Aristides Maria Pereira

Born Sept. 17, 1923, in the Cape Verde Islands. A leader of the African Party of Independence for Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC) and a politician and statesman of the Republic of the Cape Verde Islands.

Pereira graduated from a school in Bissau as a radiotelegraphy technician. He was an employee at the post and telegraph office in Bissau, later rising to manager. He joined the national liberation struggle in 1956 and that same year helped found the PAIGC, becoming one of its leaders. An émigré from 1960 to 1964, Pereira returned home to become deputy secretary-general of the PAIGC from 1964 to 1973 and a member of the military council from 1965. After the murder of A. Cabral, he was elected secretary-general of the PAIGC at the party’s second congress in July 1973. Pereira is a member of the executive committee and the Permanent Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Struggle of the PAIGC. After the Cape Verde Islands proclaimed independence on July 5, 1975, Pereira was elected president of the republic. [19–1127–3; updated]