Carnation Revolution: Encyclopedia II - Carnation Revolution - Events

Carnation Revolution - Events

In February 1974, Caetano was obliged by the old guard to remove General António Spínola and his underlings as the General tried to change the direction of Portuguese colonial policy, which had become too expensive. The divisions of the powerful elite became visible, at which point a mysterious Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA, "Movement of Armed Forces"), headed by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho and joined by Salgueiro Maia, chose to lead a revolution. This movement was borne in secrecy in 1973 through the conspiracy of some army officers of leftist tendencies who had been radicalized by the colonial war. Some say that Francisco da Costa Gomes actually led the revolution.

There were two secret signals in the revolution: first the airing of the song E depois do adeus ("After goodbye") by Paulo de Carvalho, the song had been Portugal's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, which alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to start the revolution; and then Grândola, Vila Morena ("Grândola, Grândola, the brown town") by Zeca Afonso, confirmed the actions and "announced" that the revolution had started and nothing would stop it except "the possibility of a regime's repression". The revolution was closely watched from neighbouring Spain, where democrats and totalitarians were planning for the succession of Francisco Franco, who died a year later, in 1975.

On April 25, 1974 at 12:15 am, the national radio broadcast Grândola, Vila Morena, a revolutionary song by Zeca Afonso. This was the signal that the MFA gave to take over strategic points of power in the country. Six hours later, the dictatorial regime caved in. Despite repeated appeals from the "captains of April" (of the MFA) on the radio inciting the population to stay at home, thousands of Portuguese descended on the streets, mixing themselves with the military insurgents. One of the central points of those gathering was the march of flowers in Lisbon, then richly stocked with carnations, which were in season. Some military insurgents would put these flowers in their gun-barrels; an image which was shown on television around the world. This would be the origin of the name of this "Carnation revolution". Caetano found refuge in the main Lisbon military police station. This building was surrounded by the MFA, which pressured him to cede power to General Spínola. Both Caetano (the prime minister) and Americo Thomaz (the President) fled to Brazil. Caetano spent the rest of his life in Brazil, while Thomaz returned to Portugal a few years later.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki