Dos Santos, José Eduardo << dohs SAN tohs, zhoh ZEH ehth WAHR doo >> (1942-2022), served as president of Angola from 1979 until he retired in 2017. He was succeeded by João Lourenço. However, dos Santos remained a powerful political figure.
Angolans had fought against Portuguese colonial control since 1961 and finally gained independence in 1975. But the major Angolan rebel groups failed to agree on how to govern, and a civil war began. In 1976, the rebel group to which dos Santos belonged, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), gained control and formed a Marxist government—that is, a government based on the philosophy of Karl Marx. Communism is also based on the teachings of Marx, but the MPLA denied that their government was a Communist dictatorship. António Agostinho Neto became president and made dos Santos foreign minister and first deputy prime minister. In 1978, dos Santos became the minister of economic planning. After Neto died in 1979, the MPLA chose dos Santos to become president.
Dos Santos tried to end the civil war and improve the economy, but his efforts were unsuccessful for many years. At first, he continued the MPLA policy of accepting foreign military support, including equipment and advisers from the Soviet Union and troops from Cuba. His opponents received aid from South Africa and the United States. But between 1988 and 1991, international agreements ended the foreign military involvement. In 1990, dos Santos and the MPLA abandoned Marxism. In 1992, dos Santos won the first round of multiparty presidential elections. But the opposition called the elections unfair, and fighting resumed. No second round of voting took place.
Dos Santos’s government signed a peace agreement with opposition rebels in 1994. However, in 1998 and early 1999, violence increased, and the peace agreement broke down. The fighting continued, mainly in northwestern Angola. In 2002, after government troops shot and killed long-time rebel leader Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, the two sides signed a cease-fire agreement.
In September 2008, multiparty parliamentary elections were held for the first time since 1992. The MPLA won the most seats in the election by a landslide. In 2010, Angola’s government enacted a new constitution. The Constitution eliminated direct presidential elections, instead giving the position to the head of the party with a majority of seats in the National Assembly. In 2012, the MPLA again won the most seats in the National Assembly, and dos Santos remained in office as president until he stepped down in 2017. João Lourenço was elected president, and dos Santos continued to lead the MPLA until September 2018.
Dos Santos was born in Luanda, Angola, on Aug. 28, 1942. He joined the MPLA in 1961 and went into exile later that year. From 1963 to 1970, he continued to work for the MPLA while studying in the Soviet Union. In 1969, dos Santos received a degree in petroleum engineering from the Institute of Oil and Gas in Baku, in what is now Azerbaijan. He also studied military communications. Dos Santos returned to Angola in 1970. He died on July 8, 2022.
