A large-scale operation is under way against the sovereignty and unity of the Angolan State. In Portugal, this operation is accompanied by an orchestrated campaign against those who, like PCP, have denounced it and will not yield to the intentions of its promoters.
The most often-used argument is the case pending in court against 17 Angolan citizens who were recently tried and found guilty by the Provincial Court of Luanda. An appeal was lodged against the decison of the court and a ruling is due.
It is quite telling that the United States – via the State Department – and the European Union – through the ambassadors of its Member States accredited in Angola and the EU representation in the country – have cynically and with hypocrisy come to the fore to recall Angola's obligations as regards the respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights.
The stance adopted by the USA and the EU is the more perverse amd mystifying precisely because it is directed against the Republic of Angola. A few facts are worth recalling ... Who but the United States and the big Western European powers supported Portugal's fascist colonialism and its war agains African peoples? Who but the United States, with the collaboration of major Western European powers, supported the constant aggressions by South Africa's apartheid regime against the Angolan people and their recently independent People's Republic of Angola? Who but the United States, with the collaboration of major Western European powers, supported South Africa's ally UNITA and its terrorist actions against the Angolan people? Who but the United States and the major Wester European powers that have in the meantime come together under the European Union, were largely responsible for imposing decades of war, unfathomable suffering and destructions to the Angolan people ? But is it is not the upholding of fundamental freedoms and human rights that concerns the USA and the EU in Angola, what is it that they are really after?
Some will wonder about the need to ask such questions and the importance and topicality of providing answers. However, these aren't just fundamental questions to understand Angola's recent past, whose after-effects are still being felt today. A past that some people in Portugal deliberately omit and would like us to forget. These questions are also essential to understand Angola' current situation and the ways in which the (recurrent) «interest» of the USA and the EU (and, namely, of former European colonial powers in Africa) in this vast and resource-rich country manifests itself. It is, after all, an «interest» that is neither new nor original in the context of imperialism's sinister intentions and strategy for the African continent.
Today, as in the past, in different ways and under false pretexts, the United States and the European Union are carrying out consecutive military interventions and operations aimed at destabilization. In doing so, they are responsible for brutal violations of those same fundamental freedoms and rights that they claim to defend. Africa, with its vast and varied resources, has not been excluded from such continuous acts of interference – as, indeed, history and the recent developments in the continent only show too well.
Interference and aggression
It is worth recalling that PCP denounced the growing interference in Africa, including by means of military aggression, in the context of a neo-colonial and re-colonizing onslaught by imperialism. Indeed, the military presence of the USA (with AFRICOM) and of EU countries such as France in the continent is increasingly visible.
Sovereign states in Africa have thus fallen prey to the interferences by the USA and the EU's major powers. Making use of, promoting and manipulating real problems and contradictions, including phenomena such as corruption, the Western powers aim at fragmenting the internal unity of those states and at upsetting their national sovereignty and independence, thus denying them the ipossibility of an autonomous development and paving the way for an even stronger control over them. Those external interventions are euphemistically called «regime change» and have been used against several countries in Africa. The outcome has been the outbreak of tragic conflicts with very serious consequences for the affected peoples – of which Libya is a striking and painful example.
It is precisely because of Africa's recent history and the growing actions by imperialism in the continent that the current machinations against Angola should not be underestimated. There are interests and sectors that have never accepted the defeat that they suffered in the country – from the proclamation of the People's Republic of Angola to its victory over the interferences and intervention of imperialism and the achievement of peace. They will not miss an opportunity to gain their revenge, once they consider that conditions are ripe to attain their goal. These foreign interest and sectors of Angolan society will use every opportunity to involve Angolan citizens, using as a pretext real problems and legitimate expectations, in what indeed amounts to their manipulation with a view to destabilizing Angola and, if possible, bringing about the desired «regime change».
That is the reason why PCP has repeatedly emphasized that Portugal should not become (again) an instrument and platform against Angola – unlike some who perversely would like that to happen or others who eagerly make temselves available to play such role. The important and genuine historical and emotional connections between the Portuguese and Angolan peoples should not be used to wage intense and hypocritical media campaigns that objectively contribute to «legitimize» obscure operations against Angola and the interests and aspirations of its people. This is a stance that PCP has maintained for many years – since the days of the common struggle of the Portuguese and Angolan people against fascism and colonialism. Such a stance made PCP in the past the target of savage campaigns and defamation and is now happening (again) with regard to Angola.
To those who ignore or have forgotten it, it is worth recalling, that PCP was the target of similar campaigns and defamatory attacks when it took a clear stance and denounced: the first invasion of Iraq by the USA and its allies (1991); the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia (1999); the occupation of Afghanistan by the USA and NATO (2001); the attacks by the USA and its allies against Libya (2011) and Syria (2012); or the coup promoted by the USA and the EU in the Ukraine (2014) – amongst other examples of interference, destabilization and aggressions that were systematically preceeded and accompanied by intense and wide-raging campaigns aimed at conditioning and formatting public opinion and at disguising those campaigns' unforgivable objectives and cruel consequences.
Because PCP adopted a firm and principled stance and did not cave in to the despicable campaigns and attacks against it, the Party – unlike other political forces in Portugal – is not tainted nor does it bear any responsibility for the brutal violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms, sovereignty and democracy, nor for the inhumanity that those interferences and aggressions represent and that are currently so evident in the tragedy facing millions of displaced persons and refugees. Reality has proven PCP right and has vindicated its stance based on the respect for sovereignty and national independence, the rights of peoples, human rights, equality between states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, peaceful solutions to international conflicts and friendship and cooperation with all peoples. These are the principles that also guide PCP's position with regard to the relations between Portugal and Angola.
Past and present difficulties and issues
The Angolan people achieved their independence on 11 November 1975 after a long and heroic struggle of national liberation to end the colonial rule of the Portuguese fascist regime. It was a struggle that was led by Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola (MPLA). However, from the first moment of its inception, the People's Republic of Angola became the target of imperialist aggressions led by the South African apartheid regime, the USA, the major European powers and their regional allies. Using mainly UNITA as their agent, those countries waged a war against Angola that only ended on 4 April 2002.
The Angolan people could always count on the solidarity of PCP in their long struggle to end Portuguese colonialism, the aggression by the apartheid regime in South Africa, the interferences of imperialism and the criminal war waged by UNITA and to achieve peace.
Fourteen years ago, Angola began to address the enormous challenge that represented the reconstruction of a country destroyed and torn apart by some 40 years of war. Over the past one and one half decades, Angola has taken significant steps in the process of national reconstruction. However, complex social and economic issues persist and there is a need to address major contradictions and serious negative phenomena. The recent drop in oil prices has added new difficulties to the development of Angola and significant efforts will be required to overcome the urgent and formidable problems resulting from it.
It is against this tough backdrop that, once again, external interests and certain sectors of Angolan society are coming together and mobilizing themselves because they feel that conditions are ripe and the time has come to promote the destabilization of the country. And to achieve their old and coveted objectives, they are trying to use the «method» that was already applied in other countries.
However, if some have conspired and are trying to use Portugal as a platform against Angola and its people, PCP – today, as in the past – will denounce and reject such operations and will continue to defend the right of the Angolan people to their sovereignty, independence, integrity and unity of their State, to development and social progress, and will strive to strengthen the cooperation and friendship between Portugal and Angola which are in the interest of the Portuguese and Angolan peoples.
It was the Angolan people who achieved their independence, sovereignty, peace and opened the road to bring about the fulfilment of their democratic rights. Today, as in the past, it is up to the Angolan people to overcome the issues that Angola faces, free of external pressures and interferences.
