It was just such absurdities which prompted a cameraman who visited our liberated zones in Niassa
Province in October of last year to comment (as quoted in an earlier issue of Mozambique Revolution): 'The Portuguese reports have begun to defeat their own objectives. For if FRELIMO had
been wiped out in June, how could they be wiped out again in August and now again in December?
The pattern which he then so correctly identified has merely continued. The very commander who
last year exhorted his troops to sieze total victory with a single blow (and later claimed just such a
victory) now, in April 1971, tells his men to 'go forth, fight and win'.'If the results live up to the
expectations, another — and perhaps decisive — step will have been taken to win the war and to
win the peace'. And perhaps the international press is poised, even now, to announce yet another
total victory!
The truth, is, of course, the exact reverse of these various claims (and such rhetoric cannot long
continue to conceal the defeats which the Portuguese are suffering on all fronts in Mozambique).
For far from being a 'great offensive' the Portuguese operations for 1971 are actually a desperate
attempted counter-offensive designed to contain our own advances. In fact, in Cabo Delgado we
are attacking the enemy on the outskirts of the capital, Porto Amelia; our fighters are operating on
both sides of the river Montepuez and opening new foci of armed struggle well behind the defensive perimeter claimed by the enemy.
In Niassa Province we have isolated the capital Vila Cabral, while at the same time extending the
armed struggle towards the South and East. In Tete Province, we control large regions North of
the Zambezi River. Our guerrillas have crossed the river and are operating in the Southern zone,
having already engaged in important battles throughout the whole of that zone, thereby directly
threatening the imperialist project at Cahora Bassa.
Thus, this fresh 'great offensive' found our fighters and people not only prepared for it, with all
roads mined, the masses armed and guerrillas at their posts, but actually on the attack themselves.
And when the Portuguese entered the bush they were literally decimated, as can be confirmed from
the reports of our military operations which are published elsewhere in this issue. In the figures
which are now available one can already see yet another 'great offensive' smashed before it even
begins. In fact the only serious casualty of this year's futile military efforts may well be the myth
of Portuguese 'success' itself.
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