Mozambican Liberation Front
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The Liberation Front of Mozambique (better known under its abbreviation FRELIMO, IPA: /fɾeˈlimo/; Portuguese: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) is a political party that has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975. Its power base is derived from the minority Shangaan ethnic group.
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[edit] Independence war (1962-1975)
Main article: Mozambican War of Independence
FRELIMO was founded in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 25 June 1962, when three regionally based nationalist organizations – the Mozambican African National Union (MANU), National Democratic Union of Mozambique (UDENAMO), and the National African Union of Independent Mozambique (UNAMI) merged into one broad based guerrilla movement. Under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane, elected president of the newly formed Mozambican Liberation Front, FRELIMO settled its headquarters in 1963 outside of Mozambique in Dar-es-Salaam and fought for liberation from Portugal's colonial power. In 1969, Eduardo Mondlane was murdered by a bomb; after the discovery of Gladio's secret "stay-behind" NATO armies in the 1990s, it was discovered that Aginter Press, Portugal's branch of Gladio, had been directly involved in the assassination of FRELIMO's leader[1].
FRELIMO controlled most of the northern region of the country by 1964. By the early 1970s, FRELIMO's 7,000-strong guerilla force had wrested control of much of the central and northern parts of the country from the Portuguese authorities and was engaging a Portuguese force of approximately 60,000 men. In 1975, after the April 1974 Carnation Revolution, Portugal and FRELIMO negotiated Mozambique's independence, which came into effect in June of that year. FRELIMO then established a one-party state based on Marxist principles with Samora Machel as President. The new government received diplomatic and some military support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.
[edit] Civil War (1975-1992)
Main article: Mozambican Civil War
The new government was engaged in a civil war with an anti-Communist political faction known as RENAMO sponsored by the apartheid governments of Rhodesia and South Africa. The Rome General Peace Accords that put an end to this civil war were not signed until 1992. In later years, reflecting its move towards social democratic views FRELIMO received active support from Margaret Thatcher's government in the UK and Mozambique became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
After Machel's death in 1986, in a suspicious airplane crash, Joaquim Chissano began to lead both the party and the state. Despite his education in the Communist bloc countries, Chissano was not a hard-line Marxist and called for democratic, multi-party elections in 1994 that put an end to single-party rule.
[edit] From the 1990s until today
At the elections in late 1999, President Chissano was re-elected with 52.3% of the vote, and FRELIMO secured 133 of 250 parliamentary seats. Due to a mass of scams and several cases of corruption, Chissano's government has become the target of wide criticism.
The party thus selected Armando Guebuza as its candidate in the presidential election on December 1-2 2004 where he won expectedly with about 60% of the vote. At the last legislative elections of the same date the party won 62.0 % of the popular vote and 160 out of 250 seats. RENAMO and some other opposition parties made claims of election fraud and denounced the result. These claims were supported by international observers (among others by the European Union Election Observation Mission to Mozambique and the Carter Center) to the elections who criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct fair and transparent elections. They listed a whole range of shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party FRELIMO. However, the elections shortcomings have probably not (also according to EU observers) affected the final result in the presidential election. The distribution of parliamentary seats among the parties will have been somewhat altered though, RENAMO probably losing some seats to FRELIMO.
Mozambique's national anthem from 1975 to 1992 was Viva, Viva a FRELIMO ("Long Live FRELIMO").
[edit] Mozambican presidents representing FRELIMO
- Samora Machel: 25 June 1975 - 19 October 1986
- Joaquim Chissano: 6 November 1986 - 2 February 2005
- Armando Guebuza: 2 February 2005 -
[edit] Other prominent FRELIMO members
- José Ibraimo Abudo, Justice minister since 1994
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- FRELIMO official site
- Special Report on Mozambique 2004 Elections by the Carter Center
- Final Report of the European Union Election Observation Mission
[edit] For Further Reading
Bowen, Merle. The State Against the Peasantry: Rural Struggles in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique. University Press Of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia, 2000.
