Armando Emílio Guebuza (born 20 January 1943) is a Mozambican

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who was the third President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015.

Career

Guebuza, born at Murrupula in

Nampula Province Nampula is a province of northern Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 5,758,920, making it the most populous province in Mozambique (2017 census). Nampula is the capital of the province. History Under Portuguese rule this province ...

, joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (

FRELIMO FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's first ...

) at the age of 20, shortly after it began Mozambique's

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against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. By the time independence was achieved in 1975, Guebuza had become an important general and leader in FRELIMO. He became interior minister in the

Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's ...

government and issued an order forcing most Portuguese residents to leave within 24 hours, known as the "24 20" order because the residents in question were restricted to 20 kilograms of luggage. During the 1980s Guebuza developed an unpopular program known as "Operation Production" in which jobless people from urban areas were moved to rural areas in the northern part of the country. Following Machel's 1986 death in a plane crash in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, Guebuza, a member of FRELIMO's

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

, served briefly as part of a 10-member collective

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. He was part of a committee investigating the circumstances of the crash, which came to no certain conclusion. He represented FRELIMO at the peace negotiations with the

RENAMO RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents oppose ...

guerrilla group that led to the

Rome General Peace Accords The Rome General Peace Accords, officially the General Peace Accords (), was a peace treaty signed between the government of Mozambique and RENAMO, ending the Mozambican Civil War on October 4, 1992. Negotiations preceding the agreement began in ...

, signed in Rome on 4 October 1992. During the transitional phase towards the first general elections in 1994, he represented the Government of Mozambique in the joint Supervision and Monitoring Commission, the highest implementing body of the General Peace Accords. Following the abandonment of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

economic policies by President

Joaquim Chissano Joaquim Alberto Chissano (born 22 October 1939) is a politician who served as the second President of Mozambique, from 1986 to 2005. He is credited with transforming the war-torn country of Mozambique into one of the most successful African demo ...

, which included the privatization of state companies, Guebuza became a successful and wealthy businessman, particularly in the construction, exports and fishing industries. He was chosen as FRELIMO's presidential candidate in 2002 after a tough contest within the party. He became Secretary General of the party in the same year.

President

Guebuza was the candidate of FRELIMO for the December 2004

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pr ...

, in which he won with 63.7% of the vote. He became president of Mozambique on 2 February 2005 and was re-elected for a second five-year term of office on 28 October 2009. Guebuza is the first man to enter the Mozambican presidency with a non-Marxist party programme and ideology. International observers to the elections criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct fair and transparent elections. They listed a range of shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party – FRELIMO.

Personal interests

Armando Guebuza is one of the wealthiest individuals in Mozambique, which according to Marcelo Mosse has earned the president the nickname ''Mr Gue-Business'':Marcello Mosse
ARMANDO GUEBUZA, The new Frelimo candidate
/ref> He is a shareholder of Laurentina, Mozambique's second largest brewery, and one of the main shareholders in the Banco Mercantil de Investimentos.

Eponyms

Armando Emilio Guebuza Bridge Armando Emilio Guebuza Bridge is a bridge in Mozambique that crosses the Zambezi River. It connects the provinces of Sofala and Zambezia. It is named after Armando Guebuza, a former President of Mozambique. Gallery Caia bridge under constructi ...

, across the

Zambezi River The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

at Caia (2.3 km)

References

External links

Office of the President
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guebuza, Armando 1943 births FRELIMO politicians Living people Mozambican Presbyterians People from Nampula Province Presidents of Mozambique Government ministers of Mozambique