so I am Portuguese-Canadian, half of my family will tell me all day about how Salazar was a saint (my Nunes side) and the other half tell me he is the devil, (my Adriano side) though none of them are really into history at all, I myself and researching the subject, but i'm wondering what you all have to say about the matter
I mean. As dictators go, he wasn't the worse. And economically the dude was not too bad(he was actually good. Balanced our export/import, got deficit under controll. The countryside was developed a lot and he did public works. (probably why part of your family does enjoy him) But by the end he did fail to modernize the country and we were stuck in the late 50's early 60's technology and industry wise). BUT. He did torture and kill political adversaries and civilians. He did oppress and cut our freedoms. He wen't into an unnecessary war with our colonies at the time. And he did censor the media for years.
So he was a bad guy. In portugal he's not hated like the spanish hate franco or the germans hate hitler.
We don't like him. We are happy is regime is over. But, as far as dictators go, he wasn't the worse.