SHINE A LIGHT ON EVERYTHING! ON EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE CRIMES OF THE 31ST, WHOSE TRIAL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!
Without beating around the bush, I can say that I know JMN's political adventures and career almost as well as I know the palms of my hands. He may deny it, but he also knew a good part of my political career. We were close friends. We exchanged books and knowledge while our friendship reigned.
He at JAAC-CV and I at ASSOCIAÇÃO DOS ESTUDANTS DO LICEU DA PRAIA. This all up to the moment of the violent outburst! Until Paicv's order for the political extinction of the Students' Association - in which JMN played an important role! The political clashes between these two institutions were numerous and profound. Moreover, 1979 was a period rich in crimes and persecution committed by the Paicv in the country. The Brava case, against me and former President Jorge Carlos Fonseca. The departure from Paicv and the government of the so-called and invented "Trotskyist" group and then the violence and persecution that followed against them. And other cases that space does not allow me to explain here. And it's no coincidence that the archives of the former Political Police disappeared and never appeared again. And nobody talks about this crime! The archives belong to the State of Cape Verde and not to Paicv!
Then, for the first time under the shoulders of freedom, in the elections of January 13, 1991, we (JMN and I) clashed again in Assomada, Santa Catarina de Santiago. I was in charge of the MPD campaign in Santa Catarina. He was in second place on the Paicv list for the 1991 legislative elections. At the time, Santa Catarina had 7 MPs. We won 6-1. David Hopffer Almada was elected by the narrowest of margins, but JMN was defeated. It was JMN's first political defeat, especially in a contest in the cleaver where he was born.
However, at the time of JAAC- CV, in 1979, he surprised me with a deep stab in the back! A stab with a sharp knife that could change my life, my future and my dreams! He took part in drawing up the criminal JAAC-CV report, which served as the basis for the Paigc (government) not awarding us scholarships for higher education abroad. It was a dark and barbaric moment for JMN: to have participated in the process of cutting scholarships for young people like him! It was the shattering of a dream! It was Carlos Reis (Minister of Education) and Pedro Pires (Prime Minister) who formally took this criminal decision.
I know José Maria Neves reasonably well. He was from Pedra Barro in Assomada de Santa Catarina and I lived for a long time in Cutelo da Assomada, with a border only meters apart. However, the most intense interaction between us was at Liceu da Praia. José Maria Neves isn't that much of a flower. Even towards his party comrades. Many in the Paicv hate JMN. In 1979, he helped to screw up the future and dreams of many young people in Cape Verde. He, the Political Police, the JAAC-CV and above all the Ministry of Education (Minister Carlos Reis) were involved in the process of my expulsion from Praia High School, when I was still in my teens. Fortunately, the expulsion did not take place due to the timely and courageous intervention of history teacher Lídia Fragoso and the then Rector of Lideu da Praia, Henrique Oliveira, our friend Djik da Brava. They were the ones who saved me from expulsion by standing up to the then powerful Minister of Education, Mr. Carlos Reis. Despite all these adventures, I honestly don't hate anyone. As far as I'm concerned, I see them as the cost of fighting for freedom. Who made me go down that road? But I have zero regrets. It was worth it!
I must confess that I spent some time looking for the interpretation of JMN's malicious attitudes, as we were very good friends for a long time. JMN tried to take away the dreams and futures of dozens of young people his own age at the time! That's why he used to say: "Let's forget the past!"! These and other stories have always been hidden!
Irony of history: he had two scholarships (Portugal and Brazil) and I and many other young people were penalized for the sole reason of not accepting the salty and harsh one-party regime. However, I have no regrets. The people won their freedom and fought for democracy. The gains from this are obvious. That's what counts most.
JMN has enjoyed confusion (betrayal) since the days of JAAC. It doesn't mind making tears of suffering roll down the cheeks of its opponents! And for the only end: power! The struggle for power has completely changed my friend JMN. He's always been super ambitious! He always wanted to be in the limelight. At the time, he used to say that his political God was "Comrade Pires"! Later on, he also fought with Pedro Pires and was beaten up by the latter's fanatics at a Paicv Congress, in the venue's bathroom. He always fought to be the only rooster on the roost!
But on this Cape Verdean soil, where freedom springs from the dry land, the only rooster on the roost ceased to exist with the sudden death of the party regime and the principles enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
In 2011, he arranged a brutal war between Manuel Inocêncio and Aristides Lima, calling Aristides' supporters rats. The repercussions of that war are still reflected in the Paicv today. In 1991, he waged war on young people from Santa Catarina de Santiago, calling them "drug addicts and donkeys on the slopes"! For years, he waged an open and ugly war against Janira Hopffer Almada, whom he privately called a "fishmonger"! He orchestrated an eternal war against the so-called Reflection Group (Filú, Júlio Correia and many others), the so-called intriguists, rats and conspirators, in the words of José de Pedra Barro. Against this group JMN said and it is recorded: "Nobody wins an election in the Paicv against the will of its President (that is, against JMN).
The great ongoing war between Francisco and Nuías had the hidden and hard and efficient hands of JMN, using as always all the power of the institution of the Presidency of the Republic. Everyone knows that Nuías wouldn't have gotten very far if it hadn't been for the visible and invisible support of the JMN. Support in every sense! Take a close look at the confusion that JMN is once again creating within the Paicv! He was the singular promoter (and will continue to be) of the permanent war against the UCS government. The greatest living and known opponent of this government is undoubtedly JMN. He even took SOFA to court and lost the case! He was even against the construction of the new US Embassy in Cape Verde! In a war of attrition, he vetoed and took the teachers' PCFR to court and fortunately lost the case again. He coordinates and articulates his voices with the leadership of the Paicv and certain unions. He's a President of the Republic who hasn't learned how to be President of the Republic. Because he wants to remain the hidden leader of the Paicv, in order to bring down the MPD.
And now, my God, without need, you want to harden your war knife! And now, my God, the scenario is worse and more dangerous! And now he wants to use his sharp war knife to divide the nation in half and revive the colonial policies of the old and damned parochialism between the islands! And now, my God, he wants to set the country on fire, because by force, with an egocentric, unspeakable outburst, he and a small group of super-wise men, who are more ideologues than linguists, want to impose, whatever the cost, the officialization of Creole! And he says it has to be now - to the beautiful taste of His Majesty, of His Majesty's dazzling and ambitious ego - at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence.
And finally, "last but not least", we can't forget what JMN did against Carlos Veiga - the man who was Prime Minister of the Republic. He offended Carlos Veiga in a live television debate. He called Carlos Veiga "corrupt", a "thief", invoking the much-hyped 2 million dollar Enacol affair, and said, frothing with hatred, that Carlos Veiga had received a bribe from CÉSAR DO PAÇO, former Honorary Consul of Cape Verde in Florida, USA. And now, in a game of shameful hypocrisy, he's coming up with the "champion" of democracy in honor of Carlos Veiga? These are very serious accusations, which touch and tarnish personalities, and Carlos Veiga should take JMN to court. Just as in 2006, on election day, live on Public Television, he shamelessly, without any sense of state, publicly stated that the MPD was being financed by international drug trafficking. Have the judicial authorities ever tried to investigate the dozens of public crimes committed by this man, who thinks he owns it all? Shame about the authorities and politicians we have!
And in the midst of all this regrettable and criminal mire, which is in the process of being repeated over and over again, where are the proceedings on the biggest scandal in Cape Verde's history: the infamous crimes of the 310?
