Two top aides of Venâncio Mondlane gunned down
Two senior people in the Venâncio Mondlane campaign were gunned down in their car in the early hours of this morning. A witness said that car was blocked on Avenida Joaquim Chissano in Maputo and two gunmen went to both sides of the car and shot and killed the front seat passengers. A third passenger was injured. The murdered men are lawyer Elvino Dias, who had been party agent (mandatário) of Mondlane's CAD party before it was banned, and Paulo Guambe, party agent of Podemos, which is the party that then backed Mondlane.
Elvino Dias is the main legal advisor to Mondlane and was preparing his complaint to the Constitutional Council, which must be filed this week. Marcelo Mosse, editor of Carta de Moçambique, wrote this morning that "Elvino was a shrewd lawyer, intrepid, with the tough fibre of a fighter. He made a splash last year in the murky local elections, litigating like a lone gladiator" to defend that fact that Mondlane had actually won the election for Maputo mayor. He would have been a key figure in legal challenges to this fraudulent election.
Assassinating senior political leaders is new and a major escalation of violence; previous killings have been of civil society leaders and local political figures.
In the press this morning:
https://www.facebook.com/Prof.adrianonuvunga/videos/403860956102761
