SAMORA MOISES MACHEL - MOZAMBIQUE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06762108
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-01461
• Publication Date: September 16, 1986

Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06762108
MACt-tEt., SAMoZA
Samora Moises
one
President
(since June 1975)
OF
President of the ruling Front for the
Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) since
1970, Samora Machel directed his country's
liberation struggle and has been the only president
since independence. To reduce persistent tensions
in the region, Machel concluded a nonaggression
pact called the Nkomati Accord with South Africa
in March 1984. He regularly discusses regional
issues with other African leaders.
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 received 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 Government in his homeland in 1964. The following year
Machel assumed responsibility for FRELIMO military training in 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 September 1974 until June 1975. Instead, from FRELIMO headquarters
in Tanzania, he laid the plans for his country's first independent government and returned to
Mozambique only the day before his inauguration as President. Currently, in addition to his
other duties, he is Commander in Chief of the Mozambican Armed Forces. He holds the
military rank of marshal.
VtOzAMBIQUE
_.------- -
MOZAMBIQUE
rt,
Machel, who will be 53 on 29 September, speaks Portuguese and several tribal
languages. Within the past year he has visited both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Married, he has eight children. His wife, Graga, is Minister of Education and Culture.
LDA M 86-12031
16 September 1986
Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06762108