Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho , ( ; born August 31 , 1936 ) is a retired Portuguese military officer . He was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon . Biography . Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho was born in Lourenço Marques , Portuguese Mozambique ( now Maputo , Mozambique ) , of some Goan ( Portuguese India ) ancestry . Named by his theater - minded parents after Shakespeare ' s Othello , he had his secondary education at a state school in Lourenço Marques . His father was a civil servant and his mother a railway clerk . He entered the Military Academy in Lisbon at the age of nineteen . Carvalho spent many years in the colonial wars in Africa . He served in Portuguese Angola from 1961 to 1963 as a second lieutenant , and as a captain from 1965 to 1967 . He was posted to Portuguese Guinea in 1970 as a captain , under General António de Spínola , in charge of civilian affairs and propaganda ( ' Hearts and Minds ' ) . He joined the underground Movement of Armed Forces ( Movimento das Forças Armadas - MFA ) , which carried out a coup d ' état in Lisbon on April 25 , 1974 , in which he played a directing role . The MFA started as a military professional class protest of Portuguese Armed Forces captains against a decree law : the " Dec . Lei nº 353 / 73 " of 1973 . The rebellion were a way to work against Laws that would reduce military costs and would reformulate the whole Portuguese Military Branch . Younger military academy graduates , with Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho at their head , resented a program introduced by Marcello Caetano whereby militias who completed a brief training program and had served in the overseas territories ' campaigns , could be commissioned at the same rank as academy graduates . Carvalho was part of MFA - led National Salvation Junta that governed the country after the Carnation Revolution , as the upheaval came to be called . In July 1974 Carvalho was made a Brigadier and placed in command of the special military Command for the Continent COPCON , which was set up to secure order in the country and to promote the revolutionary process . In 1975 , infighting in the MFA intensified with Carvalho representing the left - wing of the movement . A right - wing putsch attempt , led by Spinola , was thwarted by the timely intervention of COPCON in March 1975 . He became part of the Council of the Revolution which was created On March 14 , 1975 . In May 1975 , he was temporarily promoted to General and , together with Costa Gomes and Vasco Gonçalves , formed the " Directório " ( Directorate ) . On November 25 , 1975 some left - wing groups and their armed branches allegedly tried to seize control of the country . Otelo is said to have orchestrated this coup . Some of the military under Otelo ' s orders took control of three Air Force bases . The right - wing of the army used this as pretext to launch a counter - revolution , which brought António Ramalho Eanes to power . It is also implied that the coup did not work because Carvalho did not support the military . In 1976 and 1980 Carvalho unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for president against Eanes . In 1982 he was recalled to the army , since it was shown that his discharge had been politically motivated . In 1984 he was arrested and accused of contact with or membership of the terrorist group " Popular Forces 25 April " ( FP - 25 Abril ) ( Portuguese : Forças Populares 25 de Abril ) , which claimed a number of robberies and murders in Portugal in the following years . His trial was controversial and his allies assumed it to be motivated by revenge . In 1989 , he was amnestied and a resumption of the procedure was struck down because of a legal imbroglio . Since then , he has been a small - businessmen trading arms and other military material with a number of African countries . Quotes . Carvalho is still an icon for activists of the left in Portugal , and is hated by many people who consider him a terrorist who tried to seize the country to become Portugal ' s Fidel Castro . In 2011 when the Portuguese Republic went bankrupt and requested international financial assistance , Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho , one of the chief captains who coordinated and organized the April 1974 military coup - the Carnation Revolution , stated that he wouldn ' t have made the revolution if he had known what the country would become after it . He also stated that the country would need a man as honest as Salazar to deal with the crisis , but from a non - fascist perspective . Presidential Elections of 27 June 1976 . Summary of the 27 June 1976 Portuguese presidential election results ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = left colspan = " 2 " rowspan = " 2 " | Candidates ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = left rowspan = " 2 " | Supporting parties ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right colspan = " 2 " | First round ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right | Votes ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right | % Presidential Elections of 7 December 1980 . Summary of the 7 December 1980 Portuguese presidential election results ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = left colspan = " 2 " rowspan = " 2 " | Candidates ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = left rowspan = " 2 " | Supporting parties ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right colspan = " 2 " | First round ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right | Votes ! style = " background - color : # E9E9E9 " align = right | %