António Rosa Coutinho
António Alva Rosa Coutinho (born February 14, 1926 in Celorico da Beira , Portugal ; † June 2, 2010 in Lisbon , Portugal) was a Portuguese politician and admiral , who was commonly called "The Red Admiral". He was the last living member of the Junta de Salvação Nacional .
Life
António Rosa Coutinho was born in 1926 in a city in northeastern Portugal. At 18 he joined the Navy . During the military dictatorship he was a frigate captain .
His career as a politician began after the bloodless coup of 1974, the so-called " Carnation Revolution ", in which he was actively involved. He became one of the seven members of the Provisional Government, the Junta de Salvação Nacional , and was promoted to Vice Admiral. In the government he was responsible for the dissolution of the secret police PIDE and the Legião Portuguesa . On September 28, 1974, he was appointed High Commissioner for Angola . He was effectively head of government there, who initiated Angola's independence from Portugal and, among other things, handled it in the Alvor Agreement . In 1978, a letter came to light that Coutinho had written to Agostinho Neto in December 1974 as High Commissioner . In it, Coutinho had asked Neto to incite terror against the whites still living in Angola, thereby causing them to flee and thus to destroy “the capitalist structure in Angola”. He also proposed to Neto to remove the “lackey of imperialism, the Kanaille Mobutu” and to win the “Platform Zaire”.
After his military and political career, he was active in trade with Angola.
He received the title "The Red Admiral" because he was a sympathizer, but not a member of the Portuguese Communist Party . His bald head was also one of his trademarks.
Rosa Coutinho died on June 2, 2010 in Lisbon and was laid out in the Igreja de São Roque . He left a wife and a son.
literature
- António Rosa Coutinho , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 01/1976 of December 22, 1975, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)
- Antonio Rosa Coutinho. In: The Telegraph. June 16, 2010.
- Peter Steiniger: Farewell to the "red admiral". In: Junge Welt. June 5, 2010.
Footnotes
- ^ Claus Gennrich: Portugal's African trauma . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 2, 1978, p. 10.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Coutinho, António Rosa |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Coutinho, António Alva Rosa (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese politician and admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 14, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Celorico da Beira , Portugal |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 2, 2010 |
| Place of death | Lisbon , Portugal |