Today is the 32nd anniversary of the Carnation Revolution that overthrew Portugal's 48-year right-wing authoritarian dictatorship, and which put the country on the path to democracy. This cream coloured building with the sentry box at its entrance is the main barracks of the Portuguese National Republican Guard, which at the time was a militarised auxiliary police force. On hearing of the uprising, the dictator Marcello Caetano (Salazar's successor) made his way to this building where the commanding officer and his men remained loyal to the dictatorship. The revolutionary forces, led by officers who had formed the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), sent a detachment of troops under the command of Captain Salgueiro Maia to force Caetano's surrender. After a brief firefight, Captain Maia and representatives of the MFA and of General Antonio de Spinola, the former deputy chief of staff who had been dismissed a month earlier for refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Caetano, were allowed to enter the building to accept the terms of Caetano's surrender. Caetano refused to surrender to the MFA, claiming that he would not allow power to fall into the hands of the mob, and instead handed power to Spinola. Caetano was allowed to leave for the airport, where a waiting aircraft took him to the Azores from where he fled into Brazilian exile, where he died in 1980. Spinola's term as President was short-lived and he was eventually forced out of office and into exile following his failed counter-coup of 28 September 1974. There followed a further 18 months of revolutionary chaos before a group of nine disillusioned MFA officers, the so-called Group of Nine issued their manifesto (the Document of the Nine) that finally ended the revolution on 25 November 1976. 25 April forever; fascism never again!