43 years ago, a purge precipitated by political and ideological events of the MPLA regime took place in Angola, which proclaimed the country’s Independence on November 11, 1975. Many people died as a result of the regime’s political persecution and, also, of insurgents against the established political power. Minister Francisco Queiroz clarifies to Jornal de Angola that the crimes committed in the events that became known as “fractionalism” have been amnestied over the years of government.
In 2018, in the person of Minister Francisco Queiroz, the Government publicly acknowledged that there were excesses in relation to some events in the past. What excesses are these?
Since 2018 until now, the study of the phenomenon of May 27 has deepened considerably thanks to the engaging and comprehensive work of the Commission for the Implementation of the Reconciliation Plan in Memory of Victims of Political Conflicts, created by Order 73/19, of 16 Maio, by President João Lourenço. This commission has been meeting and debating various issues related to reconciliation and evaluates all episodes that involved political violence and that generated victims. Therefore, the study of these phenomena led to a better understanding of the 27th of May.
How does the Government view the events of May 27 today?
In fact, it dealt with a succession of very regrettable historical political errors, with a very strong impact on society. And what is intended is that these errors do not happen again. But these errors are part of a very complex historical context. These were errors that occurred in a period characterized by the Cold War (in which two great powers were in conflict – the United States and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and all States lived either in the constellation of one or that of another power . It was a complicated context from the point of view of the hegemony that each wanted to have over the world. It was also a period when the State was only about a year and a half old. There was still no consolidation of institutions and, even, the endogenous capacity of Angolans themselves to manage the country, as we have today. A year and a half of independence is nothing.
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