Gen. Vassalo e Silva--He Averted a Massacre

Gen. Manuel Antonio Vassalo e Silva, the colonial governor who defied his government and surrendered Portugal’s territories in India in 1961, died Sunday after a long illness, his family said. He was 86.

A family member said the general and diplomat died at Lisbon’s military hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for the past month. He gave no details of the illness.

Vassalo e Silva was the last governor of the Portuguese overseas provinces of Goa, Daman and Diu, small districts on the southwestern coast of India.

In December, 1961, he disobeyed an order from Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to defend the territories with his 3,000 troops, who were facing 45,000 Indian soldiers.

Ultimatum by India

India had issued an ultimatum that it would take Goa by force if the Lisbon government refused to negotiate a transfer of power. The region became part of India the next year.

Vassalo e Silva said his surrender averted a massacre but he was stripped of his rank and expelled from the army.

When Salazar was toppled in a 1974 armed forces coup, Vassalo e Silva was reinstated as a general amid tributes to his moral courage in defying the dictator.

He visited Goa in 1980 and spoke of it as “a land and a people I deeply admire and respect.”