Marcelino da Mata

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Marcelino da Mata, 1969

Marcelino da Mata (7 May 1940 in Ponte Nova, Guinea-Bissau – 11 February 2021- Amadora-Sintra, Portugal) was a highly military decorated Portuguese Army officer, born in Portuguese Guinea.^[1][2]

Early life and education[]

Marcelino da Mata was born in Ponte Nova, Portuguese Guinea and studied until completing the entire secondary education in Portuguese Guinea. When his older brother was conscripted into the military service he took his place. This was the start of a long and successful military career to Marcelino.

Military career[]

In the army, he distinguished himself as a polyglot with full understanding of many local and regional languages and dialects. His linguistic skills were very useful for the military and were always in high demand. He moved around Portuguese Guinea, which was being subjected to an intense guerrilla war instigated by foreign countries, integrated in many missions and operations and working on this capacity. Soon he would start to have a full understanding of the tactical aspects of guerrilla war and counterinsurgency operations and would master them. So he enrolled in special operations training courses and graduated as a commando. In the following years, Marcelino da Mata became known for his many acts of bravery and heroism during the Portuguese Colonial War. Having participated in 2412 command operations, he is the most decorated Portuguese military officer in the history of the Portuguese Army.^[3] Demobilized by the departing Portuguese military authorities after the Carnation Revolution of 1974 in Lisbon and the independence of Portuguese Guinea, a total of 7,447 black Guinea-Bissauan African soldiers who had served in Portuguese native commando forces and militia were summarily executed by the PAIGC after the independence of the new African country.^[4][5][6] He managed to escape the same tragic fate of other black Portuguese soldiers in Guinea-Bissau because he was in mainland Portugal in order to receive medical care due to a wound caused by a firearm accidentally shot by another Portuguese soldier shortly after the Carnation Revolution (which effectively ended the war) has taken place in Greater Lisbon, a Portuguese region where he would live the rest of his entire life. Not without being tortured by the Portuguese far-left in 1975 during a tumultuous revolutionary period called Processo Revolucionário em Curso (PREC).^[7]

Death[]

He died at the age of 80 years old at the hospital Dr. Fernando Fonseca in Amadora, Sintra, Portugal, from COVID-19 related complications on February 11th, 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal.^[8]

References[]

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