Machine Guns in the Local Market
Writing these letters from the Algarve is becoming a very depressing
activity. If only there was something nice to write about, but week
after week things seem to be getting worse.
Usually on a sunday there is a car boot sale somewhere in the land. The
first sunday of the month sees one in the car park by the swimming pool
in Lagos. There is also one in the school yard up in a tiny village in
the hills overlooking Aljezur. Week two sees a large market along the
streets of Ferragudo. The following sunday there is a much smaller
market in the grounds of the vet's place just outside Espiche. And the
fourth sunday of the month, last sunday, there was a market just
outside the tiny village of Barao, and another in the town of Lagoa.
My friend usually goes to the Lagoa market, which is run by the town
hall. However, the Barao market has been functioning for the past
twenty years or so on a patch of waste land just outside the village.
Last sunday things were a trifle different than usual. The militia
turned up mob handed. There were a dozen police cars, police buses,
paddy wagons, the heavy mob with machine guns, and there was a reserve
contingent stationed at a nearby village waiting in case reinforcements
were needed. The whole operation was designed as if to repel an
invasion.
What it turned out to be was a raid to tell the marketeers that the
market could not go ahead unless the traders had licenses to sell.
This will give you some idea of the mentality of the government forces
in Portugal. In any civilised country a couple of local policemen would
have been sent out in a squad car with a pile of leaflets, and they
would have distributed them to every stall-holder telling them that
they must get a license or they wont be allowed to trade in future.
Instead they send fifty police with military backup including machine
guns. They confiscate some people's goods from stalls, they start
beating up other people. They insist the stallholders with food for
sale bin their food in the rubbish bins, and everyone's stall is
photographed, and the stall-holders are all officially arrested and
warned they will be fined an unknown amount.
I would like to know under what circumstances the militia intended to
use the machine guns.
I think Portugal has reverted to the old fascist state it used to be
under Salazar. Much more of this and there wont be a tourist trade,
there wont be visitors, foreign residents, or anything worth coming
here for. The government is hell-bent on destroying businesses. It is
now hell-bent on antagonising the populace even more, and foreigners
are beginning to wonder what they hell they have wandered into.
It is undoubtedly time to leave. If you were thinking of coming here,
do yourself a favour and steer well clear. Portugal is no place for
anyone who cherishes the rule of law.
john