US embassy cable - 05MAPUTO288

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MAPUTO 000288 
 
SIPDIS 
AF/S - TREGER 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO MCC GAULL 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, MZ, Guebuza, Biographical 
SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE: BIODATA ON PRESIDENT GUEBUZA 
 
REF: A. MAPUTO 00248 
B. MAPUTO 00150 
Classified By: Ambassador Helen La Lime, for reasons 1.4 (b/d) 
 
1. (SBU) Armando Emilio Guebuza was born January 20, 1943 in 
Murrupula, Nampula province. His father was a member of the 
Ronga ethnic group (from the Maputo area) and his mother 
(still living) is Makua (from Nampula). At a young age, his 
family moved to Maputo, where Guebuza grew up. While 
attending secondary school at Salazar High School, he became 
active in the Mozambican Association of African Secondary 
School Students (an organization founded by Eduardo 
Mondlane). In 1960 he succeeded Joaquim Chissano, 
Mozambique's second president, as president of the 
nation-wide student organization. In 1963 Guebuza joined 
Frelimo and worked in Maputo as a clandestine operative for 
the movement. He was arrested by the Portuguese in 1964 for 
his political activities. In 1965 he fled Mozambique to join 
Frelimo rebels in exile in Tanzania. He was elected to the 
Frelimo Central Committee at its formation in 1966. During 
his exile in Tanzania Guebuza became a prominent guerrilla 
commander in the liberation army, rising to the rank of 
lieutenant general. He served briefly as Frelimo Secretary 
for Education while in exile, and in 1974 was named Minister 
of Internal Administration in the transition government. 
 
2. (U) During the early years of independence Guebuza was 
very close to Samora Machel, the first post-independence 
Mozambican president. Machel appointed him to several 
high-level positions within the new government, including 
Minister of the Interior (1975-1977 and 1983-1984) and Vice 
Minister of Defense (1977-1983). From 1978 to 1979 Guebuza 
also served as governor of Cabo Delgado and, from 1981 to 
1983, he took on the role of Resident Minister in the civil 
war torn province of Sofala. 
 
3. (C) As Minister of Interior Guebuza played a role in some 
of the most controversial decisions made by the Frelimo 
government. During his first term Guebuza was responsible 
for the ill-famed "20/24" decree, in which many Portuguese 
were given just 24 hours to leave the country with a maximum 
of 20 kilograms of luggage. The national police under his 
command gained a reputation for human rights abuses during 
the early days of Mozambican independence. In 1983, during 
his second term as Minister of Interior, Guebuza oversaw the 
implementation of "Operation Production," an attempt to expel 
unemployed from urban centers to the rural northern province 
of Niassa ostensibly to help develop the province. Thousands 
of "unproductive" residents were rounded up and deported from 
the cities to Niassa under the program. No infrastructure 
was provided for those forcibly removed and some perished 
from hunger, exposure, or wild animal attacks. (Comment: 
Guebuza maintains both publicly and privately that he was 
personally opposed to the scheme, but was acting under orders 
of President Machel. End Comment.) 
 
4. (C) Guebuza was dismissed from his cabinet position in 
June 1984. Most believe his dismissal resulted from the 
combined effects of the public relations disaster of 
"Operation Production," his failure to stem the growing tide 
of Renamo attacks, and his order to arrest Machel ally Santo 
Garcia for smuggling precious stones. Machel reportedly held 
Guebuza under house arrest for several months. In late 1984 
Guebuza's political persona was partially rehabilitated, and 
he was appointed to the powerless post of Minister in the 
Presidency without portfolio, a position he held through 1986. 
 
5. (SBU) Machel's death in 1986 and the ascension of 
President Chissano led to the recovery of Guebuza's political 
fortunes. Under Chissano's first government Guebuza was 
appointed Minister of Transport and Communications, however 
his key role was as the government's chief negotiator with 
Renamo when peace talks began in 1990. He was considered by 
most to be the party's de facto number two when he was 
elected to the post of Secretary General in 1991. Following 
the successful conclusion of the Rome Peace Accords in 1992, 
Guebuza headed the government's participation on the 
Supervision and Control Commission, the U.N.-chaired body 
which oversaw implementation of the peace agreement and 
guided the country towards its first multi-party elections in 
1994. Guebuza was later involved in the Burundi peace 
process, initiated in 1996 under the leadership of former 
Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. 
 
6. (C) Sometime between the signature of the Rome Peace 
Accords in 1992 and the multi-party elections in 1994, 
Guebuza and Chissano reportedly fell out over Guebuza's use 
of his cabinet position for personal enrichment. Guebuza is 
thought to have used his political influence to obtain shares 
in privatized companies and to influence regulatory decisions 
related to companies in which he held major shares. (Note: 
Guebuza's business interests range over various sectors, from 
fisheries to construction to tourism to publishing. He is an 
important shareholder in Mozambique's second largest brewery, 
Laurentina Ltda. and Banco Mercantil de Investimentos, one of 
Mozambique's largest banks. End Note.) News articles from 
this period equated Guebuza as the symbol of endemic 
government corruption. In response, Chissano omitted Guebuza 
from his 1994 cabinet and arranged his ouster as Frelimo 
secretary general in favor of Manuel Tome in 1995. Guebuza 
 
SIPDIS 
retained his position on the Frelimo Political Commission and 
won a seat as a deputy for Maputo City in the 1994 and 1999 
elections. Following both elections, he was elected by his 
fellow deputies as leader of the Frelimo bench, a sign of his 
on-going influence within the party. As Frelimo's 
presidential candidate for the 2004 general elections, 
Guebuza campaigned actively, working to connect with the 
electorate and increase party membership. His efforts have 
been attributed to the successful revitalization of Frelimo, 
which had been facing dwindling popularity since the 
mid-1990's. 
 
7. (C) Guebuza has been a leading exponent of 
black-Mozambican empowerment. He is widely perceived as 
someone who can improve policy implementation, as well as 
address the problems of criminality and corruption. Guebuza, 
who has profited handsomely from privatization and has 
extensive business interests to protect, appears to have 
little ideologically in common with Frelimo hardliners and 
has publicly stated he intends to continue economic reforms 
undertaken by the Chissano government. It is reported that 
following the Montepuez incidents in 2000 in which over 100 
Renamo party followers died in captivity, it was Guebuza who 
pushed for direct talks between Chissano and Dhlakama to 
reduce tensions, ostensibly to prevent further erosion in 
investor confidence (an indication of how far along the path 
to free-market economics Guebuza has come). 
 
8. (SBU) Though it is expected that government policy will 
remain the same under Guebuza, a new style of leadership is 
likely. He will adopt a more hands-on approach, with more 
discipline, than the approach taken by former President 
Chissano. He is expected to keep a close eye on all the 
ministries, and will focus more on internal policy and less 
on foreign affairs. Guebuza is intelligent, a good listener, 
though perhaps less of an accomplished public speaker than 
Chissano.? Guebuza is an alumnus of the U.S. sponsored International Visitors Program (1987). 
 
9. (U) Guebuza is married to Maria da Luz Dai Guebuza, the 
sister of the current Defense Minister, Tobias Dai, and has 
four children. He speaks fluent English. 
LALIME