End of PIDE/DGS
The most dramatic moments of the 1974 Carnation Revolution occurred near the PIDE/DGS headquarters, in the infamous António Maria Cardoso Street. Unidentified agents, desperate after being surrounded by rebellious troops and a throng of citizens, opened fire from the top of the building, killing four demonstrators. These were the only victims of the coup d'état which brought down the dictatorship.
This was the last strategic point to be occupied by the insurgents, thus leading to the escape of the agents and the destruction of most of the records. In the days following the revolution, most escaped to Spain or went underground. Some of the archives were reportedly handed over by the Portuguese Communist Party to Soviet agents.
After being sanitized, the corporation continued its operations in the Portuguese colonies under the name of the Military Information Police (Polícia de Informação Militar).
A commission was created for the extinction of the secret police. The remainder of the documents since 1990 are in the Torre do Tombo National Archive. They can be consulted, but the names of agents and informers are not disclosed.
The only PIDE agents who faced trial were those responsible for the death of exiled opposition leader Humberto Delgado. They were tried in absentia and the case dragged on for several years. None of them ever served time in jail.
Because of the memory of the abuses of the PIDE/DGS in supporting the regime the establishment of a new civilian intelligence agency was delayed for more than a decade. However, following a terrorist attack on the Embassy of Turkey, the assassination of a Palestine Liberation Organization representative at a Socialist International conference in 1983, and a number of domestic terrorist attacks by isolated far-left and far-right groups, the Portuguese government became convinced of the need for a new intelligence agency. This led to the establishment of the Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa (SIRP, Intelligence System of the Portuguese Republic) in 1984.
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