Portugal: José Maria Neves visits Odair Moniz's family to express his solidarity

“The visit was to express my solidarity with this family that was a victim of this misfortune and to show that we can live together, we can have a community here that is peaceful, that is a hard-working community, that can integrate well into Portuguese society,” he said in statements to Inforpress.

According to the President of the Republic, Cape Verdeans can also contribute to the growth of Portugal and the growth of Cape Verde, taking the opportunity to tell Cape Verdeans that when there is disrespect for their rights, with acts of violence, the response must be with great serenity, tranquility and appealing to the intervention of institutions and respecting them and also respecting the laws of the host country.

“That is what is being done. The family already has a lawyer, they are already working with the courts to restore their rights and it is along these lines that we must continue to work as a peaceful community, a community that wants to integrate and wants to contribute to the development of Portugal”, he said, stressing that the “family is very exhausted by this whole situation”, but that they welcomed him “very well”.

For José Maria Neves, the important thing is to show that we want legal emigration, which is an added value for the development of Portugal, because what we want is for there to be people who want to find new opportunities in life, but in a legal way, respecting all existing rules, maintaining that “between governments, between countries, there must be effective cooperation in this area”.

The visit by the Cape Verdean Head of State to the family of Odair Moniz was the first stop on a three-day official visit to Portugal, with the agenda including participation in the 10th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, which will take place between 25 and 27 November in Cascais, in addition to a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro.

The widow Mónica Moniz, her two sons aged 20 and 3, and Mónica's sister, Sílvia Silva, received the Head of State, who was accompanied by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miryan Vieira, and the Cape Verdean ambassador to Portugal, Eurico Correia Monteiro.

Odair Moniz, a 43-year-old Cape Verdean resident in the Zambujal neighborhood of Amadora, was fatally shot by a PSP agent in Cova da Moura, in the early hours of October 21, also in the same municipality, triggering incidents in several communities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

The authorities have launched investigations, but no conclusions are yet known, and the agent has given statements to the Judicial Police, but has not yet done so before the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Inforpress/End