José James Harteley Barneto

(Vendas Novas, 8-12-1935 – Lisbon, 25-04-1974)

José Harteley Barneto was born in 1935, in Vendas Novas, Alentejo, the youngest son of the Spanish citizen Venceslau Barneto Delgado and Júlia da Conceição Fernandes.

He grew up in Olivais, Lisbon, lived with his wife and four children in Benfica and was a clerk at the Grémio Nacional dos Industriais de Confeitaria (National Association of Confectionery Industrials).

On the morning of 25 April 1974, José Barneto left for work and, aware of the military coup in progress, he, like many others, rushed to downtown Lisbon where the main events were taking place.

At the end of the day, a crowd gathered in Rua António Maria Cardoso, in front of the headquarters of the General Directorate of Security (DGS) – formerly the International and State Defence Police (PIDE) – demanding its occupation and surrender. However, the officers of the still political police – whose continuity, at that time, was still planned – resisted and refused to surrender. Already after the surrender of the President of the Council, Marcelo Caetano, DGS officers opened fire, indiscriminately, from the windows of the building, on the crowd on the street, causing dozens of wounded and four dead.

José Barneto, at the age of 38, was one of the four victims of the DGS shooting, dying almost immediately as a result of a liver laceration, although his body was still dragged down the street by people who were fruitlessly trying to help him.

In the absence of a toponymic tribute to the victims of the PIDE/DGS on 25 April 1974 by the public authorities, his memory was evoked in 1980 by a plaque placed, by citizen initiative, on Rua António Maria Cardoso. The identity of the killers is still unknown today.