The Battle of the Barracks

The former comrades-in-arms of Portugal's military revolution are beginning to look more and more like opposing forces. Last week all military units in northern Portugal were placed on strict alert and confined to barracks following the mutiny of an artillery regiment near the city of Oporto. The 650 mutineers at the Serra do Pilar Regiment ran a red banner up the flagpole and demanded the dismissal of the region's new anti-Communist military commander, General Antonio Pires Veloso. They also demanded an end to what they called "purges" of leftists from the barracks and the reopening of a leftist-controlled military-transport center that had been shut down on orders from Pires Veloso the previous week. The general responded by threatening to bomb the rebels out of the occupied barracks. When the leftist soldiers, in control of 700 tons of light arms and ammunition, refused to move, General Pires Veloso backed down and called off the alert. By week's end clashes between civilian supporters and opponents of the soldiers had resulted in more than 50 injuries.

The mutiny at Oporto provoked a flurry of other military and civilian protests. The demand for "internal democracy" within the armed forces--meaning the right of the troops to debate every military decision--was asserted by regiments throughout the country. At the headquarters of the 1st Light Artillery Regiment outside Lisbon, hundreds of left-wing soldiers, sailors and airmen gathered to protest what they called Premier Jose Pinheiro de Azevedo's attempt to restore "a right-wing dictatorship under the cover of social democracy." The mutinous military men joined some 3,000 civilians chanting such slogans as "Fascists out of the barracks."

The forces challenging Pinheiro de Azevedo's attempt to restore discipline represent a mixed bag of revolutionary groups. Their capacity for disruption is at this point much greater than their numbers would seem to warrant. The political far left (see box page 36) is made up of several fringe political parties, six of which have banded together as the United Revolutionary Front. The radical military leftists, who have organized themselves illegally into a group called Soldiers United Victorious (SUV), probably represent no more than 6% of the total armed forces. They are concentrated in the Lisbon area, and may control as many as half of the eight units stationed near the capital. Many of the 30,000 weapons that have been stolen from the military in the past year are believed to have passed from leftist soldiers to members of the United Revolutionary Front.

Some Italians. For the first time last week, there was talk of a third unsettling element in Portugal: an international brigade of revolutionaries who have come to support the country's radical left. Pinheiro de Azevedo estimated their numbers at 2,500 so far, and says that they are mostly South Americans, particularly Chileans, and some Italians.

The combined force of the civilian and military far left could create a situation disruptive enough to topple Pinheiro de Azevedo's moderate-leftist coalition government. Socialist Party Leader Mario Scares last week warned that if military discipline was not firmly established soon, "we will find ourselves in a state of chaos in which no one knows who has power and who can govern." The Communists, who were given only one Cabinet seat in the new government to four for the Socialists and two for the moderate Popular Democrats, plainly enjoyed the wave of military unrest.

Far Right. The government is also concerned these days about the far right, which Pinheiro de Azevedo describes as "ten times more dangerous" than the radical left. Right-wing terrorists recently claimed responsibility for seven bombs that exploded throughout the country one weekend late last month. The Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal (M.D.L.P.), which counts former President Antonio de Spinola among its exiled leaders, claims as many as 40,000 members. One Madrid-based M.D.L.P. leader, Alpoim Calv`ao, has boasted that his liberation army will be marching into Lisbon by Christmas.

Pinheiro de Azevedo (see following story) has responded to the threat of an archy with unexpected firmness. When the admiral was first named Premier, many regarded him simply as the malleable crony of President Francisco da Costa Gomes. He has proved to be, in the words of one Western diplomat, "an old sea dog who occasionally likes to see his orders carried out." Taking advantage of Costa Gomes' recent trip to Moscow, the admiral asserted his temporary one-man rule by clamping down on radical leftist broadcasters and military dissidents (TIME, Oct. 13). When Portugal's radical Security Chief Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho led a leftist mob to the Premier's palace three weeks ago, the admiral handled what might have turned into an on-the-spot coup by simply ordering his aides to "throw the fool out."

Pinheiro de Azevedo, however, lacks an independent political base, and his ability to restore order in Portugal depends largely on the support he receives from a few key figures. Since his return from the U.S.S.R., President Costa Gomes has taken up the admiral's cry of

"Discipline, discipline." But confrontation is not the President's natural style, and he might well jump the admiral's ship if the leftists within the army continue to gain strength. The past 18 months have shown Saraiva de Carvalho's political allegiances to be too mercurial for prediction. Although still within the coalition, the Communists have already begun to temper their support. Yet the Premier apparently can still count on the backing of the very powerful Revolutionary Council of the Armed Forces Movement; at week's end, it reaffirmed "its support of the government in its efforts to resolve the crisis."

Meanwhile, the government was getting promises of more help from outside of Portugal. Last week, the White House announced that it will send to Congress a proposed $55 million emergency aid package for Portugal. Similarly, the nine foreign ministers of the European Economic Community agreed last week to grant Portugal $187 million in longterm, low-interest loans.

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