António Caetano
| |
|---|---|
| Political Position(s): | Prime Minister of The Phalange |
| Term of Office: | February 26, 1991 - present |
| Predecessor: | Marcelo da Palma Salazar |
| Successor: | Incumbent |
| Birthdate: | July 5, 1936 |
| Place of Birth: | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Nationality: | Portuguese |
| Spouse: | Amelia Caetano |
| Profession(s): | Politician, attorney, businessman |
| Political Party: | National Syndicalist Party |
| Languages Spoken: | Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, English, Sicilian, Maltese |
| Degrees: |
|
Dr. António José Ramòn Caetano, born on July 5, 1936 in Lisbon, Portugal. A self-made millionaire businessman, he once had a highly successful career as a lawyer working for a prominent law firm, before shifting his interests to business and politics. He has been Prime Minister of The Phalange since February 26, 1991.
Caetano has no memory of his parents, as he was orphaned when he was only three years old. His parents, both members of Salazar's União Nacional, were killed in a car bombing by a radical young anarcho-communist during the upheaval preceding Salazar's assassination and the subsequent communization of Portugal. Among the Portuguese who fled to Isla de Caudillo to escape persecution were the nuns who ran the orphanage he lived in, along with him and his orphans. He has no memory of Portugal, but is immensely proud of his heritage, and considers himself "as much as Portuguese as a Phalangian."
From an early age, he showed signs of prodigy. He taught himself to read at two, could fluently speak three languages by age four, memorized Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at eight, and copied, by hand, the entire Bible at age eleven. He breezed through school with absolutely no effort whatsoever, and was always lightyears ahead of his peers. He was skipped kindergarten, third grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eleventh grade. He graduated high school at the top of his class when he was only twelve years old, and had his first university degree just a year later. He earned his first Doctorate degree when he was nineteen, and began practicing law shortly afterwards. By the age of twenty-five, he grew weary of being a lawyer, and returned to the university, where he accumulated the rest of his degrees. At the age of twenty-nine, he started a small but thriving business, and by thirty-five, he was a millionaire.
In 1974, he met and befriended Generalissimo Léopoldo Bahamonde, and became one of his most trusted advisors. While Bahamonde is widely credited with writing the constitution, much of it was written by Dr. Caetano.
Caetano served as a member of the National Assembly from 1977-1979 and again from 1983-1990. Between these two periods, he served as Minister of Agriculture and later Minister of Finance. In 1991, he was chosen by Bahamonde to replace the ailing Marcelo da Palma Salazar as Prime Minister.
His tenure as Prime Minister has been successful. Although the Prime Minister has little political role- reduced, in effect, to being a rubber-stamper of Generalissimo Bahamonde's policies- he has helped Bahamonde make many decisions that ended up being very successful, such as the adoption of Absolute Capitalism as the state's economic policy.
Dr. Caetano is married with seven children and nineteen grandchildren. His hobbies are playing the piana, attending symphonies, attending plays, and writing. One of his plays, The Heavens Shuddered, the Underworld Rose, about the Spanish Civil War, was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
