Why the Carnation Revolution was no longer Socialist? Interview with Lt. Col. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

Abstract

In mid-1973 the Captains’ Movement arose within the Portuguese ArmedvForces. Its objectives were initially merely socio-professional. With the Revolution that occurred on April 25, 1974, led by the newly named Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), there occurred a division of the movement into three currents. The moderate officers, closest to the socialists,were symbolically led by the group of nine (among them, the intellectual mentor of the MFA program, Maj. Melo Antunes). The “gonçalvistas”defended the deepening of the revolution in line with the thinking of the nona ligned movement or the so-called “popular democracies” of Eastern Europeand had the support, for a time, of the Portuguese Communist Party and thePrime Minister, Col. Vasco Gonçalves. The third current of the MFA was the“copconistas” (their name came from the Continental Operational Command,or COPCON), led by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho.  Lutas Sociais is proud topublish an interview with Saraiva de Carvalho, which is of inestimablehistorical importance.