The Azores: Unrest in a Way Station

The nine inhabited islands of the Azores archipelago (pop. 300,000) look like a setting for a Graham Greene novel. Sheer rocky cliffs drop abruptly to the Atlantic, while the lush, subtropical countryside spreads out in a crazy quilt of farm plots separated by rock fences. Late each day, young and old alike gather under plane trees in the colorful town squares to catch a little relief from the heat and oppressive humidity, and to talk.

These days the talk is likely to turn quickly to the question of independence. As mainland Portugal drifts toward leftism, the conservative Azorians are beginning to think so seriously about establishing a breakaway nation that some are already calling the islands the Atlantic Republic of the Azores and Madeira.

Until recently, independence had been an issue for only a few malcontents. Now and then somebody would scrawl the initials F.L.A.--for Frentede Libertac,ao Ac,oriana, the Azorian Liberation Front--across a road.

Lately the movement has gathered momentum. Mimeographed sheets demand: "Out with the political dogs, out with the oppressive parasites, out with the sailors, out with the Communists and officers." In June, when 3,000 people on Sao Miguel Island protested the low prices that farmers were getting for their milk from the mainland, the demonstration turned into a minor rebellion; the rioters seized the radio station and Huberto Delgado Airport and held them for six hours.

A clandestine organization with no single known leader, the F.L.A. gets its support mostly from middle-class and wealthy islanders. Their complaints center on two points: 1) that Azorians are not only patronized by the mainland Portuguese as dumb country cousins, but also pay higher taxes and higher prices than the "continentals," and 2) that the Lisbon government is drifting too far to the left. In last April's election, the Azores gave the centrist Popular Democratic Party 60% of the vote, the Socialists 25% and the Communists less than 2%.

All this would not be particularly noteworthy were it not for the Azores' strategic importance. Situated 1,000 miles west of Lisbon and 2,500 miles east of New York, the islands have been a way station for travelers since Portuguese navigators first discovered and began colonizing them around 1430. During World War II, they were the main stopover for prop planes going to and from Southern Europe, and the islands were nicknamed "the Grand Central Station of the Atlantic." Shortly after the war, the U.S. took over the old British base on Terceira Island, known as Lajes Field. Washington currently keeps 1,500 American military personnel there to keep tabs on Soviet submarines and operate a refueling station for military cargo planes.

Lisbon has said that it is willing to renew the U.S. lease on Lajes Field, but has ruled out the use of the base in the event of a new Middle East war. (U.S. Air Force C-5A, C-130 and C-141 cargo planes carrying arms to Israel refueled at Lajes during the October 1973 war; Portugal suffered a total oil embargo by the Arabs.) Nonetheless, even the head of the local Communist Party concedes: "There is no sentiment for or against the Americans. Eventually we would prefer not to have any base --American, Russian or Arab. But the people fear the loss of the base. For now, the jobs are important."

There have been angry charges from Lisbon that the independence movement is an American plot. In fact, F.L.A. leaders are known to have asked for American support, but U.S. officials have steered clear. So have the islands' most respected political leaders, who worry that the Azores' modest economy could not survive alone.

In the end, what happens in the Azores will probably depend a great deal on what happens in Lisbon. As one F.L.A. leader put it: "If the mainland goes Communist, the Azores will become independent." The two inhabited islands of Madeira, which gave only 1.6% of their vote to the Communists, would probably break away too. Conversely, if Lisbon does not go too far to the left, the Azorians may just settle back to another 500-plus years of peaceful dependency.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.