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On the 13th of July the Portuguese "Overseas" Minister
arrived in Mozambique, making his second visit to
this "province" since he began his term of office.
On this occasion the pretext is the inauguration of
the so called "Congress of the Communities of Portuguese culture". This is not, however, the real reason
for the minister's presence. The real reason is hinted
at in the final part of the Communique of the Lusit-
ania Hews Agency, which announces the visit. There it
is said that "The Overseas Minister will visit Cabo
Delgado, and this visit is awaited there with great
anxiety because the (Portuguese) population is hoping
that it will provide solutions for some of their most
pressing problems"*.
There is a certain parallel between this visit and the
one that McNamara, the American Defense Secretary
payed to South Vietnam earlier this month. McNamara
has already been to Vietnam 9 times before. By
annalysing the situation which preceeded these visits
we can see that each one coincided with a period in
which the American forces had suffered severe setbacks,
His presence was part of an attempt to revitalise an
army which had lost its initiative and was being
. defeated on all fronts.
The comparison with Mozambique holds good. For what is
the situation there which has precipitated this visit
of the "Overseas" Minister? What are those "pressing
problems" which affect the Portuguese population and
which, as they hope, the arrival of the "Overseas"
Minister is going to solve? Anyone who has followed
the evolution of the struggle in Mozambique will
know that, during the past months our liberation
forces have won a series of very important victories
over the Portuguese colonial army. Nearly every day
Portuguese soldiers fall into ambushes organised
by our guerrillas, while our forces are already able
to attack and destroy Portuguese military posts, such
as the one at MARERE, taken a few weeks ago,During
the period between the 9th of February and the 19
of May, in Niassa, and between the 1st of April and
the 7th of June in Cabo Delgado, our fighters
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