biography
| name: |
Costa, Manuel Pinto da
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1937– )
|
| biography:
| First president of the equatorial islands of São Tomé and Príncipe (1975–91), born in Aguada Grande, NW Venezuela. In 1972 he founded the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP) in Gabon, and in 1974, taking advantage of a military coup in Portugal, returned and persuaded the new government in Lisbon to recognize the MLSTP as the sole representative of the people and to grant independence a year later. He became president in 1975, and set his country on a politically non-aligned course. He retired following the defeat of his party in the first multi-party elections. He again lost narrowly in the 1996 presidential elections, although the MLSTP won a majority of National Assembly seats in 1998. |
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