Word: thomaz
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Premier Caetano sought refuge in the Lisbon Republican National Guard headquarters, and Portugal's 79-year-old President, Américo Thomaz, retreated to the barracks of a loyal regiment of lancers. Before surrendering, Caetano, in an effort to preserve the dignity of the state, asked if he could formally turn over the powers of his office to General António de Spínola, the spiritual leader of the rebellion, rather than let the government "fall in the streets." Spínola, who claimed to be aloof from the plotting, replied that he would have to consult...
...with Caetano, who had governed Portugal since 1968 when Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar suffered a stroke. (Salazar died in 1970.) To emphasize the continuity of power despite the coup, the general went to Lisbon's Portela Airport the next morning to bid farewell to Caetano, Thomaz and their senior Cabinet Ministers; they were jetted to exile on the tourist island of Madeira...
Ineffectual Band. One man Spinola definitely did not have the ear of, however, was Américo Thomaz, Portugal's President, who wields great influence as a leader of the nation's wealthy, privileged "100 families." Thomaz has been unbending in his allegiance to Salazar's conviction that "the provinces" are an integral part of "Metropolitan Portugal." Backed by powerful conservatives in the government and in the National Assembly, Thomaz pressured Caetano into sacking Spinola and his sympathetic boss General Francisco Costa Gomes. The move caused tremors in the armed forces and set rumors afoot that...
President Thomaz and Portugal's rightist ultras are faced with a highly uncomfortable dilemma. The general's arrest or exile would surely shatter already shaky morale, if it did not lead to open revolt by the military. On the other hand, Spinola at liberty represents a viable symbol of an alternative to the moribund colonial policies of the regime. Already, countless thousands of Portuguese have been caught by the ringing rhetoric of his message: "A government policy can never be genuine unless it is guided by the desire of those who are governed. Those who really believe...
Caetano, who was reported to have some sympathy with Spinola's view that Portugal cannot win a military victory over the insurgents, fired the generals under pressure from conservative officers and Portuguese president Americo Thomaz...