Open AccessThe Authoritarian Government of Angola learning High-Tech Surveillance
Author(s) -
Joana Bárbara Fonseca
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
surveillance and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.781
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1477-7487
DOI - 10.24908/ss.v15i3/4.6641
Subject(s) - authoritarianism , parliament , government (linguistics) , politics , political science , charge (physics) , front (military) , law , political economy , sociology , democracy , engineering , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
José Eduardo do Santos (JES), President of Angola, has been in charge since 1979, and is also the commander-in-chief of the FAA (Angola Armed Forces) and president of the MPLA, (the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, in charge of the country’s politics since 1975).Since 2011, inspired by the rise of the Arab Spring, some groups started group debates, trying to finding pacific ways to raise awareness to the authoritarian regime they were living. Consequently, the government dealt with them with extreme violence, using them as object-example of fear to whoever tried to oppose. In 2015, a group of 17 activists was arrested for reading a book in an open reunion, and accused of conspiring against JES’ government. One of the front men of this movement just spoke at the European Parliament in January 2017, though a month later he was suffering police violence again when joining a new manifestation in Luanda. In April 2017, a similar case happened to another group of activists, and the 7 remain in jail in poor health conditions.