José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola for almost four decades, died at the age of 79 this Friday (08). He was known for winning a brutal civil war and coordinating a boom of oil.
Called within his party (MPLA) as “the architect of peace”, Zédu, as he was known, saw his legacy increasingly tarnished by allegations of corruption and nepotism, especially after fighting ended in the southwestern African country in 2002.
From then until 2014, the Angolan economy grew tenfold, increasing from US$12.4 billion to US$126 billion, but very little of this wealth was distributed in the country. The former president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, quickly became the richest woman in Africa, with a fortune of US$3 billion.
Even so, many still credit him with the stability of a country that has only known war since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. An important decision by Zédu was to grant amnesty to everyone and offer opponents of the civil war business and land opportunities. , in addition to political space. These measures were key to ensuring that fighting did not happen again.
Santos died in Barcelona, where he had been undergoing treatment since he had a stroke in June. In 2019, two years after leaving his post in Angola, Zédu moved to Spain.
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