Bissau: Uma cronologia

Before 15th century Much of what is now Guinea-Bissau becomes the Kingdom of Gabu within the Empire of Mali 1446-47 Arrival of the Portuguese. The territory later becomes a colony that is administered as part of Cape Verde Islands. 1879 The territory obtains an autonomous colonial administration. Colonization of the country is slow and violent, only becoming effective from the 1920s. 1951 Guinéa-Bissau is declared a Portuguese overseas province. 1956 Amílcar Cabral and other Guinean and Cape Verdean patriots create the Partido Africano para Independência de Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC – African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), with Cabral as its first secretary-general. 1959 A protest by dock workers at the Pindjiguiti docks to press demands for better salaries results in a massacre. More than 50 people are killed and hundreds wounded. The PAIGC changes its strategy, switching to mass mobilization in the countryside for an armed struggle now seen as inevitable. 1963 The PAIGC begins an armed struggle for national liberation. 1973 January: Amilcar Cabral is assassinated (20/1/73); September: The PAIGC proclaims the independence of Guinea-Bissau (24/9/73) with Luis Cabral as its first president. 1974 September: Portugal recognizes the independence of Guinea-Bissau (10/9/74). 1980 Cabral is toppled in a coup d'état, led by then Principal Commissioner (Prime Minister) João Bernardo Vieira. Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde become separate countries. 1994 João Bernardo Vieira and the PAIGC win the country’s first multiparty legislative and presidential elections. 1997 Guinea-Bissau joins the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), adopting the CFA franc as its currency. 1998-1999 An eleven-month civil war between the Government and a Military Junta results in considerable human and material losses. President Vieira resigns and goes into exile. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Malam Bacai Sanha, becomes as interim president. 2000 January: Koumba Iala is elected president. His Social Renewal Party (PRS) wins the parliamentary elections with a relative majority, followed by the Resistance of Guinea-Bissau (RGB) party with the PAIGC in third place. Caetano Intchama (PRS) becomes prime minister at the head of a PRS/RGB coalition government. November: General Ansumane Mane, chief of the Military Junta is killed in dubious circumstances. Reports later surface that he was executed by elements of the Military Junta. Some time before, he had publicly demoted senior military officials promoted by President Koumba Iala, including the chief of staff and deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, and placed them under house arrest. 2001 January: The RGB withdraws from the coalition government. March: Prime Minister Intchama is dismissed. He is replaced by Faustino Imbali December: Prime Minister Imbali is relieved of his post and succeeded by Alamara Intchia Nhasse. Nhasse remains in office until November 2002. May: The IMF and World Bank suspend assistance to Guinea-Bissau after development funds disappear without justification. 2002 November: President Iala dissolves Parliament, holds parliamentary elections and creates a Government of Presidential Initiative with Mario Pires as Prime Minister. 2003 September: President Iala is overthrown in a military coup (14/9/2003). The military and political parties sign a Transitional Charter, creating a transitional prime minister, president and council. Henrique Perreira Rosa becomes Transitional President and Artur Sanha Transitional Prime Minister. 2004 March: PAIGC wins legislative polls. Carlos Gomes Junior becomes Prime Minister. October: General Verissimo Correia Seabra, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, is killed following a mutiny by members of the military. General Tagme Na Wae replaces him. 2005 April: Ex-President Vieira returns after six (6) years in exile. May: Ex-President Koumba Iala occupies the Office of President, arguing that his mandate had not been completed. July: Presidential elections are held. João Bernardo Vieira, running as an independent, wins the polls, beating PAIGC candidate Malam Bacai Sanha. October: President Vieira dismisses the PAIGC government of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and appoints Aristides Gomes to head a new government supported by a Forum comprising factions of various parties that supported Vieira at the polls. 2006 October: Guinea-Bissau appeals for international help to combat growing use of its coast and islands for trafficking people to Europe. 2007 January: former Navy Chief of Staff Mamadu Lamine Sanha is assassinated. This leads to fighting between protesters and security forces in which one person dies. March-April: Prime Minister Aristides Gomes resigns after a vote of no confidence in parliament. The PAIGC signs a National Pact with other political parties. Martinho N’Dafa Cabi becomes Prime Minister. December: Parliament approves a bill granting amnesty for all offences against the State committed between 1980 and 2004. 2008: July: The PRS leaves the National Pact, which sparks a new political crisis. August: President Vieira dissolves Parliament and appoints Carlos Correia as Prime Minister to head a caretaker government until elections in November. Military Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto, accused of involvement in an alleged coup plot, is placed under house arrest, but escapes to The Gambia. November: The PAIGC wins legislative elections with an absolute majority. Carlos Gomes Junior is appointed Prime Minister. The President's house is attacked, but he escapes. 2009 March: General Tagme Na Wae, Chief of General Staff, is killed in a bomb attack in the headquarters of the Military High Command (1/3/09). One day later (2/3/09), President Vieira is assassinated. Raimundo Pereira, Speaker of the National Assembly is sworn in as interim president. June: Two PAIGC parliamentarians, Helder Proenca, and Former Defence Minister and presidential candidate Baciro Dabo, are assassinated. July: Malam Bacai Sanha wins presidential polls, beating Koumba Iala. December: Rear Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto returns from The Gambia and takes refuge in UN premises. 2010 April: members of the military led by General Antonio Injai stage a mutiny, detaining Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior [released shortly after] and Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Zamora Induta. Both are stripped of their functions. June: Gen. Injai is appointed Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. August: The European Union (EU) announces the suspension of the work of a mission that was supporting Defense and Security Sector Reform. October: The USA expresses reservations at the appointment of José Americo Bubo Na Tchuto as Chief of Staff of the Navy, considering him to be involved in drug trafficking. December: General Zamora Induta, is released, then placed under house arrest. The IMF states that Guinea-Bissau qualifies for HIPC status, paving the way for a large part of its debt to be forgiven. 2011 February: The EU suspends its aid to Guinea-Bissau. March: An Angolan technical mission, MISSANG, is deployed in the country to support Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces under a bilateral agreement. July: The opposition sends an open letter to the Prosecutor General demanding justice for the 2009 killings. Opposition groups, known as the “democratic opposition”, stage marches to demand the removal of Prime Minister Gomes. August: Lawyers for the families of Helder Proenca and Baciro Dabo lodge a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Gomes. October: The U.S. Treasury Department classifies Bubo Na Tchuto as a drug dealer. December: Prime Minister Gomes and General Injai denounce an attempted coup (26/12). Some senior military officials, including Bubo Na Tchuto, are arrested. 2012 January: President Sanha dies in France, where he was undergoing medical treatment. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, is sworn in as interim president. March: First round of the presidential elections April: The Government is overthrown in a military coup d'etat on the 12th of April. The military detain Acting President Pereira and Prime Minister Gomes. ECOWAS intervenes, and negotiates a transition period of one year. Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, acting Speaker of the National Assembly, becomes transitional president. Rui Duarte Barros, a former UMOEA Commissioner, is appointed Prime Minister. The UN Security Council imposes a travel ban on five senior military officials who led the coup. July: The Security Council condemns the continuing interference of the military in politics and expresses concern about reports of an increase in drug trafficking since the April coup and demands a return to constitutional order. October: The military and civilian authorities announce that a heavily armed group led by a Captain Pansau Intchama attacked the barracks of an elite military unit in Bissau (21/10), causing seven deaths, including six among the attackers. The authorities report N’Tchama‘s capture on Bolama Island (27/10). Some 20 people are detained in connection with the incident in subsequent weeks. November: The National Assembly begins its first ordinary session since the coup (15/11).