Domingos Abrantes Ferreira (born 19 January 1936), generally known as Domingos Abrantes, is a Portuguese
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
. He has been a member of the
Portuguese Communist Party
The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...
since 1954, and was a member of its
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
between 1963 and 2012.
Domingos Abrantes was also a
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
during the Estado Novo dictatorship. He was arrested for the first time in 1959, and in 1961 took part in the famed escape from
Caxias prison Caxias may refer to:
Places Brazil
*Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul
*Caxias (Maranhão)
*Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro
* Caxias River, a river of Maranhão state in northeastern Brazil
Portugal
*Caxias, Oeiras
Mars
*Caxias (crater), a Martian ...
. He was again arrested in 1965, beiEng released only in 1973.
After the
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...
Portuguese Council of State
The Council of State ( pt, Conselho de Estado, ) is a body established by the Portuguese Constitution to advise the President of the Republic in the exercise of many of his or her discretionary powers.
History
Although there are notices about the ...
from 2016 to 2022.
Early life and education
Domingos Abrantes Ferreira was born on 19 January 1936 in
Vila Franca de Xira
Vila Franca de Xira () is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2.
Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, 32 km north-east of the Portuguese capital L ...
in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Portugal which was then under Estado Novo regime. His family moved early on in his life to Poço do Bispo, another part of Lisbon, where he grew up with his four brothers. His family was a poor working-class family. In his childhood, the environment he grew up in was
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
.
At age eleven, he began working in a factory in Poço do Bispo. Although from a working-class family, one of his teachers said Abrantes should continue his education.
Political career
As part of the Communist party, Abrantes was responsible for communist operations on the south bank of the
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...
. Abrantes protested against the reopening of
Tarrafal concentration camp
Tarrafal was a concentration camp located in the village of Chão Bom, in the Municipality of Tarrafal, on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde.
It was established in 1936, during a reorganization process of the Portuguese Estado Novo prison s ...
Portuguese Colonial war
The Portuguese Colonial War ( pt, Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, ...
.
Political prisoner
Abrantes was first arrested in 1959, where he was sent to Caxias prison near Lisbon. On 4 December 1961, he and seven other prisoners broke through the prison's gate with an armored
Chrysler
Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
that had been gifted to Portuguese Prime-minister
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the re ...
by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. The escape had been planned over 19 months, but lasted a minute. During the escape, the Chrysler was hit 19 times by bullets from the police. To prevent being followed by police, António Tereso, who was one of the escapee, drained the police cars of fuel.
Following his escape, he met his future partner, Conceição Matos, who was also a member of the Communist party. On 21 April 1965, they were both arrested. Abrantes was sent back to Caxias for interrogations, before being sent to the headquarters of the International and State Defense Police (PIDE) in Lisbon where he was subjected to sleep torture for 16 days. He then spent the rest of his jail time imprisoned in Peniche until 1973 . When he was imprisoned in Peniche fortress, the future President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio, acted as his lawyer.
Personal life
It was following his escape from Caxias that he met Conceição Matos. Matos had been member of the Portuguese Communist party since 1963 and were both arrested in 1965. They then settled in rented homes in Amora,
Costa da Caparica
Costa da Caparica () is a Portuguese civil parish, located in the municipality of Almada along the western coast of the district of Setúbal. The population in 2011 was 13,418,Montijo. Despite their marriage in 1969 in Peniche, they never legally became husband and wife. When Abrantes was spending his time in jail in Peniche, Matos was not allowed to visit him and they only communicated in coded letters.
During his time in Caxias, he learnt to play chess. On a vacation in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, he won a game against a Hungarian chess champion.