Power of synthesis (are the armed forces right-wing?)

Today my mobile phone froze and no one could figure out what to do. Until someone completely turned off the device, counted to 20 (slowly), with great discussions about that time interval, and, when turning it back on, the device came back as good as new. It is the so-called “Portuguese” method: turn-it-off-and-on-again.

A friend of ours, who was there, Portuguese, upon realizing that we called the method by his gentilic, came out with this:

_ yes, of course, it is simple and efficient.

Our motherland manages to produce wonderful syntheses: Fernando Pessoa, Bocage, Camões, Torga, and others can attest to that.

As one thing leads to another, we remembered that, in 1974, until March 15, General Emílio Garrastazu Médici reigned in Brazil, and then passed the scepter to General Ernesto Geisel, who would remain until Mar 1979.

The then so-called “leftists” here were against the military here, whom they accused of being sellouts and privatizers, and they spoke in favor of the nationalization of the economy, as if right-wing and military were one and the same thing.

It was hard to understand the speeches and the actions, after all, never had so many state-owned companies been created: Petrobras, Portobrás, Eletrobrás, Embratel, Nuclebrás, EMBRAPA, Vale, steel companies, EMBRAER, Albrás, in short, when they were not state-owned, they were almost so.

To make it more confusing there was BRADESCO, Brastemp, the Brastel stores, the neighborhoods of Brás de Pina in Rio and Brás in Sampa. They were not state-owned but sounded like they were. At SABESP there was even a director named Brás Juliano.

So, it was only for Geisel to take office here and, in less than 45 days, on Apr 25, 1974, a “coup” or “revolution” broke out in Portugal, known as the “Carnation Revolution”. Initially, at least in discourse, with a left-wing bias, and a military junta took over, interrupting about 50 years of civil dictatorial government, so-called Salazarist (since 1926). There was a period of boiling over but, in Apr 1976, a new constitution was declared in Portugal.

A curious dichotomous situation was then created: in Brazil, the military were “damned right-wing capitalist dictators”; in Portugal, it was the opposite. But, by then, the lucid already knew that what matters is not the facts, but the version of the facts. It is up to thinking beings to analyze and draw their conclusions. The others are actors or audience.

All this because I remembered that it was around that time (1975-1976) that, accompanying a delegation from the new Portuguese government, a colonel on active duty appeared in Brazil to explain the novelties from across the sea, whose name we shall remember in due time, but is of little importance. Let us say his name was Colonel Guedes.

The Brazilian press was enchanted with the situation, military men of another feather around here, and they went to interview this Guedes, who did not shy away and answered what he was asked.

At a certain point, a group of heavyweight journalists (Correio da Manhã, Estadão, Fôlha, JB, O Globo, Gazeta, etc.), both worried and excited, asked the question they had long agreed among themselves to cause frisson, gossip and intrigue:

_ Colonel Guedes, and if Portugal becomes a communist country, what will the armed forces do?

And Guedes, without blinking and without noticing the malice contained in the question:

_ they will be the armed forces of a communist country

And he said no more, nor was he asked anything else.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Engineering # written in Nov 2024 R2025 Sep Rb, 3,208 characters.