Between 1876 and 1878 he attended the General Staff course at the military academy, beginning in the arms career as a simple private soldier, he climbed the highest ranks of the army, having become a colonel.

In 1911 he was appointed Minister of Portugal in Buenos Aires, at that time a position of great importance to which some authors say it significantly contributed to Argentina being the first country to recognize the Portuguese Republic after the republican establishment in 1910.

[2] He continued to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as minister of the Portuguese Republic in Argentina up until his death in 1917 on the pinnacle of World War I.

Being of a generally scabrous, delicate subject, as Naturalism demanded, these pieces caused agitation, especially Imaculável, which ended in riots and crowds, and Vencidos da Vida, who could not continue on the scene for what contained criticism of the literary group of the same name, and for being considered immoral, creating a controversy between Botelho and those responsible for the ban.

In 1891, Abel Botelho began the study of Portuguese society in the series "Patologia Social", a demanding and scientific examination of the general bad that infested Portugal, especially Lisbon, the capital and the most prestigious urban center.