Rui Baltazar Explained

Rui Baltazar
Birth Name:Rui Baltazar dos Santos Alves
Office:Minister of Finance
Term Start:1978
Term End:1986
Predecessor:Salamão Munguambe
Successor:Abdul Magid Osman
Office1:Minister of Justice
Term Start1:1975
Term End1:1978
Successor1:Teodato Hunguana
Office2:Member of the Assembly of the Republic
Term Start2:1975
Term End2:1992
Birth Date:1933
Birth Place:Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique
Alma Mater:University of Coimbra
Party:FRELIMO

Rui Baltazar dos Santos Alves (born 1933) is a Mozambican lawyer, politician, and university professor who was an active supporter of FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence.

Biography

Baltazar was born in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) to a Portuguese Mozambican family. During colonial rule, he used his position as an attorney to defend political prisoners of the Portuguese authorities, and upon independence was appointed the first Minister of Justice People's Republic of Mozambique. In 1975, he also helped draft the Constitution of the newly independent nation. In 1978, he was appointed Minister of Finance, a position he held until 1986. In April 1986, he became rector of Eduardo Mondlane University, where he taught human rights law. He was also a member of the Mozambique Parliament from 1975 to 1992 and was Mozambique's representative to the EEC-ACP assembly. He signed the Lomé Convention on behalf of Mozambique in 1986.[1]

In 1994, Baltazar was nominated as the Mozambican ambassador to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway and in 2002 became special advisor to the President of the SADC.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Darch, Colin . 2018 . Historical Dictionary of Mozambique . Rowman & Littlefield . 57 . 1538111357.
  2. Book: Abrahamsson, H. . 2003 . Understanding World Order and Structural Change: Poverty, Conflict and the Global Arena . Springer . 1403944059.