Fernando Mariano Cardeira

Fernando Mariano Cardeira was born in Fanhais, in the parish of Nazaré, on October 11, 1943. He entered the Military Academy (AM) in October 1961. During these years, Cardeira’s opposition to the regime, though he did not join any organization, and his conviction that he would not participate in the colonial war became evident. In 1965, he entered the Instituto Superior Técnico as a student officer of the AM. In 1968, he requested to be released from the AM because he disagreed with the government’s colonial policy. In April 1969, he was reclassified as an Infantry Lieutenant in Mafra. In 1970, at the RI 5 in Caldas da Rainha, he began preparing desertion with other comrades.

After mobilization for the colonial war, in May 1970, he participated in the mass desertion of the Portuguese Armed Forces, which had significant media coverage in Portugal and abroad. He left the country on August 23, 1970, via the Gerês Mountains and requested political asylum in Sweden. There, he received support from several organizations that provided assistance to political refugees and deserters and participated in numerous actions against the Portuguese dictatorship and the colonial war. He also promoted the creation of a Committee of Portuguese Deserters.

In June 1974, he returned to Portugal. He was reinstated in the Army. He worked until April 1975 as the Information Director of RTP (Portuguese: RTP). He worked in the Support Services of the Revolutionary Council until August 1979. He was one of the founders of the Association of Portuguese Political Exiles (AEP61/74) in 2015 and president of the board of the Civic Movement Association Do Not Erase Memory (NAM). He is the author of Chronicle of a Desertion. Portrait of a Country and Memories of the Dictatorship – Society, Emigration and Resistance.

Collection Date: 19.111.2018