'25 April is in prison' - this is the accurate assessment made in Portugal of the arrest last week of General Otelo de Carvalho for alleged involvement in the military events of 25 November in Lisbon. The fact that the Azevedo Government now feels confident enough, two months after the event, to arrest the man who was the most popular leftwing general shows the change which is taking place in the political situation in Portugal.
Carvalho's career in the last eighteen months exactly mirrors the rise and fall of the left wing of the Portuguese army. Renowned as a brilliant organiser, it was Carvalho who prepared and led the military operation of the 25 April 1974 coup to topple the dictator Caetano. Following that he became head of the newly created internal security force, Copcon Initially intended for use against rightist followers of Spinola on the one hand and strikers on the other, the troops of Copcon, through contact with the workers, soon became the most left-wing soldiers of the entire army. Carvalho himself became increasingly associated with the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat (PRP), and later with the Communist Party. His followers were undoubtedly publicly involved in the 25 November events.
CONFUSED 'Otelo', as he was universally known, remained hopelessly confused to the end. He advocated at various times workers councils without parties, an alliance between the revolutionary left and the Group of Nine' officers led by Melo Antunes, and a whole series of similar idiotic schemes. In the early days of the revolution he was prepared to use troops against strikers to enforce the Communist Party inspired "battle for production".
But despite all this, Carvalho, in no matter how confused a way, saw OUTH himself as on the side of the working class against capitalism. Furthermore, his politics were objectively not those of an aspiring capitalist dictator but a confused part of the workers movement. Of the leading circles of the Armed Forces Movement, it was Carvalho and Admiral Rosa Coutinho who refused to follow the reactionary path of Azevedo and the majority of the AFM.
Despite all political differences there is not the slightest doubt that among the tasks of the Portuguese working class is the securing of the release of Carvalho, Denis Almeida of the Lisbon Light Artillery Regiment, and the other left-wing military prisoners. Times have changed- Carvalho (left) is now in jail, while Costa Gomes remains president FREEDOM - IN BURYING PRESS