Yearbook 2016
Guinea Bissau. The current population of Guinea-Bissau is 1,968,012. According to thereligionfaqs, Guinea-Bissau underwent a prolonged political crisis during the year. In January, 15 MPs were expelled from the state-carrying African Independence Party of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which also belongs to President José Mário Vaz.
The reason was that by the end of 2015, politicians cast their votes in a vote in Parliament, which resulted in one of the government’s legislative proposals falling. PAIGC then tried to replace the members with other persons, a measure that was rejected by the Supreme Court in May. President Vaz dismissed the government just over a week later, citing that Prime Minister Carlos Correira failed to get through his politics in parliament.
Baciro Djá, who was prime minister for a short month, was appointed as new prime minister in 2015. However, Vaz ended up on a collision course with strong forces within PAIGC which launched another candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. The President therefore had to rely on the support of opposition politicians in the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and from the 15 MPs who were excluded from PAIGC in January. The act, which Correira called a constitutional coup, led to protests outside the presidential palace and PAIGC refused to recognize the appointment of the Djá.
Mediators from the West African collaborative organization ECOWAS were called in and an agreement was signed in September. The so-called roadmap meant, among other things, that a collaborative government should be formed with the task of governing the country for two years. However, the implementation was delayed and in November, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was in Guinea-Bissau as ECOWAS representative, called on the parties to take action so that a prime minister and government approved by Parliament could be appointed. In connection with the ECOWAS delegation’s visit to the country, protesters demanded Vaz’s resignation and that new elections should be announced. Later that month, Vaz disbanded the government and appointed Umaro Sissoco Embaló as new prime minister, but PAIGCC refused to cooperate with him as well.
History
Guinea-Bissau was the first of the Portuguese possessions to achieve independence (1974). It had been at the forefront of the liberation struggle against Portugal, but the death of A. Cabral before independence and scarce economic resources had drastically reduced it. Unlike the other former Portuguese colonies, the GB avoided Marxist terminology by remaining in the context of a ” democratic and national revolution ”. The many crises she went through after independence all occurred within the PAIGC (Partido Africano da Independencia da Guiné and Cabo Verde), who had directed the anti-colonial war and which became the single party with L. Cabral, half-brother of Amilcar, in the presidency. The most serious of these crises dates back to November 1980, when Prime Minister JB Vieira overthrew L. Cabral by establishing a new governing body of 9 members, 6 of them military. Vieira himself had a military background and during the war he was known as the ” commander ” Nino.
For the rest, the coup was difficult to decipher from an ideological or deployment point of view. There was talk of Cuban or Soviet interference, but without reliable evidence. GB policy did not undergo any major changes. Normalization with Portugal had already occurred with an exchange of visits between the respective heads of state in 1978 and 1979. Attempts to revive a regime inspired by the African revolution and socialism were unsuccessful; the continuous government reshuffles confirmed an uncertain orientation. However, the break with Cape Verde was clear, which had maintained its individuality and which after the trauma of 1980 definitively detached itself from the former brother territory, claiming for itself the true legacy of A. Cabral.
In part, Vieira portrayed the revenge of the Guinean blacks on the Cape Verdean mestizos, who had played a preponderant role in the party and in the administration. A bilateral cooperation agreement between the two countries was signed in February 1988, putting an end to the controversies and disputes. The new regime found its institutionalization in 1984: an assembly was elected and a new constitution passed; Vieira assumed the functions of head of state, head of government, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and secretary of the PAIGC (which retains the old abbreviation and diction). Another conspiracy was foiled in 1985: some conspirators died in prison and 6 senior officers, including the former number two of the regime, col. P. Correia, were executed.
The 4th Congress of the PAIGC (November 1986) launched a more marked process of economic liberalization and opening up to foreign capital. In 1987 the government entered into an adjustment agreement with the World Bank, which provides for a reduction of the state sector, a devaluation of the currency and a relaunch of agricultural production. In 1989 Vieira was confirmed president with L. Camara as deputy and the National Assembly was elected, made up entirely of exponents chosen by the PAIGC.
Popular pressure forced the President, in May 1990, to initiate a process of democratization, which led to the introduction of the multi-party system and to set presidential and legislative elections for the end of 1992.