Pedro Guerra, one of the central figures in the e-mails case, was born on 3 March 1966 in Angola. His father, a sportsman, was employed at the Portuguese Embassy in Luanda. However, Pedro Guerra has always been a fan of Benfica through the influence of a cousin with whom he listened to the matches on the radio.
His relationship with priests and masses began at an early age
After April 25, 1974, Pedro Guerra’s father sent his sons and his wife to Viseu, Portugal. Pedro Guerra studied at Via Sacra College, an educational institution run by priests and, as Pedro mentioned to the Observador newspaper, there was a “daily mass”. Admittedly, this passage marked the life of Pedro Guerra, because in the case of e-mails he uses the terms of priests and masses to refer to referees and matches of Benfica.
At the end of the ninth grade, he moved to Lisbon. He studied at Maria Amália high school and in the high school of the university city. After finishing high school, he finally entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.
From archivist to journalist
His father died tragically on a beach in Luanda, drowned. The tragedy did not allow him to finish his degree and he had to start working. He began working as an archivist in the newspaper “O jornal”, then after in the newspaper Independente.
Paulo Portas, who was the director of Independente, offered Pedro Guerra an internship in the sports section next to Alexandra Tavares Teles. According to Alexandra, Pedro Guerra “knew everything about the referees, the games, the results … he has a prodigious memory.”
The prodigious memory of Pedro Guerra is probably not what it was because, according to him, he “does not remember” to have sent e-mails to Adão Mendes. Knowing everything about referees was probably one of the reasons Benfica hired him to do the dirty work. According to Pedro Guerra’s colleagues, even as a fan of Benfica, he also attacked the club. It was Pedro Guerra who denounced the involvement of Luís Filipe Vieira in the robbery of a truck in the 80s, as already mentioned here.
In the book “Alma Benfiquista” by Pedro Guerra. It is written that he had lunch with Luís Filipe Vieira a week after the publication of the complaint and said that “after lunch, I was rendered to this man who, years later, saved my club from the bankruptcy. I realized that I had just met an honored man, pragmatic and determined. Luís Filipe Vieira gave a lesson in fair play. ”
Yes, a man who has been accused of taking part in a truck theft is indeed an honorable man. Why in such a short time did Pedro Guerra’s opinion of Luís Filipe Vieira change dramatically? Is this another maneuver of influence on the part of the president of Benfica? It is certain that eight years after this episode, Luís Filipe Vieira invited him to collaborate with Benfica TV.
The friends he has at the Judicial Police and Attorney’s Office
In addition to Sport, he also made investigations in the Independente newspaper with Helena Sanches Osório, which allowed him to meet with prosecutors, elements of the judicial police, judges, lawyers. One of his colleagues said that he “had such a good relationship with the sources that the prosecutors came to lend him the original lawsuits for him to make photocopies”.
Now, we notice how Pedro Guerra was able to obtain confidential documents and debited them in the program “Prolongamento” where he is a commentator. His portfolio of contacts has increased since the days of Independente Day, and it is undoubtedly for this reason that Luís Filipe Vieira saw an advantage to hire Pedro Guerra.
The conciliatory figure of Pedro Guerra
A colleague of Pedro Guerra, Graça Rosendo, at the time of the newspaper Independente declared that it was a conciliatory figure. “In crisis situations, it was a calm element, always saying that everything was fine, that everything was going to be resolved.” According to another colleague of Pedro Guerra “at one time, the atmosphere was very competitive among journalists, because everyone wanted to sign the headlines … even though Pedro Guerra made two titles out of four, he was one of the most popular people in the editorial team. ”
Admittedly all this has happened because Pedro Guerra’s popularity is currently negative, being hated by most football fans, including Benfica fans who have already insulted him at the Colombo Mall in Lisbon. Guerra’s boss also criticized him in the big interview commissioned by Benfica TV on November 9th.
Pedro Guerra is not a conciliatory figure, he insults everyone, spreading lies in all his appearances in television shows
Pedro Guerra and his love for Paulo Portas
Pedro Guerra defended at all costs Paulo Portas, who was the director of the newspaper Independente. According to a colleague of Pedro Guerra, all that Paulo Portas asked, Pedro Guerra did.
He became the press counselor for Paulo Portas when he was defense minister. According to one journalist, Pedro Guerra sent out the press release just before the newspaper closes “so that journalists do not have time to work the information, an email arrives, but instead of bringing a normal press release, the news came in the form of a news already written and adapted to the newspaper to which each editorial belonged, even with a title. ”
Before sending the email, Pedro Guerra sent messages to reporters saying that they would hear the news at 6:00 pm so that they leave part of the newspaper open for him. Of course, the story never arrived at six o’clock. What he was doing was a dirty job he’s already used to.
According to some journalists contacted by the newspaper “Observador”, Pedro Guerra “did not summon journalists who made them more uncomfortable with press conferences, but we were informed by other sources, and we were there anyway. He was difficult, but he had humor and was not violent as now in television shows. “This information was denied by Pedro Guerra, but of course what he says is not an absolute truth.
After the government experiment with Paulo Portas, they stayed close, and Paulo Portas invited Pedro Guerra to collaborate with CDS [Popular Party].
Even though a source close to the party says that Pedro Guerra never appeared in Parliament, Pedro Guerra denies “I was still going to the party headquarters in Largo do Caldas and Parliament, and I was doing research and preparing files for the debates. I was working directly with Portas and the House leaders. “In the summer of 2015, the DN newspaper reported that Pedro Guerra was absent from Parliament, which led to the end of his collaboration with the CDS.
The Pinocchio of sports commentators
In addition to collaborating with Benfica TV and Benfica SAD, in this case without any official confirmation of the functions he carries out, Pedro Guerra participates in the show Prolongamento on TVI24 channel.
The lies accused by Pedro Guerra every week have already been denounced by newspapers, for example, the newspaper Record release a statement, after an interview with Jorge Jesus and a lie proclaimed by Pedro Guerra on TVI24.
“Yesterday, in TVI 24’s ‘Prolongamento’ program, Pedro Guerra says that Jorge Jesus was quoted as saying in “off” to the two journalists, José Ribeiro and Alexandre Carvalho, author of the interview that our newspaper published in his Sunday edition that “Benfica is not comparable to Sporting”, that “the structure of Sporting CP does not exist” and that “the things of Sporting are very …” [Editor’s note: we did not realize where Pedro Guerra wanted to say with this sentence.] At no time (in “on” or “off”) did Jorge Jesus make any comparison between the “greatness” of Benfica and Sporting. It should be added that, at no time, Jorge Jesus is referred to the Sporting structure. The only time he spoke on the subject was on the statements that are reproduced on the pages of our newspaper. “FC Porto has a 30-year structure, Benfica has a 6-year structure, Sporting has a structure that is just beginning to construct these challenges … “[p.9, of the edition of September 6, 2015.] Neither José Ribeiro nor Alexandre Carvalho knows Mr. Pedro Guerra. So, it is unclear exactly where the so-called “information” (and never the quotes worked as well as here) arrived at the TVI24 show. Now it will be up to Mr. Pedro Guerra to prove in the correct places the veracity of the insinuations that he directed to the journalists of Record, questioning the newspaper and the ethics of its professionals. ”
In the case of e-mails, he lied saying that he did not know if he had spoken with Adão Mendes and four months later to say that he had spoken with Adão Mendes. A few weeks ago, he lied on the UEFA ranking about Monaco and Basel in an attempt to minimize Benfica’s defeat with Basel (5-0).
Also, he repeatedly lied that he had only cooperated with Benfica TV and never with Benfica, but the show Universo Porto da Bancada showed salaries of Pedro Guerra coming from Benfica SA.
The lies of Pedro Guerra were so numerous that they could not be written in one article. Pedro Guerra is a person who cannot be reliable, being used by Benfica to have contacts in the refereeing and to say things written in the “cartilha”, written by Carlos Janela.
