Word: caetano
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Five years ago, when illness forced Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar to end his 36-year reign, it seemed as though Portugal, like Rip Van Winkle, were awakening after a long sleep. Marcello Caetano, then a 62-year-old law professor, became the new Premier, bringing bright young technocrats into the government, reforming the antiquated educational system, and loosening the government's repressive hand on civil liberties. Last week, however, as Portuguese voters went to the polls to elect a new National Assembly, it was clear that Portugal, unlike Rip Van Winkle, had gone back to sleep...
Indeed, the brief flurry of liberalization-the "Caetano spring" as it was called-only heightened the subsequent disillusionment. There was hope then for new democratic standards, but by now almost all of the innovative young Cabinet ministers have long since been sacked and civil liberties remain as minimal and as elusive as ever...
...opposition campaign meeting was quickly broken up when a candidate dared to mention "this unjust war." Calling the whole process a fraud, the opposition withdrew from the contest five days before the voting and urged its supporters to boycott the polls. However justified, that action assured the Caetano government, whose victory was never in doubt, that there would not be even the smallest voice of dissent in the puppet parliament...
...outside the ruling clique knows exactly what put the freeze on the Caetano spring, but the chill no doubt set in when liberals began demanding more civil rights and questioning the country's 500-year-old commitment to the African colonies. Portugal clings desperately to overseas territories whose combined area is 23 times its own size. It spends from 35% to 40% of its budget fighting insurgents in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea; through a four-year draft, it sends its most skilled young manpower to the African wars...
Salazar believed that economic development would corrupt his country, and, as many tourists have discovered, Portugal retains a sometimes medieval charm. The Caetano government, on the other hand, is firmly committed to industrial expansion, but is, paradoxically, afraid to innovate to bring it about. As the lackluster election campaign demonstrated, Portugal is thus likely to remain asleep for the foreseeable future...