Gaetano, Tomas in Brazil

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33540, 22 May 1974, Page 13

Gaetano, Tomas in Brazil

(N .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAG PAULO, May 21.

Portugal’s exiled former leaders Dr Marcello Caetano and Mr Americo Tomas xvere smuggled into their twenty - seventh floor hotel apartments in Sao Paulo today.

They had arrived from the island of Madeira to start their political asylum in Brazil. Mr Tomas, the former President, was accompanied by his wife, Gertrudiz, and daughter Natalia. Both men looked grim and stared straight ahead, as security forces escorted them to theii suites.

A few minutes after the two exiles entered the hotel, Dr Caetano, the former Prime Minister, received his first visitor, the former Brazilian Ambassador to Portugal, Mr Luis Antonio Gama E. Silva.

The Ambassador, who was also once Brazilian Minister of Justice, said later that a 20-year friendship linked him with Dr Caetano w’hom he admired as “a man and a lawyer.” He refused to answer questions of a political nature. The former Ambassador w’as followed by officials of Brazil’s Foreign Ministry. A statement by the Brazilian Presidency, released simultaneously yesterday in Brasilia and Lisbon, said: “The Portuguese Government asked the Government of Brazil if it would receive the two as territorial exiles after both men expressed their desire to live in Brazil.

“The answer was affirmative under the condition that neither of the two men or their families engage in political activities in Brazil.”