On Tuesday, the Prime Minister emphasized the universality of the values of democracy and freedom in a speech in which he said history shows that dictatorships always have an end and that a united people will never be defeated.
These principled positions were outlined by António Costa after the unveiling of a bust of former Chilean President Salvador Allende at the Arroyos metro station in Praça do Chile in Lisbon by sculptor Margarida Santos.
After an initial intervention by Chile’s Ambassador to Portugal Marina Tetelboim, in which she recalled the “example” of the socialist Salvador Allende, who committed suicide before being caught by General Augusto Pinochet’s military during the September 11, 1973 coup, the Portuguese Chief Executive supported the thesis “failure of dictatorial therapy” in South American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.
As founder and former leader of the Left Bloc Francisco Luzán and communist leader João Ferreira, among other political figures, listened to him, the prime minister noted that he had recently visited Santiago de Chile at the invitation of the head of the Chilean government. State Gabriel Borich at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état that overthrew the democracy of Salvador Allende and established the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
“Chile, unfortunately, this decade [de 70 do século passado], was just one of the countries that experienced the violence of so-called dictator therapy throughout Latin America. A painfully contagious failure,” he said.
António Costa went on to welcome “all those who fight for freedom and democracy” in the world, briefly spoke about the historical ties between Portugal and Chile, and recalled that Chile had given Portugal a statue of Fernão Magalhães.
Drawing a parallel between Fernão Magalhães and Salvador Allende, he said the ceremony in the Lisbon metro “honors the honor of another man who contributed to the circumnavigation of the world, not physically, but more importantly: the circumnavigation of the values of freedom and democracy.”
“As they shouted in Chile and as they shouted in Portugal on April 25, 1974, a united people will never be defeated,” the prime minister said in Portuguese and Spanish, with the late writer’s wife Pilar del Rio at his side. Jose Saramago.