LA PIDE. POLICIA POLITICA PORTUGUESA.

BREVE HISTORIA

The International and State Defense Police (Portuguese: Polícia Internacional e

de Defesa do Estado; PIDE) was a Portuguesesecurity agency that existed during
the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of
the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigration control and internal and
external state security. Over time, it came to be known for itssecret police activities.
The agency that would later become the PIDE was established by the Decree-Law
22992 of August 1933, as the State Surveillance and Defense Police (Polícia de
Vigilância e Defesa do Estado) or PVDE. It resulted from the merger of two former
agencies, the Portuguese International Police and the Political and Social Defense
Police.
PVDE was founded by Captain Agostinho Lourenço, who in 1956 would become
the President of Interpol.
The PVDE was transformed into the PIDE in 1945. PIDE was itself transformed
into the Directorate-General of Security or DGSin 1968. After the 25 April
1974 Carnation Revolution, DGS was disbanded in Portugal, but continued to exist
transitionally in thePortuguese overseas territories as the Military Information
Police or PIM, being finally completely disbanded in 1975.
Although the acronym PIDE was only formally used from 1945 to 1969, the set of
successive secret polices that existed during the 40 years of the Estado
Novo regime are commonly referred to as the PIDE. Historically, this set of police
agencies is also often referred as PIDE/DGS, from the acronyms of its two last
designations. It is referred to in this last way in article 292 of thePortuguese
Constitution, which states its criminalization and judgment of its former officers.
During its existence, the organization was known for its actions during the Spanish
Civil War, its role as a political police, itscounter-espionage activities during World
War II and its counter-insurgency operations in the Portuguese Colonial War.[1][2]
History
Background[
During the Portuguese First Republic and the following Ditadura Nacional regimes,
the police services were reorganized several times, with the remote ancestors of
PIDE appearing.
In 1918, the police services were organized as an umbrella organization named
Civic Police, which started to include two agencies that were the remote ancestors
of the PIDE: the Preventive Police and the Emigration Police. The first agency was
a secret police responsible for the State security. The Preventive Police would
become the State Security Police in 1919, the Social Defense Police in April 1919,
and the Preventive and State Security Police in October 1919. The Emigration
Police was an agency responsible for the border and migration control, with a
special focus in the fight against illegal emigration.
After the 28 May 1926 coup d'état and the establishment of the military Ditadura
Nacional, the Preventive and State Security Police was disbanded. However, soon
after, two similar agencies were created, the Lisbon Information Police and the
Porto Information Police, respectively under the control of the civil governor of
Lisbon and the civil governor of Porto. In 1928, the two agencies were merged into
a single Information Police under the direct control of the Minister of the Interior. In
the same year, the Portuguese International Police was created as a section of the
Information Police, succeeding the former Emigration Police. In 1931, the
Information Police was disbanded and the Portuguese International Police became
autonomous, under the direct control of the Minister of the Interior. In 1932, the
Political and Social Surveillance Section of the Portuguese International Police was
created, with the same role of the former Information Police.
With Salazar in office as prime minister, the Political and Social Surveillance
Section became autonomous in January 1933, as the Political and Social
Surveillance Police. The Portuguese International Police and the Political and
Social Surveillance Police would merge in August 1933, as the PVDE.
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 Surveillance and
State Defence (Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado) or PVDE 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)
 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.
PVDE was founded and led by Captain Agostinho Lourenço. According to
Professor Douglas Wheeler "an analysis of Lourenco's career suggest[s] strongly
that British Intelligence Services' influence had an impact on the structure and
activity of PVDE". Lourenço had earned a reputation with British observers,
recorded in a confidential document generated at the British Embassy, which
suggested a "pro-British" bias on his part. Lourenço always kept a good
relationship with the MI6, which helped him to become the head of the international
police organization Interpol in 1956.
In 1936, the prison of Tarrafal was created in the Portuguese colony of Cape
Verde. This camp, under the direct control of the PVDE, was the destination for
those political prisoners considered dangerous by the regime. Among the first
prisoners were the convicted sailors from the 1936 Naval Revolt. The sailors,
affiliated with the Communist Party, had attempted to sail two Portuguese Navy
ships out of Lisbon to join the Spanish Republican forces fighting in Spain.
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 torture.
Also in 1936, with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and in 1937 with the
attempt against Salazar's life by anarchist terrorists, the PVDE started focusing its
battle againstcommunism and the underground Portuguese Communist Party.
During this pre-World War II period, several Italian and German advisers came to
Portugal to help the PVDE adopt a model similar to the Gestapo.
During World War II, the PVDE experienced its most intense period of activity.
Neutral Lisbon was the European center of espionage and one of the
favourite exile destinations. Writers such as Ian Fleming (the creator of James
Bond) were based there, while other prominent people such as the Duke of
Windsor and the Spanish Royal Family were exiled in Estoril. German spies
attempted to buy information on trans-Atlantic shipping to help
their submarines fight the Battle of the Atlantic. The Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia,
better known as Codename Garbo, passed on misinformation to the Germans,
hoping it would hasten the end of the Spanish State—he was recruited by Britain
as a double agent while in Lisbon. Conversely, William Colepaugh,
an American traitor, was recruited as an agent by the Germans while his ship was
in port in Lisbon—he was subsequently landed by U-boat, U-1230, in Maine before
being captured. In June 1943, a commercial airliner carrying the actor Leslie
Howard was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe after taking off from
Lisbon, possibly because German spies in Lisbon believed that Prime
Minister Winston Churchill was on board.
Several American 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.[citation needed]
PIDE
In 1945, the PVDE was renamed and replaced by the PIDE. Unlike its
predecessor, which sought inspiration in the Gestapo, the regime's propaganda
alleged PIDE followed the Scotland Yard model. Receiving the same status as
the Polícia Judiciária (criminal 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 prevention and repression functions. As there was already in place
one criminal investigation police that dealt with ordinary crime, PIDE focused
on political and social issues (political opposition, social unrest, student
movements), which the political regime criminalised. At the same time, PIDE
was the Portuguese police corresponding with the
international Interpol network.
PIDE is considered by many authors as being one of the most functional and
effective secret services in history[citation needed]. 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 Angola andMozambique. 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. PIDE was credited with the torture and assassination of many
political activists, controlled the political soundness of any candidate to public
employment, vetoing anyone who could be suspicious of favouring the opposition
and had extrajudicial powers of detention, so it could retain in prison any activist
after he or she had served a sentence.
The PIDE intensified its actions during the Portuguese Colonial War, creating a
successful paramilitary unit called Flechas (Arrows). Yves Guérin-Sérac, a former
officer of theFrench Army and founder of the OAS right-wing terrorist group during
the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62), set up "Aginter Press" in Lisbon and
participated with the PIDE in covert operations.[citation needed]
DGS

Directorate-General of Security

Direcção-Geral de Segurança

Agency overview

Formed 1969

 Polícia Internacional e de Defesa

Preceding agency
do Estado

Dissolved April 25, 1974

Jurisdiction Portugal

Headquarters Lisbon

Minister  (etc.)
responsible

Agency executive (etc.)

 Parent agency Ministry of the Interior

In 1969, Marcelo 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 democratization, in
order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war,
and the general restriction of civil rights. This resulted in a decrease in the
perceived level of violence used by the secret police and a consequent reduction in
its effectiveness.
End of PIDE/DGS
The most dramatic moments of the 1974 Carnation Revolution occurred near the
DGS headquarters at António Maria Cardoso Street in Lisbon. Unidentified agents
- desperate after being surrounded by rebellious troops and a throng of civilians -
opened fire from the top of the building, killing four demonstrators. In turn, a DGS
agent was also killed by the rebellious troops when trying to escape. These five
people were the sole victims of the coup d'état which brought down the
dictatorship.
This was the last strategic point to be occupied by the insurgents, thus leading to
the escape of many of the agents and the destruction of most of the records. In the
days following the revolution, most escaped to Spain or went underground. Many
of the agents, including the director-general Silva Pais were, however, captured. Of
those agents, 89 would latter escape from the Alcoentre penitentiary, in a massive
and never well-explained prison break in June 1975.[citation needed]
Some of the PIDE/DGS archives were reportedly handed over by the Portuguese
Communist Party to Soviet agents.[3]
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 accessed, 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 Delgado. They were tried in absentia and the
case dragged on for several years. None of them served time in jail.
The brutality of the PIDE/DGS is dramatised in the 2000 film April Captains, about
the events of the day of the Carnation Revolution.
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 Turkey, the
assassination of a Palestine Liberation Organization representative at a Socialist
International conference in 1983, and a number of domestic terrorist attacks by
isolated far-left and far-right groups, the Portuguese government became
convinced of the need for a new intelligence agency. This led to the establishment
of the Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa (SIRP, Intelligence
System of the Portuguese Republic) in 1984.
Citations
1. ^ 25 de Abril Always, worldwithouttorture.org, retrieved 21 September 2015
2. ^ Portugal Intelligence Services, photius.com, retrieved 21 September 2015
3. ^ "Desvio dos Arquivos da PIDE para o KGB". RTP Arquivos (in European
Portuguese). RTP. Retrieved 19 September 2021.

SourcesWheeler, Douglas L. (1983). "In the Service of Order: The Portuguese Political
Police and the British, German and Spanish Intelligence, 1932-1945". Journal of
Contemporary History. 18 (1). Sage Publications, Ltd.: 1–
25. doi:10.1177/002200948301800101. JSTOR 260478. S2CID 153719176.

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