Marcelino da Mata (7 May 1940 – 11 February 2021) was a Portuguese Army officer, born in

Portuguese Guinea Portuguese Guinea ( pt, Guiné), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951 until 1972 and then State of Guinea from 1972 until 1974, was a West African colony of Portugal from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as Gu ...

Early life and education

Marcelino da Mata was born in Ponte Nova, Portuguese Guinea and studied until completing the entire

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

in Portuguese Guinea. When his older brother was conscripted into the military service he took his place. This began Marcelino da Mata's military career.

Military career

In the army, he distinguished himself as a polyglot with understanding of many local and regional languages and dialects. His linguistic skills were useful and in high demand for the army. He served in

. His experience would cause him to enroll in special operations training courses, eventually graduating as a

commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

. In the following years, Marcelino da Mata would become distinguished for numerous acts of valor during the

Portuguese Colonial War The Portuguese Colonial War ( pt, Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, ...

. Having participated in 2,412 operations, he is the most decorated Portuguese military officer in the history of the Portuguese Army. Demobilized by the departing Portuguese military authorities after the Carnation Revolution of 1974 in Lisbon and the independence of Portuguese Guinea, a total of 7,447 black Guinea-Bissauan African soldiers who had served in Portuguese native commando forces and militia were summarily executed by the

PAIGC The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde ( pt, Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, PAIGC) is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from ...

after the independence of the new African country.Lloyd-Jones, Stewart, and Costa Pinto, António, ''The last empire: thirty years of Portuguese decolonization'', Portland, Oregon: Intellect Books, , p. 22Munslow, Barry, ''The 1980 Coup in Guinea-Bissau'', Review of African Political Economy, No. 21 (May–Sep., 1981), pp. 109–113 He managed to avoid the same fate of other Portuguese African soldiers in Guinea-Bissau as he was in

mainland Portugal Continental Portugal ( pt, Portugal continental, ) or mainland Portugal comprises the bulk of the Portuguese Republic, namely that part on the Iberian Peninsula and so in Continental Europe, having approximately 95% of the total population and 9 ...

undergoing convalescence due to a wound caused by a firearm accidentally shot by another Portuguese soldier shortly after the Carnation Revolution (which effectively ended the war) has taken place in

Greater Lisbon Grande Lisboa () or Greater Lisbon is a former Portuguese NUTS III subregion integrated in the Lisboa Region. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision. It is part of the historical Estremadura Province. It includes the capital and ...

, where he would live the rest of his entire life. He was subjected to

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

by elements of the Portuguese far-left in 1975 during a tumultuous revolutionary period called ''

Processo Revolucionário em Curso The Processo Revolucionário Em Curso (PREC) (English: ''Ongoing Revolutionary Process'') was the period during the Portuguese transition to democracy, which started after a failed right-wing coup d'état on 11 March 1975, and ended after a ...

'' (PREC).

Death

He died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

related complications at the Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca Hospital (also known as Amadora-Sintra Hospital) in Amadora, Portugal, on February 11, 2021, at age 80, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal The COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). On 2 March 2020, the virus was confirmed to have reached the country when it was report ...

References

Portuguese military officers 1940 births 2021 deaths Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal Portuguese people of Bissau-Guinean descent People from Amadora Recipients of the Order of the Tower and Sword {{Portugal-mil-bio-stub