African Party For The Independence Of Guinea And Cape Verde

The '''African Party for the Independence of Guinea and in Guinea-Bissau . In the 2004 Legislative Elections it was the largest single political party.
At the last Legislative Elections , 28 and 30 March 2004, the party won 31.4 % of the popular vote and 45 out of 102 seats.
In the 2005 Presidential Election , Malam Bacai Sanhá of the PAIGC, won in the first round 35.45%. He was defeated in the secound round by the non-partisan candidate João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira . He got 46.65 %, where Veiria won 52.35 %.

NATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE

The party was founded in what was then Portuguese Guinea by the Marxist Amílcar Cabral in 1956 , with the aim of achieving independence for Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea .

In the 1950s , Portuguese Guinea was the poorest and least developed Portuguese colony in Africa , though it was prized for its Strategic position, as it acted as a stepping stone from Portugal to her colonies in Mozambique and Angola .

In 1959 , the Pijiguiti Massacre took place, with Portuguese soldiers opened fire on protesting dockworkers, killing 50. This massacre caused a large segment of the population to swing towards the PAIGC's push for independence. Portugal, however, still considered the PAIGC to be a joke, and took no serious action in trying to suppress it.

In ), a common party to coordinate the struggles for independence of Portuguese colonies across Africa. The three groups were often represented at international events by the CONCP.

The PAIGC was originally a peaceful movement, their first strategy being requests for the Portuguese to peacefully withdraw from their Guinea colony. As this failed, however, the PAIGC turned to more violent measures to achieve independence.

Armed struggle against the Portuguese began in March 1962 with an abortive attack by PAIGC guerillas on Praia . Guerrilla Warfare was largely concentrated to the mainland Guinea, however, as Logistical reasons prevented an armed struggle on the Cape Verde islands. On the Cape Verde islands PAIGC worked in a clandestine manner. After being nearly crippled militarily, Amílcar Cabral ordered that Sabotage be the PAIGC's main weapon until Military strength could be regained.

In January 1963 , Cabral declared full scale war against the Portuguese, and on January 23 , the Portuguese fortress at Tite came under heavy gunfire from PAIGC guerillas. Frequent attacks in the north also took place. In that same month, attacks on Police stations in Falacunda and Buba were carried out not only by the PAIGC but also by the short lived FLING .

In the context of the ongoing Cold War , PAIGC guerillas received Kalashnikov s from the USSR , Bazooka s from Cuba and Recoilless rifles from the People's Republic Of China . Guerillas were also trained in these countries.

The first party congress took place at liberated Cassaca in February 1964 , in which both the political and military arms of the PAIGC were assessed and reorganised, with a regular army ( Revolutionary Armed Forces Of The People , FARP) to supplement the guerilla forces (The People's Guerillas).

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Throughout the war, Portugal handled themselves poorly: it took them a long time to finally take the PAIGC seriously, diverting aircraft and troops based in Guinea to the more serious conflicts in Mozambique and Angola, and by the time that the Portuguese government began to realised that the PAIGC was a serious threat to their continued rule over Guinea, it was too late. Very little was done to try and curtail the guerilla operations; the Portuguese didn't try to sever the link between the populace and the PAIGC until very late in the war, and as a result, it became very dangerous for Portuguese troops to operate far from their fortresses.

Following the loss of Como Island, the Portuguese army, navy and the FAP began Operation Tridente, a Combined Arms operation to retake the Island . The PAIGC fought fiercely, and the Portuguese took heavy casualties and gained ground slowly.

Finally, after 71 days of fighting and 851 FAP combat sorties, the island was taken back by the Portuguese. However, less than two months later, the PAIGC would retake the island, as the Portuguese operation to capture it had depleted much of their invasion force, leaving the island vulnerable.

Como Island ceased to be of strategic importance to Portugal following establishment of new PAIGC positions in the south, especially on the Cantanhez and Quitafine Peninsula s. Large numbers of Portuguese troops on these peninsulas were encircled and besieged by guerillas.

By 1967 , the PAIGC had carried out 147 attacks on Portuguese barracks and army encampments, and effectively controlled 2/3rd of Portuguese Guinea. The following year, Portugal began a new campaign against the guerillas with the arrival of the new governor of the colony, António De Spínola . Spínola began a massive construction campaign, building School s, Hospital s, new Housing and improving Communications and the Road system, in an attempt to gain public favour in Guinea.

However, in and Defoliant s, the former to destroy guerillas when they could find them, the latter to try and decrease the number of ambushes that occurred when they could not.

Spínola's tenure as governor marked a turning point in the war: Portugal began to win battles, and in a daring raid on Conakry , in the neighbouring Republic Of Guinea , 400 amphibious troops attacked the city and freed hundreds of Portuguese Prisoners Of War kept there by the PAIGC.

The USSR and Cuba began to send more weapons to Portuguese Guinea via Nigeria , notably several Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft to use as bombers.

In , not by the Portuguese, but rather by a disgruntled former associate. Independence was unilaterally declared on September 24 1973 and was recognized by a 93-7 UN General Assembly vote in November {Link without Title} , unprecedented as it denounced illegal Portuguese aggression and occupation and was prior to complete control and Portuguese recognition.

Though the Portuguese army in the Guinea colony began to start winning battles more frequently, the government in Lisbon was on the verge of Bankruptcy , and in 1974 , following a Coup D'état , the Portuguese government began to negotiate with the PAIGC, and on October 10 , independence was granted, and Luís Cabral , brother of Amilcar, became the country's first president.

1,875 Portuguese soldiers (out of 35,000 stationed in Portuguese Guinea) and some 6,000 (out of 10,000) PAIGC troops were killed by the end of the 11 year war.

POST-INDEPENDENCE HISTORY

After achieving independence, PAIGC was instituted as the sole legal political party of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Luís Cabral became the president of Guinea-Bissau. PAIGC strived for a union between Guinea-Bissua and Cape Verde, but in 1980 the union finally broke down, following the military take-over by João Bernardo Vieira against Cabral, who was of Capeverdean origin. The Cape Verdean branch of PAIGC was converted into a separate party, the African Independence Party Of Cape Verde (PAICV)

The youth wing of PAIGC is called African Youth Amilcar Cabral (''Juventude Africana Amilcar Cabral'') and the women's wing is called Democratic Union Of The Women Of Guinea (''União Democrática das Mulheres da Guiné'').

EXTERNAL LINKS

Official PAIGC website, in Portuguese

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African Party For The Independence Of Guinea And Cape Verde