Word: nola
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...inept that some people in Lisbon speculated that the left may have deliberately stirred up violence in hopes of provoking a premature right-wing effort to seize power so that it could be easily crushed. In an ironic twist, former President António de Spínola, the alleged leader of the plot, wound up in exile in Brazil along with former Dictator Marcello Caetano, whose regime he helped topple last year. In an interview in São Paulo with TIME'S Barry Hillenbrand, Spínola said that he stood on a fellow officer...
...hours after the aerial attack, Premier Vasco dos Santos Gongalves announced that the coup had been crushed. That night President Francisco da Costa Gomes denounced it as "a reactionary adventure" designed to disrupt the forthcoming elections and named his old friend, former President António de Spínola, 64, as its leader...
There are clear and substantive differences between the democratic-leftist politics of Premier Gonçalves and Spínola's more conservative stance. Spínola worried that the junta's policy of allowing all political parties to organize freely would permit the Communists to acquire too much power before the election. He also opposed granting outright independence to the African territories, favoring instead a referendum that would let them unite with Portugal if they chose. In recent weeks, he announced that he was taking the settlement of oil-rich Angola into his own hands...
Foreign observers believe that the new team of Costa Gomes and Gonçalves will be a workable one. A career officer, Costa Gomes earned his stars in the African theater where, like Spínola, he came to oppose Portugal's colonial wars. When Spínola brought out his controversial book criticizing Portuguese colonial policy last February, Costa Gomes, who was then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Caetano regime, supported his deputy; both were ousted from their posts. His following in the military is said to be as large and as loyal...
...nola, his own future in politics may not be over yet. Despite his resignation, he still commands a large following. If he decided to run for office, he could become a strong contender in next March's elections. Although he said nothing about that last week, there are many who are doubtful that the last words have yet been heard from the monocled general...