António Salazar, the president of the Council of Ministers of the New State’s (Estado Novo) dictatorship that ruled Portugal for 41 years between 1933 and 1974, had a deep respect for the historic tradition of A Brasileira do Chiado, so he prohibited his agents from making arrests inside the café. There are accounts that a number of individuals persecuted by the dictatorship for political reasons would exile themselves within A Brasileira for several hours because they knew they would not be arrested in that neutral zone. Meanwhile, the police would remain stationed outside, waiting for them to come out so they could finally be arrested.