AVELINO MENESES DEFENDS FUNDAMENTAL THINKING AND UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Autonomy needs a body of doctrine to best defend itself, and this work should primarily be the responsibility of the University of the Azores.
Professor Avelino Meneses expressed this idea yesterday morning in Angra do Heroísmo in a lecture he gave as part of the 1st Postgraduate Colloquium of the CHAM – Humanities Center. Meneses addressed the issue of power in the Azores from settlement to today.
After looking at the first autonomist movements, he noted that political autonomy after April 25, 1974 (Carnation Revolution) caught the Azores in a kind of intellectual slough. “Constitutional autonomy created autonomists,” he said, summarizing the issue.
In addition to the revolution, Avelino Meneses identifies the demonstration of June 6, 1975, in Ponta Delgada and the action of the FLA – Azores Liberation Front – as among the causes of autonomy. “The FLA played a key role in autonomy due to the pressure it exerted,” he said.
Avelino Meneses also highlighted the US support for independence and the preparation of a US invasion of the islands to ensure continued control of the geostrategic space (through the Lajes Base). Still, this support, he said, was demobilized after November 25, 1975, when Portugal abandoned the link it was establishing with the then USSR. “For the US, the FLA was a short-term strategy,” Professor Meneses said.


He noted that the PPD (now PSD) was identified with links to the FLA and that the anonymity of the organization’s leaders worked against what could have been an affirmation of the structure and its ideas.
Without a body of thought – hence the importance of creating doctrine – autonomy never managed to have emblematic dates, choosing the Monday of the Holy Spirit as its reference date.
He said the Holy Spirit has the dimension of our history and geography, while autonomy lacks these dimensions, not least because it is too closely linked to the elites and the larger islands. To have a future, he argues, autonomy must follow in the footsteps of Espírito Santo’s ideology. It must belong to everyone and be able to bring the rich and poor closer together, becoming a factor in human development and happiness. Meneses recognizes, however, that the Azores have never experienced such a surge in development as in the years of autonomy following the Carnation Revolution.

For example, “progressive” can be dangerous concerning Lisbon, and “tranquil” can induce ideas of capitulation.
For this well-known and very respected scholar,, autonomy must be affirmed as constitutional and regional. And the grand challenge for the political class is to combine political unity with decentralization.

in Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.