Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, GCL (pron. IPA [ɔ'tɛlu sɐ'ɾaivɐ dɨ kɐɾ'vaʎu]) (31 August 1936 - ) is a Portuguese former military officer who was the chief strategist of the 25 April Revolution.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho was born in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, Mozambique. Named by his theatre-minded parents (his father was a civil servant and his mother a railway clerk) after Shakespeare's Othello, he had his secondary education at a state school in Maputo. He entered the Military Academy in Lisbon at the age of nineteen.

Carvalho spent many years in the colonial war in Africa. He served in Angola in 1961 - 1963 as a second lieutenant, and as a captain in 1965 - 1967. He was posted to Guinea-Bissau in 1970 as a captain, under General António de Spínola, in charge of civilian affairs and propaganda ('Hearts and Minds').

He joined the underground Movement of Armed Forces (Movimento das Forças Armadas - MFA), which carried out a Coup d'état on 25 April 1974, in which he played a directing role. His part in the bloodless release of the country from the fascist dictatorship was recognised by people of other political viewpoints. Carvalho was part of the Committee of National Salvation that governed the country after the Carnation Revolution, as the upheaval came to be called.

In July 1974 Carvalho 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 the course of 1975 infighting in the MFA intensified, Carvalho representing the left-wing of the movement. A right-wing putsch attempt, led by Spinola 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 Costa Gomes and Vasco Gonçalves, formed the Directório (Directorate).

On 25 November 1975 a military putsch under António Ramalho Eanes started a counter-revolution which, however, did not take the country back to fascism. Demoted to Major, Carvalho was arrested on charges of abuse of power. Released after 44 days in prison, he was again arrested in October 1976. After 20 days in jail, he was released and suspended from duty.

In 1976 and 1980 Carvalho unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for president against Eanes. In 1982 he was recalled to the army, since it was shown that his discharge had been politically motivated. In 1984 he was arrested and accused of contact with or membership of the group Popular Forces 25 April (FP-25 Abril) (Portuguese:Forças Populares 25 Abril), which allegedly committed assassination attempts in Portugal in the following years. His trial was controversial and his allies assumed it to be motivated by revenge. In 1989 he was amnestied and a resumption of the procedure was struck down because of an obvious lack of evidence. Since then he has been a small-businessmen.

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho is still an icon for activists of the left in Portugal.

[edit] Electoral results

[edit] Presidential Elections of 27 June 1976

Portuguese Presidential Election, 1976 - First Round (June 27)
Candidate Party Votes %
António Ramalho Eanes
Independent
2,967,137 60.8%
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho
Independent
792,760 16.2%
Pinheiro de Azevedo
Independent
692,147 14.2%
Octávio Pato
PCP
365,586 07.5%
Invalid Ballots 43,242 00.9%
Blank Ballots 20,253 00.4%
Total: 4,881,125 -
  • Registed voters: 6,467,480
  • Turnout: 75.47%

[edit] Presidential Elections of 7 December 1980

Portuguese Presidential Election, 1980 - First Round (December 7)
Candidate Party Vote Percent
Ramalho Eanes
Independent
3,262,520 55.9%
Soares Carneiro
PSD
2,325,481 39.8%
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho
Left-Wing Independent
85,896 1.5%
Carlos Galvão de Melo
Right-Wing Independent
48,468 0.8%
António Pires Veloso
Independent
45,132 0.8%
Aires Rodrigues
POUS
12,745 0.2%
Carlos Brito
PCP (left the race)
0 0.0%
Invalid Ballots 44,014 0.8%
Blank Ballots 16,076 0.3%
Total: 5,840,332 -
  • Registered Voters: 6,920,869
  • Turnout: 84.39%

[edit] External links

In other languages