Portugal's Carnation Revolution
The Dictator that "Falls" from Ruling the Country to the Kitchen,
The Fearless General and the Revolution
Chapter - 2
The Brave Campaign of General Humberto Delgado
As you may recall from the Chapter-1, Portugal was ruled under the iron fist of dictatorship since 1933. Rights and freedoms were restricted; and the more people had seen people being arrested, clapped into cells, tortured or even killed, the more afraid they had become to talk.
Meanwhile, for the elections of 1958, Humberto Delgado, a general from the air force, stood for the election against the candidate of the Salazar’s Government.
Setting his hopes on the power of dismissal given to the president in the constitution, General gathered such a massive support from the society that the Salazar government almost met its Waterloo maybe for the first time ever.
General Humberto Delgado, who made history as “The Fearless General“, was about to be the most powerful bearer of the light of courage and hope Portuguese people had been waiting.
And it was not going to be easy to stop him.
1958 Elections and Historic Answer of the General
General Delgado initially was a member of the Salazar government and assigned to important duties.
Later on, however, he went over the opposing side of Salazar rule and transformed into one of the most prominent defenders of democracy and freedom.
And he was aware that the only possible way to stop Salazar’s rule was the power to dismiss the Prime Minister, which was furnished to the President by the Constitution that was prepared under Salazar’s lead.
– “Mr. General, if you are elected, what will you do with the Prime Minister?”
Humberto Delgado, without any hesitation, responded:
– “Obviamente demito-o.” (“Obviously, I will dismiss him.”)
General’s simple but unprecedented response that went down in history, fell upon the regime like a bombshell. Thus revealing explicitly his intention of ruling Salazar out when he accedes, General, became an open target to the regime.
The bitter struggle between the regime and opposition took a path with no return.
At his Lisbon conference, Delgado made the following statement:
“I hope to emerge victorious from this campaign, because fear has vanished.”
Based upon this expression of his, the people started calling him “THE FEARLESS GENERAL” (“O General Sem Medo” in Portuguese).
1) Photo: Restos de Colecção
2) A picture taken when Chave D’Ouro was given a neoteric facade and it started serving as a tea-coffee&billiards saloon (Photo: Anonymous)
3) Photo: Restos de Colecção
4) The original gate of Café Chave D’Ouro. The facade had then been renewed in a modern style. (Photo: “Lisboa Desaparecida” (“Disappeared Lisbon”), vol. 1, Marina Tavares Dias)
5&6) A recent photo of the building of Chave D’Ouro (Taken by myself)
I would like to add a quick anecdote here.
When I learned about the Café, naturally I wanted to visit it as soon as possible. And my initial thought was to check it up on the Maps app. And to my surprise, I found a namesake one. The interior on the photos, however, was nowhere like what I saw on Delgado’s photos. Therefore I started researching. Like, really researching.
First, I noted that the Café was supposed to be located in Rossio Square. However, as far as I know, Rossio Square, which I know like the back of my hand, did not have a café with such name.
After picking through many books in the National Library, and many archive photos, I finally located Chave D’Ouro by comparing today’s Lisbon to old photos.
To those who wonder, it’s the building where Skecher’s shop stands now.
Sad, isn’t it?
As for me, I was shocked. The building that I passed by and even entered many times was literally Chave D’Ouro, where a historic moment had happened.
I rushed there immediately. Looked up and gazed upon it.
Chave D’Ouro was standing before me, with all its grandeur, desolation and sad solitude. That’s the day I took the 5th photo above.
Unfortunately, Chave D’Ouro had gone with the wind. Because one year after the conference held by Delgado, the Café had been sealed by Salazar on the grounds that it had become a place of hate and dissolution. And within years, it had turned into what you see today.
Who knows how many people that passes by every day is aware of the importance of this abandoned building for the Portuguese history, both politically, and as one of the oldest and classiest cafes of Lisbon.
Once, including me.
Rallies Where Lakhs of People Banded Together
and the Clouded Elections
Delgado held rallies all across the country.
The rallies were attended by such large crowds that it began to unsettle the government, whose rallies attracted much less people.
People who had been longing for liberty had seen a glimmer of hope with the General who put himself on the line for them.
If you take a look at the photos of Delgado’s rallies, you’ll see that whereever he set his foot on, the streets were overflown with people and he was taken on shoulders with great enthusiasm.
Resources:
1) Anonymous
2) Jornal de Negocios
3) Anonymous
4) Archives of DN
General aims to return the people their freedom by means of peace and democracy. And he keeps advising the same to his supporters: “We, pacific citizens of a pacific candidacy, pacifically want to bring peace.” (If you want to listen to his speech from his own voice, see the record at the end of this article. I personally, highly suggest that you don’t miss it.)
In his speeches, General, did not hesitate to frankly throw matters such as restricted rights and freedoms, press censorship, the persecution and torture of political prisoners, and the pressures exerted on members of the military to pay allegiance to Salazar to the face of regime. Yet the press that was under strict control, censored these speeches and tried to defame him.
After the great rally he held in Porto, General, was going to pass to his candidacy headquarter. That day, Santa Apolonia station filled with unprecedented amount of people who came to welcome him. (Said to be more than 200.000 people)
Praça de Liberdade, alleys… All thronged with people.
GNR (police force in Portugal) and PIDE, had no qualms about recoursing to brutal intervention to hinder General from meeting with people: He was forced to return home. And the people that wanted to pacifically proceed to the General’s candidacy HQ was dispersed by the police who opened fire upon them while they’re passing through Praça do Commercio -you may remember it from the regicide in Chapter 1.
(Btw, the history of the Square is really full of bloody events. The square itself was used to be a slave market where the slaves were disembarked from the ships that berthed. But that’s for another day.)
Today, if you visit the Santa Apolonia Station that witnessed that historic moment, you’ll see this epitaph below, placed in memory of the Fearless General.
“On May 16, 1958, Humberto Delgado arrived from Porto at this station.
Thousands of people who were victims of the repression of the Salazar regime
Were waiting for him.
Tribute of the city of Lisbon to the fearless General,
And to all those who fought for freedom in Portugal.“
Despite the colossal public support Delgado received, the candidate of the regime won the elections. General immediately objected to the election results.
(NOTE: Today, as well, many people believe Delgado would have won by a landslide if Salazar had allowed a fair election. Many academicians clearly emphasize that the antiquated and never-been-changed election system of Portugal was highly open to fraud and hickery.
To set an example, the candidates were compelled to prepare their own ballots and distribute to the voters only at the ballot boxes. And this, they say, had made it easy to detect the supporters of Delgado and intimidate them against voting. Also evidence were discovered that PIDE had stuffed ballot boxes with ballots prepared in favour of Tomás, the regime’s candidate.)
Although the election seemed like resulted in favour of the regime, the number of the votes casted for Delgado alerted Salazar and with the immediate amendment in the Constitution in 1959, election of the president was transfered to the National Assembly, which was an obedient tool to the regime.
Only Way To Stop the General…
"OPERATION AUTUMN"
Unfortunately, after the election, more troubles were awaiting Delgado.
First, he was discharged from the army.
Becoming the target of the revenge arrows of the Salazar regime and the threats of regime’s police, PIDE, the General was forced to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy and spend the last days of his life in exile in Brazil and Algeria.
But these were not enough to discourage Delgado.
Because, the Fearless General, as he himself explicitly stated, “was ready to die for freedom.” And he had no thought of giving up the fight.
(-“There is one thing, however, that I want to swear here. I am ready to die for freedom!”) says General, in his speech that I mentioned above. (To hear his determination reflected in his voice when he delivered this speech, literally banging his hand on the table, don’t forget to listen the recording below.)
Planning to clandestinely enter Portugal to continue his battle against the regime, in disguise and with a fake identity he entered Spain…
In April 1965, in Badajoz, a Spanish village very close to Portuguese border, two kids who were out to play in the woods, discovered two corpses that had begun to decay. One of the bodies belonged to a woman and the other to a man.
The incident was announced to public on 24-25th of April. (As an irony of the fate, the Carnation Revolution that would bring an end to the dictatorship was to take place on 24-25th of April.)
Although the bodies had decayed to a degree that made identification impossible, the experts on the scene had almost a certain idea about whom they belonged to.
They found a ring on the male body.
The ring was bearing the initials of “H.D.” and wings symbolising the air force academy.
With an operation they called “The Operation Autumn” PIDE agents had first infiltrated into his circle of friends.
After gaining his confidence, they lured him into an ambush with the deception that they would take him to meet officers supporting the coup and murdered him along with his accompanying secretary, Arajaryr Campos. (In one of the official statements, it is said that the General died in self defence.)
A Spanish newspaper, El Pais, held an interview with the kids who found the bodies two months after they had been murdered.
You can reach the interview via the link below.
Reopening a murdered general’s tomb | Spain | EL PAÍS in English (elpais.com)
And that’s it…
The Fearless General, who would “die for the freedom of people” had literally sacrificed himself without betting an eye.
We wouldn’t be wrong to assume that nothing was the same for and within the regime. Because, although the General had lost his life, he had also ignited the fire of freedom within the hearts of people.
Thus began the process leading to the Carnation Revolution.
(While it is debated today whether Salazar had a clear order or contribution to the General’s murder, it is said that Salazar had been aware of PIDE’s plan to eliminate the General, but had not ordered otherwise; and that, in a country where no bird would fly beyond his knowledge, it was impossible for him not to know about it. It is also claimed that the fact that no one was held responsible at PIDE after the operation indicated Salazar’s approval to this operation.)
General Delgado’s Speech From His Own Voice (Also In Writing, Below)
General’s Speech and Its Translation
“Qual o nome que merece um governo que procede assim?
Um governo sem pudor!
Um governo mentiroso!
Um governo que não serve!
Um governo que tem que se ir embora.
É que realmente nos estamos humas eleições livres em que infamente, infamente, desenvergonhamente, despudoramente, um governo considera se como detentor do país para a vida e da morte.
Eu pergunto meus senhores, se acreditam que haja alguém no governo português que tenha entrado onde eu fui com a minha filha?
Se esses senhores entrasse num bairro de lata, se viessem a Chaves ver como sofre, se andassem nos bairros onde esta miséria existe, eles saberia publicar leis e eles saberiam dar liberdade.
Mas eles governamse se dentro do quarto. O que vale é que sabem que nos fartamo-nos. O país cansou-se, de saber o regime era bom dito so pela boca deles.
Todos nós, cidadãos pacíficos duma candidatura pacífica, queremos pacificamente conquistar a paz. Mas os esbirros do governo, como têm visto, andam a chamar-nos subversivos nos jornais e a tratar-nos na via pública como malfeitores. Ninguém sabe, portanto, minhas senhoras e meus senhores, onde isto pode ir ter.
Há uma coisa, porém, que quero jurar aqui:
Estou pronto a morrer pela liberdade!»
“What is the name of a government that does this?
A shameless government!
A lying government!
A government that does not serve!
A government that has to go.
It is that we are really in a free election in which infamously, infamously, shamelessly, shamelessly, a government considers itself as the keeper of the country for life and death.
I ask gentlemen, do you believe that there is anyone in the Portuguese government who has entered where I went with my daughter?
If these gentlemen entered a slum, if they came to Chaves to see how he suffers, if they walked in the neighborhoods where this misery exists, they would know how to publish laws and they would know how to give freedom.
But they govern themselves inside the room. What counts is that they know we’re done. The country got tired of knowing the regime was good, just through their mouths.
All of us, peaceful citizens of a peaceful candidacy, peacefully want to achieve peace. But the government’s henchmen, as you’ve seen, are calling us subversive in the newspapers and treating us on public streets as malefactors. Nobody knows, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, where this may lead.
There is one thing, however, that I want to swear here.
I am ready to die for freedom!”
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