Africa Monitor Intelligence
Angola: Lúcio Amaral, the ‘Political Exile’ Recovered by Lourenço
In the last major reshuffle of the FAA leadership before the 2017 elections, Gen. LÚCIO GONÇALVES AMARAL was seen in military circles as a natural candidate for the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and even for the future succession of the Chief of the General Staff, Gen. SACHIPENGO NUNDA, before the end of his term (second and last) or at the end of it. The choice of names, and even the movement of influences around them, constituted a first step in the necessary rebalancing of forces, in the area of Security and Defense, to which the regime would be subjected in the short/medium term, due to the succession of PR JOSÉ EDUARDO dos SANTOS.