Frelimo: 1970 and 1974

Abstract

From late June through early July 1974, well over four hundred FRELIMO operations were reported in Mozambique. These included major sabotage attacks on the important Tete railway line which links Mozambique's port city, Beira, with the Tete District where the Cabora Bassa dam project is located, the dramatic capture and occupation for the first time by frelimo of a central town (Morrumbala), and the opening of a new front on July 1 in the Zambesia Province between the Indian Ocean and Malawi. This latter action has prompted the white farmers of the rich Zambesia agricultural district to appeal to the frelimo nationalists who, in turn, have assured them that “they have nothing to fear from nationalist action., “The resolve with which the Mozambique Liberation Front conducted military operations in the three months following the April 25 coup d'etat in Portugal was a sign of the absolute determination of the liberation forces to secure the establishment and recognition of a nationalist government in Mozambique. In fact, recognition of such a FRELIMO government has been virtually assured by what is currently the most powerful group in Portuguese politics: the “political” or “coordinating” committee of the Armed Forces Movement. The young officers who make up this committee remained a small and fairly anonymous body until mid-July and the formation of a second Portuguese provisional government headed by “the brain” of the Movement, Colonel Vasco dos Santos Goncalves, who succeeded Adelino da Pal ma Carlos as Prem.