Salgueiro Maia Fernando José Salgueiro Maia , ( born July 1 , 1944 in Castelo de Vide , Portugal ; died April 4 , 1992 in Santarém ) , commonly known just by Salgueiro Maia ( ) was a captain of the Portuguese army . He made a significant contribution to the Carnation Revolution , which resulted in the fall of the then ruling dictatorship . Biography . Salgueiro Maia was one of the captains of the Portuguese Army who led the revolutionary forces during the Carnation Revolution . He was a son of Francisco da Luz Maia , a railway worker , and Francisca Silvéria Salgueiro . He attended the Primary School in São Torcato , Coruche , and would later relocate to Tomar where he studied at Colégio Nun ' Álvares , but would finish his Secondary School education in the National Liceu of Leiria . Maia later graduated in Social and Political Sciences and Ethnological and Anthropological Sciences . In 1983 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty ; in 1992 , posthumously , the degree of Grand Officer of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword , of Valour , Loyalty and Merit ; and in 2007 , the Gold Medal of the city of Santarém . Carnation Revolution . Salgueiro Maia , a young captain ( stationed at Santarém ) who drilled officers - in - training and sergeants - in - training , was informed about the plans of the Movimento das Forças Armadas ( MFA ) to bring down the dictatorship . Maia ' s mission was to take and hold " Vienna " - the government quarter in the very heart of Lisbon . In the early hours of 25 April he assembled his troops - having taken control of the base and holding senior officers who supported the regime at gunpoint and asked for their support in a short and famous speech : Meus senhores , como todos sabem , há diversas modalidades de Estado . Os estados sociais , os corporativos e o estado a que chegámos . Ora , nesta noite solene , vamos acabar com o estado a que chegámos ! De maneira que , quem quiser vir comigo , vamos para Lisboa e acabamos com isto . Quem for voluntário , sai e forma . Quem não quiser sair , fica aqui ! " All his troops volunteered and they left in military convoy for Lisbon about 60 km away , arriving at the government quarter at about 6am . Very quickly the regime tried to mobilise pro - government forces to oppose them but Maia persuaded them to join the revolution . Similarly an attempt to place the revolutionary forces until naval bombardment was defeated after an on - board mutiny ( and the threat to use artillery against the ship ) . Ministers fled the government quarters and retired to a barracks where Maia ' s forces surrounded them and opened fire to show they were serious about their mission . Maia eventually arranged for the Prime Minister to surrender to General Spinola and led the imprisoned former government away as the crowds chanted " Vitoria ! " Salgueiro Maia and his troops peacefully forced the then ruling dictatorship to resign and it is in a large part due to his brave intelligence , humble and sensible character and strategic / social genius that bloodshed was avoided at all cost during the Revolution and there were " only " four dead people during the Carnation Revolution — these were not killed by the revolutionaries nor Maia ' s troops , but by the political police of the regime ( PIDE ) itself , when civilians were peacefully demonstrating in front of its headquarters in Lisbon . Red carnations became the symbol of the peaceful revolution because , besides having happened in the beginning of Spring , some of the soldiers and civilians asked a flower seller who was passing by for some flowers to put in the muzzles of their guns and tanks , as a sign that there would be no bloodshed . After the Revolution . Salgueiro Maia never wanted to assume any political power position after the Portuguese 1974 coup d ' état . In 1981 he became a major . He later adopted 2 children . In 1989 he was diagnosed with a cancer and , after surgeries and a long painful process , Maia would die on the 4th of April 1992 , only 47 years old . In the 2000 film Capitães de Abril about the Carnation Revolution , the character of Salgueiro Maia was played by the Italian actor Stefano Accorsi ( in the starring role ) .