Word: cunhal
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...likely loser and the mercurial Saraiva de Carvalho emerging as a new strongman. Despite his popularity with the radical masses, the charismatic boss of the security forces would polarize discontent; he could only govern by imposing the kind of repressive measures the April 25 revolution supposedly abolished for good. Cunhal's party might be forced back into the opposition if that came to pass, because, it is believed, Saraiva de Carvalho has adopted the Maoist left's contempt for orthodox, pro-Soviet Communists. Because of their discipline, however, the Communists would be in good position to pick...
Party Boss Cunhal spent 13 years behind bars, eight of them in solitary. He became something of a legend, even among nonCommunists, for his daring 1960 escape with nine other prisoners from Lisbon's infamous Peniche Prison, which sits on a rocky promontory overlooking the Atlantic. The inmates were aided by a sympathetic guard who marched them one by one underneath his rain cape to a 60-ft. wall overlooking the sea. Using a rope of knotted sheets, they climbed down and were able to swim to shore, where waiting cars picked them...
Even today, party members are reluctant to discuss their underground activities. "After all," says Party Chief Alvaro Cunhal, 61, "we may have to go back underground some day." His deputy, Octavio Pato, claims that good organization has at least partly been the answer: "There were big cells and small cells, a structure that was relatively centralized. The overwhelming majority of the Central Committee was inside Portugal, and that is one of the reasons the party managed to survive." Indeed, according to António Dias Lourenço, editor of the Communist weekly Avante, the party emerged from hiding with...
There was also some help from outside. Party Chief Cunhal enjoyed close links with Moscow and Prague, where he spent nearly 14 years in exile. He even supported the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia-the only West European party leader to do so. Jan Sejna, a onetime major general in the Czech army who defected in 1968 and is now in Washington, has testified that in an average year, Moscow supplied $820,000 for the Portuguese Communists and rebels in the African colonies. There were other forms of assistance: under orders from the Soviets, Czech Communists printed newspapers and pamphlets...
Party members used aliases (Cunhal was known as "Duarte," Pato as "Melo" and "Fresão") and did not have legitimate identity papers-a particularly risky status during World War II-thus they were often not even able to send their children to school. The youngsters had to be taught informally at home or packed off to live with relatives. Says Pato: "This was the most painful thing for parents who had to live underground." Many of the children were pressed into service for the party as messengers and typesetters...