António Guerra

(Marinha Grande, 23-06-1913 – Tarrafal, Santiago Island, Cape Verde 28-12-1948)

António Guerra was born in Marinha Grande, where he was an employee of the Ricardo Santos Galo glass factory. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and, when he was part of the group that prepared and led the revolt of 18 January 1934 in Marinha Grande, he was also a member of the leadership of the Committee of the Western Region. He commanded the brigade that assailed and occupied the telegraph and telephone station and negotiated the surrender of the National Republican Guard (GNR) post. Following these events, António Guerra was arrested, on 27 January 1934, by the Command of the Public Security Police of Leiria and sent to the headquarters of the Surveillance and State Defence Police (PVDE). Accused of leading the uprising and holding the dynamite bombs used to take over the postal telegraph station, he was sentenced in the Special Military Court, on 19 February 1934, to 20 years of exile and a high fine. In September, he embarked with others who had been condemned to exile, to the Fortress of Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, where he stayed until 23 October 1936, when he was transferred to the Concentration Camp of Tarrafal, in Cape Verde. On 27 January 1944, he was brought to the Psychiatric Hospital Júlio De Matos in Lisbon. After spending a few months in the Prisons of Aljube and Caxias, he was sent, in May 1944, to the Prison of Peniche, where he stayed until 1948, then, he returned to the Camp of Tarrafal. With a severely weakened health due to the abuse and torture suffered during successive arrests, António Guerra died in 1948, at the age of 35. He had served fourteen years of exile, out of the twenty to which he had been sentenced.