The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Lourenco became political chief of the armed wing of the MPLA in the civil war — a Cold War proxy conflict that drew in Cuban forces to fight alongside the MPLA, while CIA-backed militias did battle against them.
In 1984, he was appointed governor of the eastern province of Moxico, Angola’s largest, quickly rising through the MPLA hierarchy.
The ex-artillery general later led his party’s group in parliament before becoming deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
His appointment as defence minister in 2014 secured his position as Dos Santos’ favoured successor.
Now that he will be president, his main challenge may be Angola’s shift to free-market capitalism at a time when volatile oil prices are taking a heavy toll on the crude-dependent economy.
– ‘Hardline MPLA general’ –
“(Lourenco) has a reasonable reputation as a moderate, not an extreme character,” said Soren Kirk Jensen of the Chatham House research group in London.
“He is probably the right person to be the bridge as Angola goes through a transition.”
Rumours abound that Dos Santos had hoped to hand over the reins of power to one of his children, one of whom, Isabel dos Santos, is Africa’s first woman billionaire according to Forbes magazine.
But Jensen said that “there is speculation that high-ranked people in the party put their foot down against this”.
Opponents of the all-powerful regime believe Lourenco offers little hope for real change in Angola.
Activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, a leading regime critic, said Lourenco was, at heart, “a hardline MPLA general”.
Former political prisoner Nuno Alvaro Dala said that, under Lourenco, “power in Angola will continue to be militarised”.
Lourenco is married to Ana Dias Lourenco, a former minister who also represented Angola at the World Bank. They have six children.
