Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the former President of Angola, died Friday morning in Barcelona. He was 79 years old. To honor his memory, a five-day national mourning period was established starting Saturday.
Angola was in civil war since its independence from Portugal in 1979. Jose Eduardo dos Santos became president in 1979. He led a long and difficult war that saw some 500,000 deaths in 27 years. This war was supported by the USSR, Cuba and did not officially end until 2002.
It sounds like the time of the oil boom. Dos Santos has made Angola the top producer of black gold in Africa, right behind Nigeria. But this is only for a small portion of the population. He retains complete control over his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which has earned him constant reappointment to the top of the country, where he heads the army, police, and judges.
The former Marxist rebel, who was never directly elected by the people of Angola, ruled Angola for 38 year. He denies the dictatorship that his political enemies call him. He confided to Brazilian television in 2013 his disillusionment with power and described his reign as “too lengthy”. He announced his retirement in December 2016 after it became known that he was suffering with cancer. He announced his retirement a few months later, as promised.
His daughter Isabel, also known as the “princess”, was attacked in 2016 at Sonangol’s head. She is currently being pursued by the judges and will face a series of corruption investigations. Filomeno, Filomeno’s son, is also in prison on corruption charges.
