Lúcio Lara
Lúcio Rodrigo Leite Barreto de Lara | |
|---|---|
| Acting President of Angola | |
| In office 11 September 1979 – 20 September 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Agostinho Neto |
| Succeeded by | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 April 1929 Caála, Portuguese Angola |
| Died | 27 February 2016 (aged 86) Luanda, Angola |
| Spouse | Ruth Manuela Pflüger Rosemberg Lara |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Known for | Founding member of MPLA Anti-colonial ideologist Theorist of Marxism |
Lúcio Rodrigo Leite Barreto de Lara (9 April 1929 – 27 February 2016), also known by the pseudonym Tchiweka, was an Angolan revolutionary, physicist-mathematician, politician, anti-colonial ideologist and one of the founding members (and president) of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He served as General Secretary of the MPLA during the Angolan War of Independence and Angolan Civil War. Lara, a founding member of the MPLA, led the first MPLA members into Luanda on 8 November 1974. He swore in Agostinho Neto as the first president of the country.
He was acting president of Angola for ten days, from 10 September 1979 to 20 September 1979, briefly leading the country between the death of Agostinho Neto and the inauguration of José Eduardo dos Santos. He was a member of the Angolan parliament from independence until 2003.
He was the main ideologist and thinker of Angola's self-determination, as well as an important theorist of Marxism, being one of the biggest names in the country in the 20th century.