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| In October 1985, Otelo was tried and convicted in court for his role in leading the FP 25 de Abril and sentenced to 15 years in prison.<ref name=":0" /> The sentence would be confirmed by the Court of Appeal, which increased the sentence to 18 years and later the Supreme Court of Justice would fix it at 17 years in prison.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Pereirinha|first=Sónia Simões, Tânia|title=FP-25 de Abril. O processo judicial que foi desaparecendo aos poucos|url=https://observador.pt/especiais/o-processo-judicial-que-foi-desaparecendo-aos-poucos/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=Observador|language=pt-PT}}</ref> | In October 1985, Otelo was tried and convicted in court for his role in leading the FP 25 de Abril and sentenced to 15 years in prison.<ref name=":0" /> The sentence would be confirmed by the Court of Appeal, which increased the sentence to 18 years and later the Supreme Court of Justice would fix it at 17 years in prison.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Pereirinha|first=Sónia Simões, Tânia|title=FP-25 de Abril. O processo judicial que foi desaparecendo aos poucos|url=https://observador.pt/especiais/o-processo-judicial-que-foi-desaparecendo-aos-poucos/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=Observador|language=pt-PT}}</ref> | ||
| He would appeal the sentence to the Constitutional Court. As the period of preventive detention had expired, since the sentence had not yet become final, he was released on May 17,1989, after five years in prison,<ref name=":3" /> | He would appeal the sentence to the Constitutional Court. As the period of preventive detention had expired, since the sentence had not yet become final, he was released on May 17,1989, after five years in prison, awaiting trial on parole.<ref name=":3" /> | ||
| His trial was controversial and his allies assumed it to be motivated by revenge. In 1985, he was tried, convicted, and demoted to ] for his role in FP-25.<ref name="Moura" /> | His trial was controversial and his allies assumed it to be motivated by revenge. In 1985, he was tried, convicted, and demoted to ] for his role in FP-25.<ref name="Moura" /> | ||
Revision as of 18:04, 31 January 2022
Portuguese politician and retired military officer
| Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho MSMM • GCL • MPCE | |
|---|---|
 Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho in 1976 | |
| Nickname(s) | Otelo |
| Born | (1936-08-31)31 August 1936 Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, Portugal |
| Died | 25 July 2021(2021-07-25) (aged 84) Lisbon, Portugal |
| Allegiance |  Portugal |
| Service |  Portuguese Army
|
| Years of service | 1955–1984 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles / wars | Portuguese Colonial War Carnation Revolution |
| Awards | Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty |
| Other work | Candidate to President of Portugal |
Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, GCL (Template:IPA-pt; 31 August 1936 – 25 July 2021) was a Portuguese military officer. He was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon. After the Revolution, Otelo assumed leadership roles in the first Portuguese Provisional Governments, alongside Vasco Gonçalves and Francisco da Costa Gomes, and as the head of military defense force COPCON. In 1976, Otelo ran in the first Portuguese presidential election, in which he placed second with the base of his support coming from the far-left. In the 1980s Otelo was sentenced for being a leading member of the terrorist group Forças Populares 25 de Abril, which killed 17 people in several attacks. He was pardoned in the 1990s.
Early life
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho was born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique (now Maputo, Mozambique) on 31 August 1936, of Luso-Goan (Portuguese India) ancestry. Named by his theatre-minded parents after Shakespeare's Othello, he completed his secondary education at a state school in Lourenço Marques. His father was a civil servant and his mother a railway clerk. He entered the Military Academy in Lisbon in 1955, at the age of nineteen.
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Otelo spent many years in the colonial wars in Africa. He served in Portuguese Angola from 1961 to 1963 as a second lieutenant, and as a captain from 1965 to 1967. He was posted to Portuguese Guinea in 1970 as a captain, under General António de Spínola, in charge of civilian affairs and the propaganda campaign Hearts and Minds.
On 5 November 1960, he married Maria Dina Afonso Alambre with whom he had two daughters and a son.
In 1970, Otelo attended the funeral of António de Oliveira Salazar, the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. At the funeral, Otelo was seen weeping over the casket of Salazar.
Carnation Revolution and PREC
Otelo joined the underground Movement of Armed Forces (Movimento das Forças Armadas - MFA), which carried out a coup d'état in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, in which he played a directing role.
In July 1974, Otelo was made a brigadier and placed in command of the special military Command for the Continent COPCON, which was set up to secure order in the country and to promote the revolutionary process. In 1975, infighting in the MFA intensified with Otelo representing the left-wing of the movement. A right-wing putsch attempt, led by António de Spínola, was thwarted by the timely intervention of COPCON in March 1975. He became part of the Council of the Revolution which was created on 14 March 1975. In May 1975 he was temporarily promoted to General and, together with Francisco da Costa Gomes and Vasco Gonçalves, formed the Directório (Directorate).
In July 1975, Otelo visited Cuba with a delegation of Portuguese military officers to meet Fidel Castro. Otelo participated in the Cuban 26 of July celebrations with Castro. During this trip, Castro informed Otelo of his intention to send Cuban troops to Angola. In response, Otelo assured Castro that the Portuguese government would have no objection to the involvement of Cuba there.
On 25 November 1975, an extreme left-wing coup was attempted. Those who took part in the attempt were members of the MFA, the Portuguese Army Commandos, and COPCON. The coup, orchestrated by Otelo, failed to take control of the Portuguese government. Because of this failure, Otelo was imprisoned, COPCON was disbanded, and António Ramalho Eanes rose to power. As punishment for participation in the coup, Otelo was imprisoned for three months.
In 1976, Otelo unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for president against Eanes. Throughout his campaign, Otelo campaigned on a platform promoting socialism, national independence, and popular power. Otelo's support came from the Portuguese working class, specifically in Setúbal and Alentejo. A notable supporter and organizer of Otelo's campaign was Zeca Afonso, a popular Portuguese revolutionary songwriter. Otelo finished second in the election, with 792,760 votes (16.46%).
1980 presidential campaign
In 1980, Otelo was a candidate in the Portuguese presidential elections. Otelo was nominated for the presidency by the far-left political party which he had founded, the Força de Unidade Popular (FUP). He continued to base his campaign upon building socialism in Portugal. Once again, Otelo received support and advice from Portuguese musician José Afonso throughout the campaign. This time, Otelo did not fare nearly as well as he had done four years beforehand. He finished a poor third, with 85,896 votes (1.4%). After the election, Otelo confessed that he voted for his rival Eanes in the election, "to avoid the victory of the right-wing candidate Soares Carneiro".
Terrorism and imprisonment
Founded in 1980, in the midst of a period of democratic consolidation that followed the turbulent years after the 25th of April 1974, the Forças Populares 25 de Abril(FP-25) brought together the most radical sectors of the revolutionary far left, which were opposed to the establishment of a party base parliamentary representative system, the restoration of the capitalist economic and social system. The document shared at the organization initial announcement "''Manifesto ao Povo Trabalhador''“, mentioned serious deviations from the 1976 Constitution, namely the abandonment of socialism, the abandonment of the Land Ownership nationalization (“Reforma Agrária”) and the loss of the people´s decision-making processIn 1982 he was recalled to the army, since it was shown that his discharge had been politically motivated.
The terrorist organization began its of violence and intimidation activity on April 1980 with a series of bomb attacks across the country, near GNR facilities or government buildings. In total, during 7 years, they were responsible for 19 deaths, including a four-month-old baby, several GNR agents, the director general of Prison Services, a dissident/repentant terrorist and five terrorists killed in robberies. or in clashes with security forces. The last action of the FP25 resulted in the death of a police agent PJ in August 1987.
On June 20th, 1984, Otelo was arrested under the charge of being Forças Populares 25 de Abril founding member and leader. During police operation, various incriminating documents were seized at the FUP headquarters as well as at Otelo’s residencs. Among the seized documents were the two notebooks handwritten by Otelo, one green and one red, with several detailed reports of operations and meetings, namely the famous Conclave meeting in Serra da Estrela. Cândida Almeida, prosecutor in the trial recalls “a meeting in Serra da Estrela where everyone was hooded, Otelo had the number seven. Today it would be possible to do the DNA of the hood, but he also never denied that he had been there”.
On Conclave, a discussion was held regarding future strategy, one of its most important document was the nº 16. It´s a guideline for violence defining who and how should be carried out the robberies and homicides, Otelo has written with his hand that he was content to know what the profile of the individual to be slaughtered. So he knew perfectly well, he and the others in the military political leadership knew perfectly well who did what, so it can be said that they were moral authors. Those handwritten notebooks by Otelo are part of the case file and were reproduced in several books alluding to the process. Otelo himself acknowledges having been present with a hood at the Conclave meeting, held in Serra da Estrela. According to him, in an interview with Jornal Expresso, it would have been a requirement of the ECA (Armed Civilian Structure), known as Forças Populares 25 de Abril.
Usually, Otelo recorded in his personal notebook everything that was said at the meetings of the DPM ( Projecto Global/FP-25 Political-Military Board) identifying all the people present by abbreviations and very enlightening and detailing everything that had been said by each of the authors. Otelo's notebooks were, in fact, responsible for incriminating him as well as many of the detainees, as well as clarifying many of the organization's actions. At the hearings, in addition to confessing almost the entirety of the facts, Otelo was unable to provide the least plausible explanation for the crimes he was accused of, and it turned out that they were not only false accusations that supported the accusation, but a source of evidence, in which his manuscript stands out, where everything is reported with acronyms and names, which he was unveiled during the hearings.
In October 1985, Otelo was tried and convicted in court for his role in leading the FP 25 de Abril and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence would be confirmed by the Court of Appeal, which increased the sentence to 18 years and later the Supreme Court of Justice would fix it at 17 years in prison.
He would appeal the sentence to the Constitutional Court. As the period of preventive detention had expired, since the sentence had not yet become final, he was released on May 17,1989, after five years in prison, awaiting trial on parole.
His trial was controversial and his allies assumed it to be motivated by revenge. In 1985, he was tried, convicted, and demoted to lieutenant-colonel for his role in FP-25.
While imprisoned for his involvement with FP-25, Otelo met Maria Filomena Morais and began a Ménage à trois with her and his wife Maria Dina Afonso Alambre.
In 1989, Otelo received amnesty for his participation in FP-25 due to the legal imbroglio related to his case.
Later life and death
Otelo retired from military service and public life in 1989. Following his retirement, Otelo remained a political activist within his party, Força de Unidade Popular, and was featured in multiple documentaries about the Carnation Revolution.
In 2011, during the Portuguese financial crisis when the country was nearing the end of the center-left government of José Socrates and had to request international financial assistance, Otelo stated that he wouldn't have started the revolution if he had known what the country would become after it. He also stated that the country would need a man as honest as Salazar to deal with the crisis, but from a non-fascist perspective.
In March 2020, he was hospitalized in Lisbon for heart failure. On 10 July 2021, Otelo was hospitalized at Hospital das Forças Armadas in Lisbon. Otelo died fifteen days later on 25 July, aged 84.
Influence
Otelo is still an icon for activists of the left in Portugal, but is hated by many right-wingers who consider him a terrorist who tried to seize power in the country in order to become Portugal's Fidel Castro.
In 2006, Otelo was voted the 68th greatest Portuguese in the Os Grandes Portugueses competition.
Election results
Presidential elections of 27 June 1976
| Candidates | Supporting parties | First round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |||
| António Ramalho Eanes | Independent | 2,967,137 | 61.59 | |
| Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho | Independent | 792,760 | 16.46 | |
| José Pinheiro de Azevedo | Independent | 692,147 | 14.37 | |
| Octávio Rodrigues Pato | Portuguese Communist Party | 365,586 | 7.59 | |
| Total valid | 4,817,630 | 100.00 | ||
| Blank ballots | 43,242 | 0.89 | ||
| Invalid ballots | 20,253 | 0.41 | ||
| Total (turnout 75.47%) | 4,881,125 | |||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | ||||
Presidential elections of 7 December 1980
| Candidates | Supporting parties | First round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | |||
| António Ramalho Eanes | Independent | 3,262,520 | 56.44 | |
| António Soares Carneiro | Democratic Alliance | 2,325,481 | 40.23 | |
| Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho | Força de Unidade Popular | 85,896 | 1.49 | |
| Carlos Galvão de Melo | Independent | 48,468 | 0.84 | |
| António Pires Veloso | Independent | 45,132 | 0.78 | |
| António Aires Rodrigues | Workers Party of Socialist Unity | 12,745 | 0.22 | |
| Carlos Brito | Portuguese Communist Party | left the race | ||
| Total valid | 5,780,242 | 100.00 | ||
| Blank ballots | 44,014 | 0.75 | ||
| Invalid ballots | 16,076 | 0.28 | ||
| Total (turnout 84.39%) | 5,840,332 | |||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | ||||
Publications
- Cinco meses mudaram Portugal (1975)
- Contribuiçāo para uma alternativa popular à crise da economia em Portugal: texto de apoio da candidatura à Presidência da República de Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho (1976)
- Otelo: o povo é quem mais ordena (1977)
- Memorias de abril (1978)
- Alvorada em abril (1984)
References
- ^ Moura, Paulo. Otelo: o Revolucionário. Dom Quixote, 2012.
- "Portugal: a Twentieth-Century Interpretation." Portugal: a Twentieth-Century Interpretation, by Tom Gallagher, Manchester University Press, 1983, p. 200.
- "Biografia de Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho". RTP Archives. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- Kaplan, Jim; Zeitlin, Jon (17 September 1975). "The Real Threat in Portugal". Harvard. Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- Anderson, Jack. "Portugal: The Cuban Connection" (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Castro, Fidel. "discurso pronunciado por el comandante en jefe fidel castro ruz, primer secretario del comite central del partido comunista de cuba y primer ministro del gobierno revolucionario, en el acto central en conmemoracion del xxii aniversario del ataque al cuartel moncada, efectuado en la ciudad de santa clara, las villas, el 26 de julio de 1975, "año del primer congreso"". Cuban Government. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- "Acordos de Alvor Cubanos em Angola Rosa Coutinho Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho Almerindo Jaka Jamba". YouTube. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Tannock, Michael. "13th Period - Third Republic of Portugal (20th and 21st Century)". Portugal History. Portugal History. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
- Faye, Jean Pierre. Portugal: the Revolution in the Labyrinth: from the Papers of the Russell Committee for Portugal. Spokesman Books, 1976. pg. 43
- ^ "CNE Resultados". Comissão Nacional de Eleições. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal = Cenas Da Luta De Classes Em Portugal." New York Cinema Co., 1976.
- ^ "José Afonso. Foi Otelo quem escolheu o músico para "cantar" senha do 25 de Abril". Observador. Observador. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- Constitutional Tribunal of Portugal (14 May 1987). "ACÓRDÃO N.º 231/04" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- "CNE Resultados". Comissão Nacional de Eleições. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ Castelo-Branco, Manuel. "À lei da bala. Os 25 anos sobre a amnistia às Forças Populares-25 de Abril". Observador (in European Portuguese).
- ^ Pereirinha, Sónia Simões, Tânia. "FP-25 de Abril. As bombas, as balas e os "inimigos a abater"". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Gonçalo., Poças, Nuno (2021). Presos por um fio : Portugal e as FP-25 de Abril. Casa das Letras. ISBN 978-989-661-033-3. OCLC 1256402822.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Pereirinha, Sónia Simões, Tânia. "Seis interrogatórios e um encontro secreto. O frente a frente que durou meses entre Otelo e um juiz". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - José., Vilela, António (2005). Viver e morrer em nome das FP-25. Casa das Letras/Editorial Notícias. ISBN 972-46-1594-4. OCLC 350197130.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Renascença (24 April 2021). "Otelo liderava associação terrorista. "Provas eram inequívocas", diz Cândida Almeida - Renascença". Rádio Renascença (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- "Caso FP-25 de Abril": Alegações do Ministério Público (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Ministério da Justiça. 1987.
- Jornal "O Expresso", 27 de Maio de 1989, p9R a 12R
- O Semanário newspaper, November 1, 1985
- "O Semanário" newspaper, June 22, 1985, p15
- "Diário de Notícias"newspaper, 21 de Junho de 1984, p4
- "A Grande Reportagem" weekly magazine, 21 de Março de 1985, p30
- ^ Pereirinha, Sónia Simões, Tânia. "FP-25 de Abril. O processo judicial que foi desaparecendo aos poucos". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Otelo e as suas duas mulheres". Correio de Manhã. Correio de Manhã. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- ^ Otelo. "FP-25 foram "choque grande e um prejuízo total"". Retrieved 26 January 2018.
- (in Portuguese) «Se soubesse como o País ia ficar, não fazia a revolução», Destak.pt (13 April 2011)
- (in Portuguese) <<Otelo: precisamos de um homem honesto como Salazar>>, in Diário de Notícias (21 April 2011)
- "Morreu Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho" (in Portuguese). Observador. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "Morreu Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, o capitão de abril com o "coração junto da boca"" (in Portuguese). DN.PT. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "Morreu o capitão de Abril Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho". TSF Rádio Notícias (in Portuguese). 25 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- Tavares, João Francisco Gomes, Rita. "Morreu Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 25 July 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - (in Portuguese) O 'mistério' do 25 de Novembro de 1975, José Manuel Barroso, in Diário de Notícias (21 November 2006)
- "Grandes Portugueses". RTP. RTP. 2006. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- "Cinco meses que mudaram Portugal". Goodreads. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "Contribuicao para uma alternativa popular a crise da economia in Portugal". Arnold Bergstaesser. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "O povo é quem mais ordena". Goodreads. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "Memorias de abril". Goodreads. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- "Alvorada em Abril". Goodreads. Retrieved 25 July 2021.