years, in 1996, the left-centre parliamentary majority, made up by the Socialist Party and the Portuguese Communist Party, approved an amnesty for everyone involved in the eventual crime of terrorist association (moral authorship), due to the "juridic complexity (...) that doesn't herald the possibility of a solution of justice in reasonable time." The amnesty also ends up involving right-wing and left-wing organizations, approved in 1996 with the support of the President Mário Soares. It follows the previous experience of amnesty in 1979 or the pardon signed by the PM Aníbal Cavaco Silva for the fugitive Ramiro Moreira in 1991, right-wing member of the MDLP (Democratic Movement of Liberation of Portugal), sentenced to 20 years in prison for blood crimes or the non-accusation of António de Spínola, self-assumed leader of MDLP.
For the blood crimes (material authorship), after two not guilty sentences in 2001 and 2003, the Public Ministry did not appeal leading to the prescription of the sentences. The Emeritus Supreme Court President Noronha do Nascimento stated "Otelo was aquitted because nothing was proven against him".
Context
Portugal Cold war, colonial war and dictatorship mark the initial period. The opposition in Portugal radicalize in face of an oppressive regime that lasts for long 48 years, aligned with the western/capitalist block and in view of multiple international ideological influences. Oppositionists of left-leaning influence multiply and armed struggle organisations appear before the end of the dictatorship (LUAR; ARA; Brigadas Revolucionárias; PRP-BR).
After the fall of the dictatorship, on 25 April 1974, different views for the new regime enter in confrontation. After the 11 March 1975 and the failed extreme-right coup by António de Spínola, there is a left leaning trend. The revolutionary aspirations of part of the population with a strong presence in the streets is confronted with the 25 November 1975 and the attacks of the extreme right. Four organisations (Movimento Democrático de Libertação de Portugal - MDLP; Movimento Maria da Fonte; Exército de Libertação de Portugal - ELP; Comandos Operacionais de Defesa da Civilização Ocidental - CODECO) promote 566 violent actions from May 1975 onwards. These include 310 bombs, 136 assaults, 58 fires, 36 beatings, 16 shot attacks, 10 stonings, leading to several deaths.Machado, Delfim (2026) Mercenários ligados ao CDS contratados para matar padre Max. Jornal de Notícias. 29 março, 2026 In the meantime, the 1976 legislative elections turn to the centre.
The attacks and assassinations of union leaders, left wing activists by these four extreme-right organisations continue until 1979.Carvalho, Miguel. Quando Portugal Ardeu Histórias e segredos da violência política no pós-25 de Abril. [S.l.]: Oficina do Livro. These included attacks on political parties: Communist Party attacked 160 times, MDP/CDE attacked 53 times and other left parties 48 times. Other 40 attacks targeted information culture like cooperatives, bookshops and tipographies. They bombed the Cuban embassy and the new African countries. In the meantime, there are reports of rural workers killed or demonstrators injured or killed by the police to "restore the order". Worker collective layoffs, oil shocks (1973 and 1978) and the austerity associated with the entrance of IMF (1979 and 1983) are unwelcomed. "The armed struggle would be necessary for a socialist revolution".
World During the 1960s and 1970s, the armed struggle movements multiply with variations in the motivations and modus operandi.
In the west, the extreme left is present in many countries: Belgium (Communist Combatant Cells); France (Action Directe - 1970s and 1980s), Germany (Red Army Fraction - RAF), Italy (Red Brigades), Northern Ireland (Irish Republican Army - IRA), Spain (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - ETA), USA (Weather Underground), among others.
In the other opposing political specturm, the extreme right had also competing movements such as: France (Charles Martel Group - 1970s-1990s), Northern Ireland (Ulster Volunteer Force - UVF; Ulster Defence Association - UDA), Spain (Warriors of Christ the King - 1970s; GAL - 1980s). For the US, a study by CATO Institute states the majority of the politically motivated killings since 1975 are from the right (391 vs. 65).
In Latin America, the response to dictatorship or very imperfect democracies have led to several armed struggle movements such as in Brazil (Ação Libertadora Nacional - ALN led by Carlos Marighella; Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro - MR-8 led by Carlos Lamarca; VAR-Palmares allegedly with Dilma Roussef), Colombia (FARC led by Manuel Marulanda Vélez; Movimiento 19 de Abril - M-19 with Gustavo Petro); Uruguai (Tupamaros, led by Raul Sendic with José Mujica).
The emergence of the political party Força de Unidade Popular (FUP) FUP was an electoral platform gathering several parties of the Portuguese far left such as: MES - Movimento de Esquerda Socialista, OUT - Organização Unitária de Trabalhadores, PC(m-l)P - Partido Comunista (marxista-leninista) de Portugal, PC(R) - Partido Comunista (Reconstruído), PRP - Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado, UC - Unidade Comunista, UDP - União Democrática Popular and four independents. The Portuguese Public Broadcasting TV channel (RTP) brodcasted the signing of the agreement on 28 march, 1980, where Otelo, Goulart and Mouta Liz are some of the representatives signing the agreement. Key personality at the presentation was Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, that is public record. Four months later FUP became formalised at the Supreme court.
Otelo had been the chief strategist of the Portuguese carnation revolution in 1974 and, in 1976 Portugueses Presidential election, was voted second, convincing 792,760 votes (16.46%), ahead of the candidates from the right and from the Comunist party. Otelo gathered many supporters, including Zeca Afonso, a folk song writer, among many others. Situated in the far left, these supported views of bottom-up popular democracy ("power to the people"), in contrast to the Comunist Party, and non-alignment with Cold War blocs.FUP (1980) A Força de Unidade Popular.
With the announcement of FP-25 appearance in april 1980 there was an internal discussion within the electoral platform on whether or not to demarcate FUP from FP-25. Given its revolutionary ideology, sharing the same enemies ("who represses workers") but being different organizations, part of the members did not see the need to demarcate and the others left the coalition. In july 1980, the maoist party MRPP (which will reach 0,66% of votes) files a lawsuit that impedes FUP of going for the 1976 Portuguese legislative elections.
Later, the district attorney acused FP-25 of being the armed arm, with FUP being the political arm of what was called projecto global. In contrast, Ramsey Clark, stated Projeto Global was a concept of organisations and actions that could protect or amplify democratic institutions. The Portuguese far left was fearful of a counterrevolution similar to Chile's Pinochet coup in 1973, and already attempted by General Spínola in 11 march 1975. Otelo got inspired in the ideas of Cornelius Castoriadis for Projeto Global. The issue of dispute was whether FP-25 corresponded to the armed arm (ECA), which Otelo always denied.
The FP-25 organisation
Ideology The FP-25 brought together the most radical sectors of the Portuguese radical left, who were growing discontent with the development of bourgeois democracy and capitalism in post-Carnation Revolution Portugal. In the organization's "Manifesto ao Povo Trabalhador" or "Manifesto to the Workers" released in April 1980, the organization outlined its opposition to amendments to the Portuguese Constitution of 1976, specifically the abandonment of socialism, the abandonment of agrarian land reforms or the perceived lack of expression of the will of the people.
Opposing the political realities of the time, the FP-25 proposed a model of popular democracy, based on popular assemblies: the so-called basismo ("basism") or conselhismo ("councelism"), similar to the Libyan or Cuban revolutions. It also defended the non-alignment with either side of the Cold War as a necessary condition to the implementation of socialism in Portugal.
The nature of the armed actions and terrorist attacks showed a preoccupation with different causes: political, economic, solidarity with other terrorist groups and support of FP-25 militants that had been arrested. Their selected violence was more targeted than the previous generalised violence from the extreme right.
Funding and external ties In the financial sphere, the main source of financing were bank robberies, as well as companies and vehicles for transporting valuables, which they called "expropriation" or "recoveries of funds". Gradually there was political and media isolation, the FP-25 quickly created, among public opinion, the image of an organization committed to the practice of common delinquency trying to intimidate the population and conditioning political decisions, seeking to provoke an insurrection with the support of a militia or a people's army. The theft, in 1984, of 108,000,000 escudos (approximately €500,000, a clearly large amount at the time) of a van transporting valuable from the Bank of Portugal, right in the center of Lisbon. Nevertheless, several assaults happen, usually at the end of the month, in order to allow to collect money from salaries.
The FP-25 also tried to collaborate with other militant groups, namely the IRA and the ETA, the latter confirming that there was an exchange of weapons and technical know-how. In 1981, FP-25 received from ETA, Gama 2 explosives and two dozen FireBird pistols in exchange for G3 machine guns. Additionally, ETA came to harbor in the Basque Country, two FP-25 terrorists who needed to retreat. Some governments (especially Mozambique) also did grant some support, for instance giving sanctuary to militants escaping the Portuguese authorities.