Portugal: State Secret

Austere old Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is still unaware that he was replaced 15 months ago while in a deep coma following a stroke—and he may never find out. No one in Portugal has so far been able to summon up the nerve to tell the old man that his 36-year reign is over. The task of preventing Salazar from finding out has fallen chiefly to his housekeeper, Dona Maria de Jesus Caetano Freire, and his physician. They deny him newspapers and television, explaining that such diversions would “tire” him. They schedule meetings with his former Cabinet ministers, who politely ignore his directives. They even admit some journalists if they promise not to reveal that Marcello Caetano is now Premier. On several occasions, Rear Admiral Américo de Deus Rodrigues Thomaz, Portugal’s figurehead President since 1958, has tried to break the news gently to Salazar, who at 80 is lucid but semi-paralyzed. Each time, Dona Maria recently told a friend, Thomaz approached the old Premier’s Lisbon quarters “with the firm intention of telling the truth. But he can’t find the words.”