MARCELLO CAETANO – CONVERSATIONS IN SECRET

November 24, 1973.

1973 was a difficult year for the dictatorial regime that had been in power in Portugal for more than four decades. The war in Africa steadily worsened, and the PAIGC declared Guinea-Bissau’s independence unilaterally in September. In April, the Third Congress of the Democratic Opposition had significant repercussions and was attended by officers from the Armed Forces as observers. Protest was growing in the army, especially among the captains. On November 24, forty-five Army officers met at the Casa da Cerca in São Pedro do Estoril and, for the first time, suggested overthrowing the regime.

On the same day, Prof. Marcello Caetano, President of the Council of Ministers, consulted – with great discretion – an officer in whom he placed a great deal of trust, seeking more information about meetings of Army Captains that he knew existed. He was then given an impartial picture of what was happening without naming any military units or officers.

He then confided that the only general he had full confidence in was Francisco da Costa Gomes, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and General Commander of Internal Security, who two days earlier had told him of his irritation at the fact that the then General Directorate of Security had started – without telling him – wiretapping several military units, an initiative that he greatly disliked, as it could trigger a process that could lead to the arrest of Officers, with negative impacts on the Army and negative consequences for the stability needed to fulfill the mission entrusted to him, unnecessary wiretaps as the Army’s internal information systems gave him an idea of what was going on in the Officialdom; and that he wouldn’t want – as Commander General of Internal Security – to see to it that they ended without obtaining the approval of the President of the Council, who promptly granted it. And indeed, the wiretapping stopped on December 3rd.

After his interlocutor commented that it was a good decision, the President of the Council took the opportunity to discuss the political situation at the time with great frankness, recalling various exchanges that they had had about seven years earlier when he was far from imagining that he would be performing such a high level of duties.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that the officer consulted would keep it a secret for 50 years.

This was fulfilled

Written by Luís Costa Correia, retired Captain of the Portuguese Navy.

Luis Costa Correia coordinated the military forces that occupied the DGS/PIDE on April 25, 1974. He was appointed Director-General of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Process Affairs (STAPE) between 1975 and 1977, organizing the first legislative, presidential, municipal, and regional elections in a Democratic Portugal. These elections were held in 1976.