Word: machel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...cortege at the funeral of Mozambique President Samora Machel, killed in an October jetliner crash in South Africa, was led by two founders of the ruling Marxist Party, which won independence from Portugal in 1975 after a bloody eleven-year civil war. Last week the younger of the two men, Foreign Minister Joaquim Chissano, 47, was selected by the party's 130-member Central Committee to succeed Machel as President. In choosing the urbane, pragmatic Chissano over Vice President Marcelino dos Santos, who is a hard-line Marxist, the party signaled a continuation of Machel's flexible, westward-looking policies...
...President will have his hands full, especially if he is to avert a confrontation between his desperately poor, war-racked country and Pretoria. Last week South African Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha charged that documents recovered from the crash indicated that Machel and officials in Zimbabwe had plotted the overthrow of Malawi's Hastings Banda, President of the only black African state that maintains full diplomatic relations with Pretoria. In the event of a coup, warned Botha, the "whole of southern Africa would pay a heavy price...
There was no regret at Machel's death among leaders of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), the guerrilla movement that has been fighting Machel's government with arms and logistical support from South Africa. In a statement issued in Lisbon, Renamo said Machel's Frelimo Party "is responsible for innumerable crimes. Thus we feel no sorrow over the death of Frelimo's chief." Renamo said it would intensify its guerrilla operations, with the goal of the "total liberation of the country." Through a brutal campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and uprooted many more from their homes, Renamo already...
...Machel, the country's leader since it won independence from Portugal in 1975, had almost personally been holding Mozambique together in recent years. Once a doctrinaire Marxist, he showed more flexibility as his troubles built up. He signed an accord in 1984 with South Africa under which Mozambique promised to expel African National Congress guerrillas, who are fighting Pretoria, in return for South Africa's pledge to stop supporting Renamo. Lately Machel had strayed from Communist orthodoxy and turned to the West for new investment...
Those changes warmed Washington's attitude toward Mozambique. Last week President Reagan expressed "deep regret" at the death of Machel, whom he called a "voice of moderation" in the region. Reagan sent his daughter Maureen to Machel's funeral. A collective leadership will now direct Mozambique, at least for a while. It is not certain whether the new government will follow Machel's gradual opening to the West...