The
Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado or
PIDE (
International and State Defence Police), was the main tool of
repressionPolitical repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the political life of society....
used by the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, the
Estado NovoEstado Novo is the name of the Portuguese authoritarian regime installed in 1933, following the army-led coup d'état of 28 May 1926 against the democratic First Republic. The Estado Novo was developed by António de Oliveira Salazar, ruler of Portugal from 1932 to 1968...
.
Although the name PIDE was only used from 1945 to 1969, the whole network of
secret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state....
forces which existed during the 40 years of the regime are commonly known as PIDE.
PVDE
The origins of PIDE can be traced to 1933, the year of the inauguration of the
Estado Novo. Under direct orders from Salazar himself, the PVDE (
Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado; "State Defence and Surveillance Police") was created, with two main sections:
- Social and Political Defence section, which was used to prevent and repress crimes of a political and social nature (see: Censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
)
- International Section, which was used to control the entrance of immigrants, to expel undesirable immigrants and to take care of counter-espionage and/or international espionage
In 1936, the
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
of
TarrafalTarrafal was a prison camp in Cape Verde, then a Portuguese colony, set up by the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar before World War II , where anti-fascist opponents of his right-wing regime were sent...
was created in the Portuguese
colonyIn politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their...
of
Cape VerdeThe Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa, opposite Mauritania and Senegal....
. This camp, under the direct control of the PVDE, was the destination for those political prisoners considered dangerous by the regime. Throughout the more than 40 years of the
Estado Novo, 32 people lost their lives in Tarrafal, which was known for its severe methods of
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
.
Also in 1936, with the beginning of the
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
and in 1937 with the attempt against Salazar's life by anarchist militants, the PVDE started focusing its battle against
CommunismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
and the underground
Portuguese Communist PartyThe Portuguese Communist Party , or PCP, is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist.The party was founded in 1921 as the Portuguese...
. During this pre-
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
period, several
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
advisors came to Portugal to help the PVDE to adopt a model similar to the
GestapoThe was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning in April 1934, it was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel under Heinrich Himmler in his position as leader of the SS and Chief of German Police...
.
During the war, the PVDE experienced its most intense period of activity.
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
was the
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an centre of
espionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
and one of the favourite
exileExile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return...
destinations. Writers such as
Ian FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author and journalist. Fleming is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories...
(the creator of
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
) were based there, while other prominent people such as the
Duke of WindsorThe peerage title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for The Prince Edward, formerly King of the United Kingdom as well as each of the other Commonwealth realms...
and the
Spanish Royal FamilyThe Monarchy of Spain, constitutionally referred to as de la Corona de España, and commonly referred to as the Spanish Monarchy , is the constitutional institution and office comprising of a king or of a queen regnant of Spain , their legal spouse and family , and the Royal...
were exiled in Estoril. German spies attempted to buy information on trans-Atlantic
shippingShipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
to help their
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
s fight the Battle of the Atlantic. The Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia, better known as
Codename GarboGarbo was the British codename of Juan Pujol García MBE , a double agent who played a key role in the success of Operation Fortitude, the deception operation intended to mislead the Germans about the timing and location of the invasion of Normandy towards the end of World War II...
, passed on misinformation to the Germans, hoping it would hasten the end of the
FrancoFrancisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
regime - he was recruited by Britain as a
double agentDouble agent is a counterintelligence term for someone who pretends to spy on a target organization on behalf of a controlling organization, but in fact is loyal to the target organization...
while in Lisbon. Conversely,
William ColepaughWilliam Curtis Colepaugh was an American who, following his 1943 discharge from the US Naval Reserve , defected to Nazi Germany in 1944. While a crewman on a United States Merchant Marine ship that stopped off in Lisbon, Colepaugh defected at the German consulate...
, an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
traitor, was recruited as an
agentSecret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young...
by the Germans while his ship was in port in Lisbon - he was subsequently landed by
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
U-1230U-1230 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.Laid down on 15 March 1943 at the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg, and commissioned on 26 January 1944 under the command of Kptlt...
in
MaineThe State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of...
before being captured. In June 1943, a commercial
airlinerAn airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such planes are owned by airlines....
carrying the
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Leslie HowardLeslie Howard Steiner , better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer...
was shot down over the
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay or the Cantabrian Sea is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea...
by the
LuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.Schweizer Luftwaffe is also the name of the Swiss Air...
after taking off from Lisbon, possibly because German spies in Lisbon believed that
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
was on board.
Several
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
reports called Lisbon "The Capital of Espionage". However, the PVDE always maintained a neutral stance towards foreign espionage activity, as long as no one intervened in Portuguese internal policies.
PIDE
In 1945, the PVDE was dissolved and replaced by the PIDE. Unlike its predecessor, which sought inspiration in the Gestapo, PIDE followed the
Scotland YardNew Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for law enforcement within Greater London, excluding the City district, which is covered by the City of London Police....
model. As a section of the
Polícia JudiciáriaThe Polícia Judiciária is the main police branch of criminal investigation in Portugal, dedicated to fighting criminality, organized crime, terrorism, drugs, corruption and financial crimes...
(Investigation Police), it had full powers to investigate, detain and arrest anyone who was thought to be plotting against the State. It had two main functions:
- Administrative functions (which included those related to the migration services)
- Criminal repression functions
PIDE is considered by many authors as being one of the most functional and effective
secret serviceBecause of both the secrecy of secret services and the controversial nature of the issues involved, there is some difficulty in separating the definitions of secret service, secret police, intelligence agency etc....
s in history. Using a wide network of covert cells, which were spread throughout Portugal and its overseas territories, PIDE had infiltrated agents into almost every underground movement, including the Portuguese Communist Party as well as the independence movements in
AngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean. The exclave province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of the...
and
MozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
. The PIDE encouraged citizens - the so-called
bufos (snitches) - to denounce suspicious activities, through the use of monetary and prestige incentives. This resulted in an extremely effective espionage service which was able to fully control almost every aspect of Portuguese daily life. Thousands of Portuguese were arrested and tortured in PIDE's prisons.
The PIDE intensified its actions during the
Portuguese Colonial WarColonial war is a form of conflict fought between the foreign occupiers of colony and the colony's indigenous population, colonists, or the military forces of a rival colonial power....
, creating a successful paramilitary unit called
FlechasFlechas were a Portuguese special forces unit created during the Portuguese Colonial War. Flechas were platoon-sized units consisting of local tribesmen and rebel defectors who specialised in tracking, reconnaissance and pseudo-terrorist operations...
(Arrows). Yves Guérin-Sérac, a former officer of the
French ArmyThe French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest. As of 2008, the army employs 133,947 regular soldiers and 24 000+ civilians...
and founder of the
OASThe Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...
right-wing terrorist group during the
Algerian War of IndependenceThe Algerian War, also known as the Algerian War of Independence or in , was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France...
(1954-62), set up "
Aginter PressAginter Press was a pseudo press agency set up in Lisbon, Portugal in September 1966, under Oliveira Salazar's dictatorship...
" in Lisbon and participated with the PIDE in
covert operationA covert operation is a military, intelligence, or political activity carried out in such a way that the identity of the sponsors of the operation is concealed or kept secret...
s.
DGS
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS (
Direcção Geral de Segurança, "General Security Directorate"). The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at
democratizationDemocratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system...
, in order to avoid popular insurgency against
censorshipCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights. This resulted in a decrease in the perceived level of
violenceViolence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects . Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern...
used by the secret police and a consequent reduction in its effectiveness.
End of PIDE/DGS
The most dramatic moments of the
Carnation RevolutionThe Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril, was a left-leaning military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, that effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy after two years of a transitional period known as PREC ,...
occurred near the PIDE/DGS headquarters, in the infamous António Maria Cardoso Street. Unidentified agents opened fire from the top of the building, killing four demonstrators.
This was the last strategic point to be occupied by the insurgents, thus leading to the escape of the agents and the destruction of most of the records. In the days following the revolution, most escaped to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
or went underground. Some of the archives were reportedly handed over by the Portuguese Communist Party to
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
agents.
After being
sanitized, the corporation continued its operations in the Portuguese colonies under the name of the Military Information Police (
Polícia de Informação Militar).
A commission was created for the extinction of the secret police. The remainder of the documents since 1990 are in the Torre do Tombo National Archive. They can be consulted, but the names of agents and informers are not disclosed.
The only PIDE agents who faced trial were those responsible for the death of exiled opposition leader
Humberto DelgadoHumberto da Silva Delgado, GCL was a General of the Portuguese Air Force and politician. He was the son of Joaquim Delgado and wife Maria do Ó Pereira and had three younger sisters, Deolinda, Aida and Lídia.He began his military career by joining Colégio Militar in 1916...
. They were trialed
in absentiaIn absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.-In absentia in common law legal systems:...
and the case dragged on for several years. None of them ever served time in jail.
Because of the memory of the abuses of the PIDE/DGS in supporting the regime the establishment of a new civilian intelligence agency was delayed for more than a decade. However, following a terrorist attack on the Embassy of
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
and the assassination of a
Palestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization founded in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United...
representative at a
Socialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of democratic socialist, social democratic, socialist, and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
conference in 1983, and a number of domestic terrorist attacks, the
Portuguese governmentThe Government is one of the four sovereignty organs of the Portuguese Republic. It is also the organ that conducts politics in general in the country and is also the superior body in public administration...
became convinced of the need for a new intelligence agency. This led to the establishment of the
Sistema de Informações da República PortuguesaThe Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa is the coordinating structure of Portuguese intelligence...
(SIRP, Intelligence System of the Portuguese Republic) in 1984.
See also
- Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa
The Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa is the coordinating structure of Portuguese intelligence...
- OPS
For the Public Safety agency see : Department of Public SafetyThe Office of Public Safety was a US government agency, established in 1957 by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to train foreign police forces . It officially depended of the USAID , and was close to the Central Intelligence Agency...
(http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Torture/Hidden_Terrors_4.html)
- Portuguese Legion (Estado Novo)
The Portuguese Legion was a Portuguese paramilitary state organization founded in 1936 during dictator António de Oliveira Salazar's right-wing regime, the Estado Novo. It was dissolved in 1974....
- Flechas
Flechas were a Portuguese special forces unit created during the Portuguese Colonial War. Flechas were platoon-sized units consisting of local tribesmen and rebel defectors who specialised in tracking, reconnaissance and pseudo-terrorist operations...
- List of defunct intelligence agencies
- Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state....
External links