The Army Chief of Staff, General Rovisco Duarte, has resigned over the Tancos stolen weapons affair.
Citing ‘personal reasons’ General Duarte today handed in his resignation to the new Minister of Defence, João Gomes Cravinho.
Expresso revealed a fortnight ago that the then Defence Minister, Azeredo Lopes, was aware of a cover-up operation mounted by the Military Judiciary Police for the return of the weapons and explosives stolen from the Tancos arms depot in the Santarém district.
Lopes said he had nothing to do with any cover up and General Rovisco Duarte, 'Chefe de Estado-Maior do Exército,' said he was “calm and serene” over the matter with which he had no involvement.
Azeredo Lopes resigned last Friday as Minister of Defence after news reports stated that he did know what had been going on and hence was lying when he said he didn’t.
Expresso also revealed that Major Vasco Brazão, a PJM investigator, delivered a memorandum to the Ministry of Defence all about the staged return of the stolen arsenal. Azeredo Lopes denied that he was aware of this operation even though he had received a full report.
Prime Minister António Costa supported the minister who resigned two days later, nobly saying that he was doing so to prevent the Armed Forces from being worn down by further accusations.
DCS Member of Parliament, Telmo Correia, was the first opposition leader to react to the departure of General Rovisco Duarte, making a link between today’s resignation and that of the Defence Minister last Friday.
In recent weeks, in the face of a flood of news about Tancos, the CDS repeatedly has demanded the resignation of the Defence Minister.
"One resignation ties in with the other," Telmo Correia told parliament today with PSD MP Carlos Peixoto saying his party will pursue the Tancos case until the truth is known.
The news of the disappearance of military material was made public by the Army on June 29th last year with the Defence Minister considering the situation "serious" but later deciding that as there were no signs of forced entry at the poorly guarded arms depot, an accounting error could be the reason and perhaps nothing had been stolen after all.
The minister tried to keep the list of missing armaments under wraps but it was published in a Spanish newspaper and later widely available in the Portuguese media.
In October 2017, the stolen material turned up in an area of scrubland in nearby Chamusca after an anonymous tip-off.
The military police stated recovered the material at dawn on Wednesday 18th October, 2017, with the collaboration of the criminal investigation team of the GNR in Loulé. Boxes containing plastic explosives, rocket launchers, hand grenades, fuses and detonators were found strewn around the field, along with one extra box suggesting that the returned weapons had come from a larger stash.
The truth has yet to be revealed about the Tancos affair but it now is clear that the return of the weapons and explosives was with the full knowledge of the Ministry and the Army.
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