AEMI

MARIA BEATRIZ ROCHA-TRINDADE
nized was different than the one they
had imagined but that had nonetheless
evolved. The Utopic Homeland (Pátria
Utópica) work documents facts and
feelings: ‘we weren’t in Portugal in terms
of territory, but our heads were full of
Portugal’ (Medeiros Ferreira); ‘Here, I
retrieved my citizenship; there, I was always
a foreigner’ (António Barreto).
Many other opponents of the regime
exiled abroad circulated between several
countries where they were organized differently
depending on the contexts in
which they were inserted.
Even though the members of the three
groups mentioned pursued the same
ideal, their characteristics and methods
were different.
Personalities
In the context of mandatory emigration
caused by reasons of a political nature,
a long list of emblematic figures visibly
and very actively intervened in the
struggle for a change in the regime, both
as leaders and as followers supporting
and defending them.
The countries they headed to, vary
according to the timeframe when the
choices were made. However, some of
them remained as the most popular
choices: Brazil, on the other side of the
Atlantic; France, Spain, Switzerland and
Sweden in Europe and Algeria, in North
Africa. They welcomed many of those
who were forced to leave the country
intentionally, whether it was to avoid
arrest or as a result of a planned escape
that required collaboration in their own
country.
The list of those who are part of this
group is so long that not everyone can
be included in this text. Only a few will
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be mentioned; those who are and will
always be remembered for the role they
played. The history will highlight their
names and forever associate them with
the major modifications that they were
able to introduce.
Under the Dictatorship, General
Humberto Delgado (1906-1965), publicly
and very actively fought against the
Regime. He was murdered near the Portuguese-Spanish
border (approximately
30 km of Villanueva del Fresno, where
his and his secretary’s body were found)
victim of entrapment – and operation
codenamed Fall Operation (Operação Outono)
- mounted by the PIDE. Today he
is recognized as a hero and he is still frequently
remembered and paid tribute to.
The Army Captain Henrique Galvão
(1895-1970) and the ex-Air Force
military Palma Inácio (1922-2009)
both distinguished themselves by their
bold actions: the former by the takeover
of a luxury liner, the Santa Maria,
on January 22nd 1961 and the latter,
by high-jacking an international TAP
flight going from Casablanca to Lisbon,
on November 10th 1967. Both actions
aimed to draw attention more widely to
the situation in Portugal.
Among the illustrious opponents of
the regime, Mário Soares stands out as
the figure of a great man of the opposition
that will remain in history as one of
the most prominent actors in the struggle
for the installation of a democracy.
As a result of his political activity against
the dictatorship, he was arrested by the
PIDE twelve times (serving a total of almost
three years in jail), was deported
without trial to the island of S. Tomé
(Africa) in 1968, and in 1970, forced
into exile in France.