PORTUGAL: Western Europe's First Communist Country?
"A Happy Revolution!" proclaimed the slogans hastily scrawled on the walls in Lisbon. So it seemed to many Portuguese, as optimism and euphoria marked the weeks immediately following the coup of April 25, 1974, when a group of young military officers ended nearly five decades of fascist dictatorship in Portugal. Jubilant citizens lionized the soldiers, plopping long-stemmed red carnations into the muzzles of their rifles. Political exiles returned home to tumultuous welcomes. Amnestied political prisoners walked out of their jails to the embraces of ecstatic relatives and friends. Freedom of the press and assembly was proclaimed, the hated secret police was abolished and a reign of democracy was vowed. At mass rallies, crowds roared, "The people united shall never be vanquished!"
Fading Dream. Those buoyant days are now long gone. Literally and symbolically, the carnations have wilted. The wall slogans have grown strident. A revolution that began by freeing Portugal from a dictatorship of the far right is rapidly evolving into a dictatorship of the far left. In Portugal, the dream that the April revolution would lead to a democratic and pluralistic society is fast fading, and the nation's 8 million people have only sum hope of seeing a centrist or even moderately socialist civilian government. As a mechanic in the rural town of Benedita recently put it: "The revolution is being betrayed!"
The troika of generals that has just assumed unlimited power in Lisbon could well transform Portugal into Western Europe's first Communist nation. It might be an orthodox Marxist state, as envisaged by one of the Continent's few remaining Stalinist Communist Party bosses, Alvaro Cunhal. It might also evolve into a different kind of radically leftist society, borrowing inspiration from Fidel Castro's Cuba, Houari Boumedienne's Algeria and Mao's China. Either way, the Red threat in Portugal vitally affects the political stability of the western Mediterranean and the future of the North Atlantic Alliance.
For the moment, at least, Portugal's fate rests with the three generals who constitute the ruling Directory: President Francisco da Costa Gomes, Premier Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves and Internal Security Forces Commander Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho (see box page 26). Last week the Directory was installed by the Armed Forces Movement (M.F.A.), the revolution's founding group, and assumed powers previously wielded by the M.F.A.'s 30-man Revolutionary Council. There were immediate signs that the new triumvirate's opponents could expect tough treatment. Arriving back in Lisbon after a visit to Cuba, Saraiva de Carvalho warned: "The M.F.A. is prepared to take the path of very hard repression. It is becoming impossible to have a socialist revolution by completely peaceful means."
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