The conversation that convinced Melo Antunes to stay was at Café Londres, in Lisbon, where, before leaving for the Azores, he elaborated the programmatic bases of the MFA.

The failed coup that almost left the revolution without an ideologist

The failure of March 16th was a blow to the troops' morale. "In the middle of that disaster", Otelo recalled, it was still necessary to avoid another one: the departure of the "essential piece" for the programmatic bases of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) and of the revolution itself, Ernesto Melo Antunes.

Right after March 16th, Vítor Alves contacted Otelo to ask him to "reassure Melo Antunes", who, unhappy with what had happened that day, had decided to abandon the movement.

On March 18th, at Café Londres, in the square of the same name in Lisbon, the three met, with Melo Antunes already "with his bags packed" to board for the Azores in four days, where his wife was from and where he had requested a transfer for over a year.

"He had made that request, and it was only after March 16th that he obtained the transfer to the Azores. It was the government itself that took advantage of that transfer request to kick him out of here. On March 18th, Vítor Alves and I met with Melo Antunes and he immediately tells me. 'Hey man, Vítor Alves has already told you, I abandoned the movement, I'm not there anymore. I'm not available for games like March 16th. I'm not available for that, so I'm out'. And I told him: 'Hey man, Melo Antunes, Vítor Alves has already talked to me about that, but you can't abandon the movement, because within the army, at least from what I know, no one has the experience, nor the political appetite that you have, which led you to even be a candidate for the opposition in the 1969 parliamentary elections. You are the man with the greatest political capital that I know, who is active. Therefore, you can't do that'", Otelo appealed.

Faced with the "but I'm not available for this type of adventure" that he heard in response, Otelo was forced to a 'mea culpa' and promised that he would leave the MFA meeting, scheduled for the 24th, with a "final decision". Which one? "To overthrow the government by force. And we will execute a military operation that I guarantee will be an absolute success", Otelo assured.

"Ernesto, what I ask of you is that you stay in the movement. You're going to the Azores, but before you go to the Azores, you're going to elaborate a political program, some programmatic bases that we can have in hand to support the military action, which I'm convinced will be victorious", Otelo asked.

Melo Antunes reconsidered: "But I don't have time anymore. On the night of the 22nd, I have to be at the airport to leave for Ponta Delgada".

Otelo countered: "Hey man, you have today, the 19th, 20th, 21st. You have three days. Make the programmatic bases, deliver it to Vítor Alves".

Melo Antunes agreed, but asked for a meeting before boarding to read his work.

"'Yes, sir. We scheduled the meeting for the night of the 22nd, Saturday at Vítor Alves' house'. We had the meeting, Melo Antunes read the programmatic bases, all the guys: 'Yes, sir, it's excellent'. Vítor Alves was in possession of the programmatic bases", Otelo recalled.

The revolution had to go on the radio

Otelo still had one more request to make to Melo Antunes before he left for the Azores: "Hey Ernesto, before you go to the airport, do you know any journalist, someone who is connected to a radio program, or on Rádio Renascença, or on Emissora Nacional, or on Rádio Clube?"

A nationwide radio was essential in the revolution's plans. Melo Antunes didn't know anyone on the radio, but he knew who could know. A journalist friend, Álvaro Guerra, from the newspaper República, went to the airport to say goodbye to him, and he would be introduced to Almada Contreiras before boarding.

"And Álvaro Guerra immediately volunteered to our comrade. He had a colleague at República who collaborated on a program on Rádio Renascença. And that's how we got, through Álvaro Guerra, to Carlos Albino, who was a collaborator on the program 'Limite' on Rádio Renascença", Otelo recalled.

The password that escaped censorship

"Almada Contreiras tells me today that the idea of 'Grândola, Vila Morena' came from him. I wanted it to be a song by Zeca Afonso, which was more assertive, more appealing, in terms of the left, but the songs that I proposed and that Costa Martins also proposed were on the censorship index. They were 'Venham mais cinco' or 'Traz outro amigo também'. They couldn't go on the air, because the censor was in the studio", Otelo recalled.

To get around censorship, they remembered 'Grândola, Vila Morena', "because it had been sung by Zeca Afonso, with Fausto and José Jorge Letria and Vitorino, at the Coliseu, at the Casa da Imprensa concert, which had taken place on March 29th or 30th, around that time".

Otelo had nothing to object to: "When they came to ask me if it could be, I: 'Delighted! Grândola, Vila Morena, I had the record at home, great! 'The people are the ones who order the most, within you oh city', it's going well, yes sir, let's go'".

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