Word: umd
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...this year in a Platform of Democratic Convergence with the Christian Democrats. It is likely that this older coalition will survive the compromise with the Communists. Both Socialists and Christian Democrats see Spain in the immediate future becoming more or less like Western welfare-states. The Democratic Military Union (UMD), a group of middle-level officers favoring democratization and "redistribution of income", may become a part of this potential moderate left formation against the Communists...
...UMD numbers only 1000 adherents and sympathizers out of an officer corps of 28,000. The army's massive right wing is now being called upon to suppress the left, with Franco's Civil War companions leading the general staff. The politicization of the army rightward will lead to increased support for the UDM--the junior officers' organization thrives on every new abuse of the entrenched fascist generals...
This movement, the Democratic Military Union (UMD), apparently contains 400 to 1000 officers, a small fraction of the 40,000-man officer corps, but their strategic importance and widespread influence is disproportionate to their numbers. The government became aware of the UMD as an association of study groups this fall and met the threat with arrests, enlarging the organization's grievances and expanding its appeal. The UMD is not nearly so radical as the Armed Forces Movement in Portugal, which sprang from lower-ranking officers. But the group's partisans insist on the dismantling of the Franco state and social...