LISBON, Portugal, June 14 (UPI) -- Portuguese Communist Party leader Alvaro Cunhal who played a vital role in establishing an opposition to the country's former dictatorship has died. He was 91.
Portuguese media reported Cunhal had been suffering from a long sickness but did specify the malady.
Advertisement
Cunhal spent several decades in exile or imprisoned during the regimes of Antonio Salazar and Marcelo Caetano.
Following the bloodless coup of 1974, he returned from exile in Moscow.
A national day of mourning is scheduled for Wednesday, the day of Cunhal's funeral, Portugal's Diaro de Noticias reported.
