The Carnation Revolution effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship (the Estado Novo) to a democracy (the Third Republic), but only after two years of a transitional period known as PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, Portuguese for Ongoing Revolutionary Process), characterized by social turmoil and power disputes between left and right wing political forces.
[2] FLAMA's demands were more a right-wing political reaction by some of the regional elites to the left-wing nature of the Revolution and its main actors, than a truly ethnic or nationalist separatist goal.
[4] A similar group in the Azores Archipelago, called Frente de Libertação dos Açores, established contact in October 1975.
[9] The five shields, which are also present in the Portuguese flag stand for the five wounds of Christ (Portuguese: Cinco Chagas de Cristo) when crucified, and are typically associated with the legend in which Count Afonso Henriques (future Afonso I) "killed the five Moorish kings of the Seville, Badajoz, Elvas, Évora and Beja taifas.
Hence, in gratitude to Jesus, he incorporated five shields arranged in a cross—representing his divine-led victory over the five enemy kings—with each one carrying Christ's five wounds in the form of silver bezants.
This came from the fact that Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, a well-known Portuguese military officer and main strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, was an admirer of Fidel Castro's communist policies in Cuba.
In the beginning of August 1975, FLAMA released several statements in which it promised violent acts in case no action was taken to start the process of independence.
They were detained by the police forces, due to the security cameras at the site, and once the news spread regarding their detention, there was popular outrage against their actions.
Several attacks took place in the following days, and after an occupation of another news broadcaster by a group of expatriates who had returned to Portugal following the war for independence of Angola and Mozambique and who demanded higher standards of living.
This was followed on 19 February by the visit of José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo, Prime Minister at the time, to start the talks with the local governmental authorities regarding the region's autonomy.
On 20 February, following an explosion on a road in which the car of the Prime-Minister was passing, the documents granting a provisional government to the region of Madeira were signed.
Following several strikes at the beginning of 1977 due to the delays in the transfer of administrative powers to the regional governments and the visit of then President Ramalho Eanes, another bomb was placed on 26 August in the offices of the Portuguese National Airline, TAP.
FLAMA's first deadly attack took place on 23 August 1978, when a car bomb was set and the 19 year-old operational, João Alberto, who was installing it was killed.
While it is said in multiple sources that the organization vanished due to its diminishing importance after 1976 and the establishment of Madeira as an autonomous region, recent news indicates the opposite.
[13] On 1 July 2011, the Region's Autonomy Day, fifty FLAMA flags were raised in several locations across the islands, and a statement was released claiming once again the Archipelago's independence.
The statement released to the press was the following: “Today, 1 July 2011, the day of the autonomy that doesn't deserve to be celebrated, Madeira's people woke up to an archipelago “dressed up” with its flag, and, after 35 years, it is a good time to reflect on what FLAMA has always proposed and what was accepted with open arms by some and questioned by others".
In Funchal, FLAMA's president, Gabriel Drumond, reaffirmed that the Madeira people have the right to be free from Portugal and that “no one could, democratically, stop them from holding a referendum”.