Azores Liberation Front

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The Azores Liberation Front, more commonly known as FLA (Portuguese: Frente de Libertação dos Açores) was a right-wing terrorist paramilitary organisation with independentist goals that appeared in the Azores, right after the Carnation Revolution, that made violent attacks in 1975.

The organisation, which appeared in 1974 became very popular during the PREC (the first months after the revolution). As the Communists accumulated more power, fear of Portugal becoming a pro-Soviet puppet state started to grow and was incitivated by the right-wing. Besides, the PREC (with its nationalization policies) became very unpopular among Azorean farmers and industrialists, mostly from São Miguel island who organised themselves to resist the "red danger".

Even though the organisation gained some support for some time, it was virtually dead by the end of the 70's. Autonomy was granted to the Azores and Madeira (where a similar organization existed, the Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago da Madeira) by the Constitution of 1976, cooling the explosive situation, and the communist threat was slowly eroding.

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