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Kaúlza de Oliveira de Arriaga | |
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| Born | (1915-01-18)18 January 1915 Porto, Portugal |
| Died | 2 February 2004(2004-02-02) (aged 89) Lisbon, Portugal |
| Allegiance |  Portugal |
| Branch | Portuguese Army |
| Years of service | 1935–1974 |
| Rank | General |
| Battles / wars | Mozambican War of Independence |
| Awards | Officer of theOrder of Aviz Grand Officer of theOrder of Military Merit ofBrazil Legion of Merit of theUnited States of America Grand Cross andGrand Officer of theOrder of Christ Grand Officer of theLégion d'honneur ofFrance Grand Officer of theOrder of Prince Henry and theMedal of Aeronautical Merit of thePortuguese Air Force Commander of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre |
Kaúlza de Oliveira de Arriaga,OA,GCC,OC,OIH (18 January 1915 – 2 February 2004) was a Portuguese general, writer, professor and politician. He was Secretary of State (junior minister) of the Air Force between 1953 and 1955 and commander of the Terrestrial Forces inMozambique from 1969 until 1974 during theMozambican War of Independence.
He was a son of Manuel dos Santos Lima de Arriaga Nunes (1885–1940), a sculptor and son of a medical doctor fromPico Island,Azores, and hisPortuguese Brazilian wife, Felicidade Eugénia Martins de Oliveira (1894–1987), daughter and granddaughter ofgoldsmiths. The couple married inPorto on 20 June 1914.[1]
Arriaga completed a degree in mathematics and engineering at theUniversity of Porto and then volunteered for thePortuguese Army on 1 November 1935. Taking a military and civil engineering course in theMilitary Academy which he graduated from in 1939, he was later assigned to the general staff of the Portuguese Institute of Military Studies. Here he petitioned for reforms to theconscription system, as well as training and the integration ofparatroopers into thePortuguese Air Force.[citation needed]
Arriaga commanded, as theCommander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the Portuguese forces inMozambique from 1969 until 1974, taking over from GeneralAntónio Augusto dos Santos and organizingOperação Nó Górdio ("Operation Gordian Knot") in 1970. This operation, the largest and most expensive military operation performed by thePortuguese Armed Forces during the entirePortuguese Colonial War (1961–1974), aimed to attackFRELIMO in its Northern Mozambican support base, but only led to increased support for the rebellion among the populace.[2]
Arriaga was a major political figure in theEstado Novo regime before theCarnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 inLisbon, holding a number of public positions such as Head of the Ministry of Defense Cabinet, Secretary of State for Aeronautics, Professor of the Institute of High Military Studies, President of the Nuclear Energy Joint Commission and Executive President of the oil companyAngol SA.
In March 1974, he organised an abortivecoup d'état against Prime MinisterMarcelo Caetano in an attempt to move the regime to theright and ensure ahard line on Portugal'scolonial empire.[2] Arriaga had tried in December 1973 to enlistMFA support for this coup attempt, but failed.[3] Following the Carnation Revolution, he was arrested on 28 September 1974 and spent sixteen months in prison.[4] In 1977 he founded theIndependent Movement for the National Reconstruction (MIRN), a right-wing political organisation which appealed toultranationalist youth and contested the1980 Portuguese legislative election as Party of the Portuguese Right (PDP) in coalition with theChristian Democratic Party and the National Front, receiving 0.4% of the vote. He was the movement's president and then the party's chairman until its extinction in 1984.
He died fromAlzheimer's disease in 2004, in Lisbon.
Arriaga received a number of awards and citations during his career, including:
Officer of theOrder of Aviz
Grand Officer of theOrder of Military Merit ofBrazil
Commander of theLegion of Merit of theUnited States of America
Grand Cross of theOrder of Christ
Grand Officer of the Order of Christ
Grand Officer of theLégion d'honneur ofFrance
Grand Officer of theOrder of Prince Henry (Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique)
Commander of theOrder of the Holy SepulchreArriaga married inReguengos de Monsaraz, at the Chapel of o Monte de São Mamede, on 19 May 1955 Maria do Carmo Fernandes Formigal (b. 1932),Dame Commander of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre, daughter of Mário Formigal (1899-1954), a landowner and son of another, and his wife (m. 1922) Maria Adelaide Rosado Fernandes (1903-1981), of a family of farmers and landowners inÉvora,Alto Alentejo, by whom he had five children, including the second wife of former prime ministerPedro Santana Lopes.[5]
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