Guinea-Bissau: Independence and Permanent Instability
Cabral's PAIGC was the most intellectually formidable of the African liberation movements, running schools, courts and clinics in liberated zones and articulating a theory of national liberation that remains widely studied. The war it fought bound down large Portuguese forces and was a principal cause of the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon in April 1974, which brought independence not only to Guinea-Bissau but to Mozambique and Angola. The post-independence record has been the opposite of that founding. Coups occurred in 1980, 1999, 2003 and 2012, with numerous attempts between; President Vieira was killed by soldiers in 2009 hours after the army chief died in a bombing. From the mid-2000s the country became a significant transshipment point for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe, with senior military figures indicted by the United States, deepening the incentive for armed factions to control the state.
- Year: 1974 CE
- Category: Political
