Octávio Pato
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Octávio Floriano Rodrigues Pato (1 April 1925, Vila Franca de Xira – 19 February 1999) was a Portuguese communist leader.[1]
Biography
Octávio started working at 14 in a shoe factory. At the same time he also played soccer on
In 1945 he plunged into clandestinity, controlling and organizing the youth and student branches of the Party. In 1947 he became responsible for the Lisbon Regional organization and for the party newspaper, Avante!, and the clandestine typographies where the newspaper was printed. He also joined the Central Committee.
He soon became prosecuted by the anti-communist political police, PIDE, being arrested in 1961. He was beaten and tortured continuously. He endured 11 and then another 7 days standing sleepless (a usual torture method carried by the police[2]), suffered a syncope and near death experience. Was kept isolated for 4 months. He didn't speak a word to his captors.
Taken to court, Pato was defended by his long-time friend, the
Pato got out of jail in 1970 and plunged again in clandestinity in 1972. At the time of the Carnation Revolution, he was one of the most important members of the Party, being responsible by almost all the work inside the country, as the Party's General Secretary, Álvaro Cunhal was exiled in Soviet Union.
Later, in 1976, Octávio Pato was the Party's presidential candidate. For the next years he continued in the Party's Central Committee.
Pato married four times and fathered five children.
Octávio Pato died in 1999, after a long struggle against cancer. He was buried at the cemetery of Alto de São João, in Lisbon, in one of the rare permanent ground graves.
References
- ^ "Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril | Universidade de Coimbra". University of Coimbra. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ "Prison Conditions In Portugal: A Factual Report Compiled by Amnesty International" (PDF). Amnesty International. Retrieved 23 February 2023.