Mário Crespo
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Mário Crespo (born April 13, 1947) is a
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
retired journalist and reporter.


Early life

He was born in
Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...
, his father was an employee of the Portuguese bank
Banco Nacional Ultramarino Banco Nacional Ultramarino (, BNU; ; en, National Overseas Bank) is a Macau banking and financial services corporation. It was a Portuguese bank with operations throughout the world, especially in Portugal's former overseas provinces. It ceased e ...
(BNU), and his mother, a professor at the Commercial School. As
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
s of the
Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...
, they moved to
Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colony. Portuguese Moz ...
capital,
Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...
, with their only baby son. Mário Crespo went back to Europe with his mother, but returned to Mozambique and did all the high school in the Mozambican capital. Only when the university life appeared before him he moved one more time to the
metropole A metropole (from the Greek ''metropolis'' for "mother city") is the homeland, central territory or the state exercising power over a colonial empire. From the 19th century, the English term ''metropole'' was mainly used in the scope of ...
(i.e.
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 ...
). In
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, he went to the ''Colégio Universitário Pio XII'' (a kind of
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
) and attended the
Instituto Superior Técnico Instituto Superior Técnico MHSE • MHIP (IST, also known colloquially as Técnico, and stylized TÉCNICO LISBOA) is a public school of engineering and technology, part of University of Lisbon. It was founded as an autonomous school in 1911 ...
(IST), the engineering school of the
Technical University of Lisbon The Technical University of Lisbon (UTL; pt, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, ) was a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of preexisting schools, and comprised the faculties and institutes of veter ...
.


The Portuguese Colonial War

In 1970, 22-year-old Crespo had dropped out of IST and was eventually drafted into military service in 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, ...
. He transferred to Mozambique where his military occupation was to check the cement cargoes from Beira to the
Cahora Bassa Dam The Cahora Bassa Dam is located in Mozambique. It is one of two major dams on the Zambezi river, the other being the Kariba. The dam was finished in December 1974 after much political debate. This dam is used to convert the Zambezi River power i ...
construction site, near
Tete Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of two of the four bridges crossing the river in Mozambique. A Swahili trade center before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete continues ...
. Some time later, due to his good fluency in English, he was placed in the press office of
Kaúlza de Arriaga Kaúlza de Oliveira de Arriaga, OA, GCC, OC, OIH (18 January 1915 – 2 February 2004) was a Portuguese general, writer, professor and politician. He was Secretary of State (junior minister) of the Air Force between 1953 and 1955 and commande ...
, the commander in chief of the
Portuguese Armed Forces The Portuguese Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas) are the military of Portugal. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the other unified bodies and the three service branches: Portuguese Navy, Portuguese Army and Portuguese Air F ...
in Mozambique, who had coordinated a massive anti-guerrilla operation against
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 ...
separatists in 1970 - the
Gordian Knot Operation Operation Gordian Knot (''Operação Nó Górdio'') was the largest and most expensive Portuguese military campaign in the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique, East Africa. The operation was carried out in 1970, during the Portuguese Col ...
. While serving in the army, Crespo also entered the newly created School of Medicine of the University of Lourenço Marques where he would complete a number of academic disciplines but did not graduate. He also married Helen de Souza from
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, a South African woman with Portuguese ancestry who worked in genetics. After the
Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...
left-leaning military coup at Lisbon in April 1974, fresh out of the troop, Crespo fled Mozambique for South Africa.


Life in South Africa

The Mozambican transition to independence was marked by the mass exodus of ethnic Portuguese citizens from a territory that was about to become a totalitarist Marxist–Leninist
failed state A failed state is a political body that has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government no longer function properly (see also fragile state and state collapse). A state can also fail if the go ...
- the
People's Republic of Mozambique The People's Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: ''República Popular de Moçambique'') was a socialist state that existed in present day Mozambique from 1975 to 1990. The People's Republic of Mozambique was established when the country gained ...
. Many Portuguese went to neighbouring
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 ...
, others choose Europe, the US, and Brazil as destination. Those who returned to Portugal were collectively known as '' Retornados''. In South Africa Mário Crespo found employment in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
as a trainee radio employee of the
South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...
(SABC). A couple of years later, television was launched in South Africa and the editorial staff of the radio was called to perform on the screen. Working for SABC, Crespo reached the capacity of Chief Editor. In 1981 he divorced Helen de Souza, and by 1982, in his own words, South Africa's
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
"had become claustrophobic". There was a vacancy in the
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, for him, but it was considered of little professional interest.


Return to Portugal and life in the US

Crespo probed Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) in Lisbon, where vacancies were also opened. Throughout two decades working for RTP, Crespo reached notability as a reporter and journalist, and made friendship with other personalities of the Portuguese media such as
José Eduardo Moniz José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...
, Manuela Moura Guedes, and
Miguel Sousa Tavares Miguel Andresen de Sousa Tavares (born Porto, 25 June 1952) is a Portuguese lawyer, journalist and writer. The son of poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and lawyer and politician Francisco Sousa Tavares, Miguel received his education in Law ...
. Mário Crespo was a RTP reporter in the
First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
as well as a White House accredited journalist in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
He described the time he lived in the US with his second wife, Leonor Alfaro, and children as the best of his life. During the
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 ...
legislature of Portuguese Prime Minister
António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socia ...
, Crespo was removed from his capacity as a reporter in the US. Back to Lisbon, Crespo's responsibilities and work for RTP were scaled down. He was placed in standby and later would accuse RTP administration of ostracizing him. In this period of his life he taught nightclasses at the
Independente University Independente University (in Portuguese ''Universidade Independente'' or UnI for short) was a private university, headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, founded in 1993 by Luís Arouca, Rui Verde and Amadeu Lima Carvalho; it was owned by SIDES (''Socie ...
.


SIC Notícias

Depressed and on a shrinking salary, Crespo resigned from his contract with RTP and sought a job at the
SIC Notícias SIC Notícias () is the cable news channel of the Portuguese television network SIC (''Sociedade Independente de Comunicação'') and the second thematic channel of the station. It is available on basic cable and satellite. It replaced CNL (''C ...
television channel in the year 2000, to be an international information correspondent, and it turned out not to happen. Emídio Rangel, the news channel's director at the time, offered him an extra contract. He presented the prime time news program on the ''Jornal das 9'' channel, and also the talk-shows ''Pontos de Vista'' and ''Plano Inclinado'' whose resident guests included Medina Carreira, Nuno Crato and João Duque, and the American television
news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
in a Portuguese version. http://group.xiconhoca.com/2008/11/25/o-percurso-do-jornalista-mario-crespo-de-mocambique-a-sic-noticias/ A copy of the text published in
Expresso Expresso may refer to: * Espresso, a coffee beverage * eXpresso, a hosted workspace for Microsoft Office communities * Expresso (Donkey Kong), a character in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series * ''Expresso'' (newspaper), based in Lisbon, Portug ...
, August 27, 2005
On March 26, 2014, he presented the last Jornal das 9 news program making a critical speech at the end saying "God bless Portugal".


Personal life

Crespo is married to Leonor Alfaro, a Portuguese woman with South African and Mozambican background, who works as a lawyer for the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. They have two sons, Ricardo and Eduardo, and a daughter, Denise. He is an avid sailor. In his youth his parents got divorced and he stayed with his mother. His mother's lawyer was
António de Almeida Santos Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ma ...
, at the time a prominent lawyer in
Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...
,
Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colony. Portuguese Moz ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crespo, Mario Portuguese journalists Male journalists Portuguese television presenters 1947 births Living people People from Coimbra Instituto Superior Técnico alumni