Luís Cabral

Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral(11 April 1931 – 30 May 2009)was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was the firstPresidentofGuinea-Bissau. He served from 1974 to 1980, when a militarycoup d'étatled byJoão Bernardo Vieiradeposed him. Luís Cabral was a half-brother ofAmílcar Cabral, with whom he co-founded theAfrican Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde(PAIGC) in 1956.
Luís Cabral was born in the city ofBissau,Portuguese Guinea, on April 11, 1931, tomestiço(mixed-race) parents originally from the Cape Verde. He completed hisprimary schoolstudies in theCape Verdearchipelago, which was also a Portuguese territory at that time. Later he received training inaccountancy.He was also educated in Bissau and joined a Portuguese business,Companhia União Fabril.
In 1956 Cabral was one of the six founders of theAfrican Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde(PAIGC). In the early 1960s, PAIGC launched ananti-colonial guerrilla waragainst thePortugueseauthorities. He helped organize a dock strike that was brutally suppressed by the Portuguese authorities. and resulted in a loss of more than 50 lives. This led to the PAIGC abandoning non-violence, which came as a shock to Cabral.Luís Cabral's rise to leadership began in 1973, after the assassination inConakry,Guinea, of his half-brotherAmílcar Cabral, the notedPan-Africanintellectual and founder of the PAIGC.  Leadership of the party then engaged in fighting for independence from Portuguese rule for both Guinea-Bissau (then known asPortuguese Guinea) and forCape Verde, fell toAristides Pereira, who later became the president of Cape Verde. The Guinea-Bissau branch of the party, however, followed Luís Cabral.
Following theCarnation Revolutionin April 1974 in Lisbon, the newleft-wing revolutionary government of Portugalgranted independence to Portuguese Guinea, as Guinea-Bissau, on September 10 that same year. The PAIGC had unilaterally proclaimed the country's independence one year before in the village ofMadina do Boé, and this event had been recognized by manysocialistandnon-alignedmember states of theUnited Nations. Luís Cabral became President of Guinea-Bissau. A program of national reconstruction and development, of socialist inspiration (with the support ofUSSR,China, but alsoNordic countries), began. Access to education and health has improved significantly in a few years.But some suspicion and instability was present in the party sinceAmílcar Cabral's death and the independence. Relations with Portugal after independence were relatively good.  The Guinean president visited Portugal in 1978 and PresidentRamalho Eanesvisited the former colony the next year, referring to the Luso-Guinean relationship as a model for those Portugal sought to establish withAngolaandMozambique.
Some sections of the party accused Luís Cabral and the other members with Cape Verdean origins of dominating the party. Alleging this, Cabral's Prime Minister and former armed forces commanderJoão Bernardo Vieiraorganized his overthrow on November 14, 1980, in amilitary coup. Luís Cabral was then arrested and detained for 13 months.
After the military coup in 1980, he was sent into exile, first inCuba, which offered to receive him, then (in 1984), inPortugal, where thePortuguese Governmentreceived him and gave him measure to live with his family, until his death in 2009.
Shortly after being appointed Prime Minister following theGuinea-Bissau Civil War,Francisco Fadulcalled for Cabral's return from exile in December 1998. Cabral said in response, in the Portuguese newspaper24 Horas, that he would be willing to return, but not while Vieira remained in power; Vieira had said that he could not guarantee Cabral's safety, and Cabral said that as a result, he feared for his life should he return while Vieira remained president.On October 22, 1999, following Vieira's ouster, coup leaderAnsumane Maneinvited Cabral to return, giving him a passport marking him as "President of the Guinea Bissau Council of State" while in Lisbon.Cabral was in Bissau in mid-November 1999, and said on the occasion that he did not want to become active in politics again or to rejoin PAIGC.
Cabral died aged 78 on May 30, 2009, inTorres Vedras, Portugal. His death followed a long bout of illness.
The National Assembly of Guinea-Bissau stated: "It is with shock and sadness that the government and people of Guinea-Bissau have learnt of the loss of one of their most illustrious sons, Luis Cabral".It held an emergency session at which it organised a period of national mourning to last three days.
As the President of Guinea-Bissau, his authoritarian single-party regimewas severely repressive and the country was hit by severe food shortages. Luís Cabral was also accused of being responsible for the execution of a large number of black Guinea-Bissauan soldiers who had fought alongside thePortuguese Armyagainst thePAIGCguerrillas during thePortuguese Colonial War, a claim that Cabral always denied.