On April 23, two days before the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution, the Council of Ministers approved the declassification of three secret documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that reflect how the Franco regime dealt with the fall of Marcelo Caetano, the country’s dictator. neighbor and successor of Oliveira Salazar, the creator of the so-called Estado Novo 41 years earlier. Unlike most Western countries, Spain lacks a law that automatically declassifies secret documents after a certain number of years and continues to be governed by Franco’s legislation, which keeps them hidden forever, unless the Government decides to release them. light.
That is what the Executive has done with two telegrams sent on April 26 and 28, 1974 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Spanish Embassy in Lisbon; and with a note sent on May 31 to said ministry by the diplomatic representation in Lisbon. The until now secret papers, to which EL PAÍS has had access, have already been delivered by the Spanish Government to its Portuguese counterpart as a contribution to knowledge of the historical context in which the so-called Carnation Revolution took place. Its impact was profound in Spain both because of the fear it caused among those responsible for the Franco regime and because of the hope it raised among the democratic opposition.
In fact, a few months later the dictatorship commissioned the Institute of Public Opinion, the predecessor of the current Center for Sociological Research (CIS), to carry out a survey to “find out the opinion of the population on the political changes that have taken place in Portugal since the 25th.” April 1974″. The survey was carried out in October 1974 among 1,100 people from Madrid and Barcelona. “The majority does not have a defined attitude in one sense or another; but, of those who have it, the percentage who views it with sympathy [lo sucedido en el país vecino] is higher than those who view it with antipathy (20% versus 13%),” stated the “restricted use” report that did not come to light until last year.
Of the documents now declassified, the first is a telegram, signed confidential, dated April 26, just one day after the uprising of the Portuguese captains. It instructs the Spanish Chargé d’Affaires in Lisbon (the highest person in charge of the Embassy in the absence of the ambassador) on the answer he should give if “in a pertinent manner and by a responsible person” he is asked if Spain recognizes the Salvation Board. National, created to protect the political transition and chaired by General António de Spinola, who began to play a leading role after receiving Caetano’s surrender on the afternoon of April 25, despite the fact that he did not belong to the group of rebellious officers.
The answer should be the following: “The Spanish Government does not need to make declarations of recognition because it is implicit in the continuity of full diplomatic relations between friendly countries.” That is to say, the Franco Government did not want to expressly recognize the new revolutionary authorities, but neither was it willing to lift a finger in support of the dictatorship of the neighboring country, which had collapsed like a house of cards in the face of the military insurrection and the massive support popular he received. The operational plan of the rebel Movement included the closure of the border with Spain on April 25, 1974 to avoid a potential sending of reinforcements from Franco to Salazar, supported by the Iberian Pact of Non-Aggression and Friendship that both dictators had signed in 1939. But the fears of the April captains turned out to be unfounded and the Spanish regime opted for caution.
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
Although the telegram was “communicated” to the cipher department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of encrypting and transmitting it, by the General Directorate of Europe, the signature “Cortina” appears at the end of the text. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time was the diplomat Pedro Cortina Mauri, father of the well-known businessmen Alfonso and Alberto Cortina and one of the architects of the tripartite pact by which Spain ceded Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, precisely for avoid a colonial war like the one that had caused the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship, which for 13 years fought against the independentists of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
The second telegram, “sent by telephone order of the General Director of Europe”, is also signed by “Cortina” and, in addition to the word “Secret”, includes in its heading the label “Very urgent”. The text contains instructions to the chargé d’affaires in Lisbon to acknowledge receipt of a “note verbale” (written communication of a diplomatic nature without signature or seal) from the new Portuguese authorities and, first thing the next morning, deliver to the Ministry Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs another verbal note with the response of the Franco Government in the following terms: “Note is taken of the constitution [de la] Board [de] National Salvation chaired by His Excellency General António Spinola, with which the Spanish Government will continue to maintain the continuity of the full diplomatic relations happily existing between the two countries.”
Four days late, the Franco regime thus decided to take the step of formally recognizing the new Executive power resulting from the April 25 revolution. In the same telegram, the Spanish chargé d’affaires in Lisbon was instructed to urge a “prompt response” from the Portuguese authorities to a previous request from the Spanish Foreign Ministry, pending the approval of his counterpart, the scope and nature of which is not revealed by the text.
The third declassified document is an extensive note that the Spanish Embassy in Lisbon sent to Madrid reporting statements by the Count of Barcelona, father of the future King Juan Carlos, then exiled in Estoril, about 25 kilometers from Lisbon. “How can I leave Portugal, where I have lived for so many years and admire so much, now that it has begun the path of democracy that I always advocated for my country,” are the words of Juan de Borbón that the diplomatic cable includes, citing an article from Popular newspaper, a Lisbon evening newspaper of the time.
According to the note, these words were said by Felipe VI’s grandfather to Joaquín Satrústegui, a Spanish liberal and monarchist politician who was active in the anti-Franco opposition and would be elected senator in the first democratic elections. The document, dated May 31, 1974, more than a month after the triumph of the revolution, describes Satrústegui as “a democrat very close to the Count of Barcelona and a person of great prestige in the political circles of the neighboring country,” until the point that, during his visit to Lisbon, he would have been received by Adelino da Palma Carlos, prime minister of the provisional Government, and the socialist leader Mario Soares, then Minister of Foreign Affairs.
According to the now declassified document, the Count of Barcelona made these statements to Satrústegui, who informed the journalist of Popular Newspaper, to which he also revealed “the existence of pressure from some political sectors in Spain for the Count of Barcelona to leave Portugal and return to his country or go to another nation. “These sectors,” the note adds, “invoke alleged dangers for the Count of Barcelona as a result of the political transformations that occurred in Portugal on April 25.”
It is in the last paragraph of the cable where the Chargé d’Affaires makes his own contribution, beyond what the Portuguese newspaper says: “It is known, on the contrary, that the Count of Barcelona maintains his idea of not abandoning Portugal, now more than ever. , having sent, two days after the uprising of the Armed Forces, a telegram of congratulations to General António de Spinola.” Although Spinola fell in September 1974 and the Portuguese revolution tilted to the left, ceasing to be a model for Spanish monarchists who still dreamed of a restoration in the person of Don Juan, the Count of Barcelona continued to live in Estoril and did not return. to Spain until after ceding dynastic rights to his son Juan Carlos, in 1977.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#secret #papers #Francos #diplomacy #Portuguese #revolution