Mendes, Francisco
Mendes, Francisco
Born in 1938. State and political figure of Guinea-Bissau.
Mendes has been a member of the African Party of Independence for Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC) since 1960. From 1960 to 1964 he was a political commissar in partisan detachments, first on the eastern and later the northern fronts. He joined the Politburo of the Central Committee of the PAIGC in 1964 and the Military Council of Guinea in 1965. At the Second Congress of the PAIGC, held in July 1973, he was elected secretary of the Permanent Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Struggle of the PAIGC. At the first session of the National People’s Assembly, held Sept. 23-24, 1973, when the independent Republic of Guinea-Bissau was proclaimed, Mendes was appointed chairman of the Council of State Commissars.