The Comando Operacional do Continente (COPCON, ) was a military command for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

created by the

Armed Forces Movement 230px, A mural dedicated to the MFA, it reads: "Towards freedom. Long live the 25th of April!" The Armed Forces Movement ( pt, Movimento das Forças Armadas; MFA) was an organization of lower-ranking, politically left-leaning officers in the Por ...

in the period following the revolution of 25 April 1974 and was dissolved after the failed far left coup of 25 November 1975. COPCON was created on 8 July 1974 by President

António de Spínola António Sebastião Ribeiro de Spínola (generally referred to as António de Spínola, ;This surname, however, was not accompanied by the grammatical nobiliary particle "de". 11 April 1910 – 13 August 1996) was a Portuguese military offi ...

, with the aim of protecting the democratic process initiated by the Carnation Revolution. It consisted of special military forces such as

marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (ref ...

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachuting, parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne forces, airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used ...

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, military police. Copcon chief

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, GCL (; 31 August 1936 – 25 July 2021) was a Portuguese military officer. He was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon. After the Revolution, Otelo assumed leadership roles in ...

, accumulated Copcon with the command of the Military Region of Lisbon, assuming himself as one of the drivers of the Revolutionary Process also known as PREC. He was one considered to be of the most powerful persons during this revolutionary period.

Otelo {{unreferenced, date=January 2019 Otelo was the Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman in the United Kingdom, superseded by Ombudsman Services. The organisation dealt with complaints about: * The way in which mobile and fixed phones, faxes an ...

and Copcon gained prominence after the revolution of March 11, 1975, and during almost the entire revolutionary period known as PREC. Copcon was responsible for issuing several blank arrest warrants and for the indiscriminate arrest of thousands of people, without any formal charges or court order, but with charges such as economic sabotage. He was also backing land occupation in

Alentejo Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo''). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alen ...

and house occupation mostly in Lisbon. Also famous was the arrest of around 400 far left MRPP militants on 28 May 1975. In August 1975, the “Documento dos Nove” was published in a newspaper. It was also known as Melo Antunes Document and had unpredictable effects both in the military and in the civil field. It constituted a common platform for all those who, dissatisfied with the growing hegemony of the Communist Party within Vasco Gonçalves government as well as the far-left radical groups allied with the Copcon. It advocated a change in the course taken by the government as well as the overall revolutionary process. In response, COPCON officials published the document “Copcon's Revolutionary Self-Criticism/Work Proposal for a Political Programme”. This proposed a radical political model based on grassroots popular power and would later have the support of the far left parties like PRP/BR, the MES and the UDP. In September 1975, Otelo was relieved of his duties at Copcon with the creation of the AMI (Military Intervention Group) and on 20 November, he was replaced in command of the Lisbon Military Region by Vasco Lourenço.

References

Carnation Revolution Portuguese Army {{Portugal-stub