João Lourenço (politician)
| João Lourenço | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 3rd President of Angola | |
|
Assumed office 26 September 2017 |
|
| Vice President | Bornito de Sousa |
| Preceded by | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| Minister of National Defense | |
|
In office 22 April 2014 – 26 September 2017 |
|
| President | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| Preceded by | Cândido Pereira dos Santos Van-Dúnem |
| Succeeded by | Salviano de Jesus Sequeira |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
5 March 1954 Lobito, Angola |
| Political party | MPLA |
| Spouse(s) | Ana Afonso Dias |
| Children | 6 |
| Alma mater | Industrial Institute of Luanda Lenin Superior Academy |
| Nickname(s) | JLo |
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (born 5 March 1954) is an Angolan politician and current President of Angola since 26 September 2017. Previously he was Minister of Defense from 2014 to 2017. Since 2016, he is the Vice-President of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party. He was the party's Secretary-General from 1998 to 2003.
João Lourenço was designated in December 2016 to occupy the party's number 1 position in the August 2017 legislative election. In terms of the 2010 constitution, "the individual heading the national list of the political party or coalition of political parties which receives the most votes in general elections... shall be elected President of the Republic and Head of the Executive"(Article 109). As the MPLA won a majority of 150 seats, Lourenço automatically became President of Angola, succeeding José Eduardo dos Santos, in power for 38 years. Lourenço was officially sworn into office on 26 September 2017.
Born in 1954, Lourenço grew up in a politically engaged family of ten children. His father, Sequeira João Lourenço (1923-1999), a native of Malanje, was a nurse and nationalist, who served three years of imprisonment for illegal political activity. His mother, Josefa Gonçalves Cipriano Lourenço (1928-1998), a seamstress, was a native of Namibe. He received primary and secondary education in Bié Province and Luanda.
Lourenço studied at the Industrial Institute of Luanda and later participated in the liberation struggle in Ponta Negra, in August 1974, where he was part of the first group of MPLA soldiers to enter Angolan territory via Miconge, towards the city of Cabinda after the fall of the Portuguese colonial regime.
He began his military career fighting against the Portuguese in the Angolan War of Independence and fought as a member of the MPLA in the Angolan Civil War. Lourenço conducted his training in artillery and then became a political officer in the MPLA. In 1978, Lourenço traveled to the Soviet Union and studied at the Lenin Higher Academy, where he further his military training and completed a master's degree in Historical Sciences. He later returned to Angola in 1982. Now an artillery general, Lourenço turned towards politics and in 1984 was appointed as Governor of Moxico Province.
...
Wikipedia