Iberian Dictatorships

Archive Report

Winds of Change in Portugal and Spain

Signals of Warning for Salazar and Franco

Unchanging iberia—stronghold of the West's most enduring dictatorships—is being forced to take notice of the world around it. External economic and political forces are combining with persistent undercurrents of domestic political opposition to produce grudging attempts in both Portugal and Spain to adapt to the revolutionary changes taking place in the world.

In Portugal, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, premier since 1932 and in effect dictator since 1928,1 has long been faced with domestic opposition of a sporadic, unorganized nature, which he has repeatedly quelled by harsh repressive measures or simply by paying no attention and waiting for it to evaporate. These tactics had been so effective that a British observer wrote early in ...

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