Everything about Jose Eduardo Dos Santos totally explained
José Eduardo dos Santos (born
August 28,
1940 in
Luanda) is the
current President, Head of Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of
Angola.
Eduardo's father was a construction worker from
São Tomé and Príncipe. While he was studying in school, he joined the
MPLA in
1956 thereby starting his political career. Due to the repression of the colonial government, Dos Santos went into self-exile in
France in
1961. He later moved to the
Republic of the Congo. From there he collaborated with the MPLA, and soon became the vice-president. To continue with his education, he moved, once again, to the former
USSR, where he received an engineering degree from the
Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute.
In
1970 he returned to Angola and joined the EPLA (Exército Popular de Libertação de Angola), a branch of the MPLA, becoming a radio transmitter in the second political-military region of the MPLA. In
1974, he was promoted to sub commander of the telecoms service of the second region and was named coordinator of
foreign policy of the MPLA.
He served as the MPLA's representative to
Yugoslavia, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the
People's Republic of China before being elected to the Central Committee of the MPLA in 1974.
After achieving Angolan independence, the rebel groups
MPLA,
UNITA and
FNLA started the
Angolan Civil War, which would last 27 years. At the beginning of the war, dos Santos was named president of the MPLA and secretary of foreign policy. He was replaced as secretary in
1976.
After the death of Angola's first president,
Agostinho Neto, dos Santos stepped up as president, chief of the armed forces, and president of the parliament in
1979 through internal party elections. He has been Angola's president for 29 years.
The
Bicesse Accord was signed in Lisbon with the leader of UNITA, Dr.
Jonas Savimbi, in 1991. The treaty promised free elections and integration of members of the UNITA to the new armed forces of Angola, the FAA (Forças Armadas Angolanas). As a sign of goodwill with foreign powers, the MPLA had previously rejected
Marxist ideology to present itself as a
social democratic party.
On
29 September and
30 September of
1992, elections occurred in Angola. Dos Santos beat Dr. Jonas Savimbi (49.5% vs. 40.7%), but since no candidate had achieved the required 50% of the votes on the first round, a second round of voting was called. Savimbi then quit, alleging voting fraud. Foreign observers and the
UN declared the election inconclusive. In parliamentary elections, the MPLA won 54.7% of the vote, with 129 out of 220 seats in parliament. UNITA managed 34.1%, giving them 70 seats.
Savimbi's withdrawal from the second round of elections gave dos Santos much needed foreign support. The
United States recognized Angola in
1993. Dos Santos, now rejecting negotiated peace, began fierce military actions against UNITA.
In
1999, dos Santos gained greater power from the Angolan parliament by becoming Secretary of Defense.
In
February 2002 the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, was killed by FAA (Forças Armadas Angolanas - Angolan Armed Forces) troops. The already weakened UNITA surrendered and signed a peace treaty a few weeks later, ending the
Angolan Civil War.
In this short period of peace, dos Santos has signed important contracts with corporations interested in extracting oil and diamonds, controlled high inflation, and raised economic growth to an estimated 24%. Despite these economic advances, dos Santos failed to combat governmental corruption, reconstruct public infrastructure, draft a new constitution, or reduce control over the press. Although Angola's natural resources are among the world's richest, the UN Development Program considers Angola one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation in 2005 ranked Angola 38.1 on its "rule of law, transparency, and corruption" scale and 38.3 on its "human development" scale, out of a possible 100 points (on each scale, higher scores represent better results). This has placed Angola in the bottom 10 among African countries in both indices since 2000, when the ranking began.
Dos Santos announced in
2001 that he'd step down at the next presidential election. However, in December
2003 he was reelected as head of the MPLA, and it's widely believed that he'll be the party's candidate in the next presidential election. It was thought that this might be held in
2006, and then that it might occur in
2007, but in December 2006 it was announced that the next presidential election would be held in
2009.
In
November 2006, dos Santos helped to found the
African Countries Diamond Producers Association, an organization of approximately 20 African nations founded to promote market cooperation and foreign investment in the African
diamond industry.
José Eduardo dos Santos is an Honorary Member of
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
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