Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco

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Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco (* 1960 in Lourenço Marques , Portuguese East Africa ) is a Mozambican political scientist , economist , university lecturer , publicist and human rights activist . He is considered one of the most famous people in Mozambican civil society. He is the founder of the Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos .

Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco

Life

Carlos Nuno-Castel Branco was born in 1960 in what was then the Portuguese colony of Portuguese East Africa, which declared itself independent in 1975. Castel-Branco and his family stayed in Mozambique despite a call from FRELIMO to all Portuguese to leave the country.

After he headed an adult school in Maputo for a short time (1976/77) , Castel-Branco was drafted into the state army ( Forças Populares de Libertação de Moçambique ), in which he served until 1983. At the same time he studied development sciences ( Estudos de Desenvolvimento ) at the Center for African Studies ( Centro de Estudos Africanos ) of the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, where he graduated in 1982 with a diploma. In 1983 he switched to the FRELIMO party as a civil servant. There he worked in the political department of the Central Committee until 1989. In 1989/1990 Castel-Branco worked briefly as a consultant in the Mozambican Ministry of Industry and Energy.

In the 1990s Castel-Branco devoted himself to his academic career. First he completed postgraduate training in Economic Development at the University of East Anglia in 1991 , which he completed in 1992 with a Masters in Industrial Development at the same institution. In 1997 he completed his Master of Science in Economic Development at the University of Oxford . In 2002 Castel-Branco completed his habilitation in economics at the SOAS with the topic: "Economia Política da Política Industrial: o caso de Moçambique" (Economic Policy of Industrial Policy: The Mozambique Case).

Together with other Mozambican scientists, Castel-Branco founded the independent research institute Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos . From 2007 to 2012 he headed this facility and is still one of the research group leaders here.

Castel-Branco still teaches at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane . He is also an Associate Researcher at SOAS and the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester .

Public work

Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco is one of the most famous people in Mozambican civil society. The former FRELIMO member regularly expresses himself critically about the party and state apparatus and denounces corruption, mismanagement, nepotism and the party's appropriation of the state. He is regarded as a critic of major state projects, such as Mozal , the Maputo – Katembe bridge, etc. Castel-Branco writes regularly for the newspapers MediaFax and Canal de Moçambique, which are regarded as opposition media .

In November 2013 Castel-Branco published an open letter to then President Armando Guebuza via Facebook . In this he accused the president of enriching himself at the expense of the country and of wanting to lead the country "into fascism". The letter was widely distributed in social networks, and the opposition media MediaFax, Canal de Moçambique and Verdade also printed the letter. As a result, the General Prosecutor of the Republic of Mozambique brought charges against Castel-Branco, Fernando Veloso (editor-in-chief of Canal de Moçambique) and Fernando Banze (editor-in-chief of MediaFax) for crimes threatening the “state security”. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International immediately protested. The criminal court of the district of Kampfumo finally acquitted Castel-Branco and the co-defendants Mbanze and saw the criticism of Castel-Branco and the dissemination of this covered by the freedom of expression guaranteed in the constitution.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco. Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Economicos, accessed July 30, 2015 (Portuguese).
  2. ^ Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco: Carta ao Presidente da República escrita por Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco. In: A Verdade. December 20, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2015 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ João Manuel Rocha: “Guebuza está a querer fascizar o país”. In: Público. March 2, 2014, accessed July 30, 2015 (Portuguese).
  4. ^ Mozambique: Drop All Charges Against Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco and Fernando Mbanze (WP 162/15). (No longer available online.) Amnesty International USA, July 21, 2015, archived from the original on September 6, 2015 ; accessed on July 30, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.amnestyusa.org
  5. ^ Urgent Action. Procedure regarding Facebook post. Amnesty International Germany, July 21, 2015, accessed July 30, 2015 .
  6. ^ Tribunal moçambicano absolve académico e jornalista. Deutsche Welle, September 16, 2015, accessed on September 16, 2015 (Portuguese).
personal data
SURNAME Castel-Branco, Carlos Nuno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mozambican political scientist, economist, publicist and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Lourenço Marques , Portuguese East Africa