SAMORA MOISES MACHEL - MOZAMBIQUE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06762105
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-01461
• Publication Date: August 3, 1983

Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06762105
Sonora Mcs MACHF.L
(Phonetic: ntaSHEL)
President
(since June 1975)
ANressed
Mr. hushless
Santora Machel publicly espouses a Marxist-
Leninist revolutionary philosophy that he tempers
with his own brand of Dramatis*
He has served as
president of the Front for the Liberation of
Mozambique (FRELIMO) since May 1970 and
theoretically shares power with the other members
of the FRELIMO Executive Committee. In fact,
he dominates the regime and relinquishes only as
much mower as he ehonsell
MOZAMBIQUE
he has consolidated his power by purging political rivals and has
acted forcefully to impose a socialist-oriented state. Machel
recognizes that his regime has been made increasingly vulnerable jn recent years by his
country's deteriorating economy and the growing insurgent activities of the outlawed
Mozambique National Resistance Movement (NRMt an anti-Communist group that
receives support from South Africa.
Machel has accepted extensive military aid from the Soviet UnionL
since 1980 he has made cautious moves toward the West in order to
attract Western investment in and development aid to his country. Mozambique's relations
with the United States have .v
_________________Machal welcomed involvement in the search for peace in southern
nca and encouraged US cooperation in developing his nation's natural resources. In June
1983 he publicly called for all powers not bordered by the Indian Ocean to remove their
warships from the area
Mitchel and South Africa
idachel is concerned about taking any action that
would increase South African support for the NRM and has therefore been fairly restrained
in his opposition to the Pretoria regime. Those officials say, for example, that be has limited
his country's aid to the African National Congress (ANC), a South African dissident group
with bases in Mozambique. They add that oiler bombing by South Africa of alleged ANC
installations near Maputo in May 1983, Macke' took steps to limit ANC activities in
Mozambique and called for a continuation of talks between his country and South Africa.
(Embassy officials report that the South African Government nonetheless remains
suspicious of Machel's motives and has questioned his ability to significantly limit ANC
activities.)
Early Life and Career
After attending a mission school in Mozambique in the late 1950s, Machel worked in a
hospital and took nursing classes at night. He joined FRELIMO in 1963 and subsequently
ammo %Lit smile �...�
4
(cont.)
CR M 83-13714
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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receiving nine months of guerrilla training in Algeria. He then went to Tanzania to train
250 guerrillas, whom he later led in the initial attack against the Portuguese colonial
government in his homeland in 1964. The following year Michel assumed the task of
supervising the FRELIMO training camp at Keingwa. Tanzania, and by 1966 he had
become chief of guerrilla operations�a post he held until the end of the war in 1974. He did
not participate directly in the transition government that oversaw Portuguese withdrawal
from Mozambique (September 1974-June 1975). Instead, from FRELIMO headquarters in
Dares Salaam, Tanzania, he laid the plans for his country's first independent government
and heavily influenced the actions of FRELIMO members of the transitional government.
He returned to Mozambique only on the day before his inauguration in May 1975.
Currently, in addition to his other duties, he is Commander in Chief of the Mozambican
Armed Forces and head of the secret police. He holds the military rank of marshal
Pawed Data
Although Macho!, who is about 51, has a generally austere lifestyle, he enjoys some of
the trappings of authority, Ihey say he is impressive in
public appearances. They add that in conversations be is open and articulate and projects a
warm and witty personality. The President has visited the Soviet Union several times, most
recently in March 1983. He holds the Lenin Peace Prize (1977) and the Soviet Order of
People's Friendship (1980). He speaks Swahili, Portuguese, and some French and English.
Machel has been married at least twice. He has several children, including two by his
current wife, Grace, who serves as Minister of Education and Culture
2
3 August 1983
Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06762105