There has been serious unrest in Mozambique since the last presidential election was decisively won last October by Daniel Chapo of the ruling party FRELIMO. FRELIMO has in fact won every election since its liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism ended in victory 32 years ago. Bourgeois media everywhere are taking up the opposition’s claims of being cheated of victory by electoral fraud, but of course we have heard these cries of electoral fraud so many times before, whenever any election has been won by an anti-imperialist candidate. Moreover we have all too often witnessed the spectacle of opposition forces being encouraged, financed and armed for the purpose of overturning the election result by force, as, for instance happened in Ukraine in 2014 and many other countries.
Hence the situation in Mozambique has all the hallmarks of an attempted colour revolution. The New York Times tells us that “Since Dec. 23, when the nation’s top court upheld a disputed presidential election result in favor of the candidate for the long-governing party, at least 125 people have died in street protests across the country according to a civil society organization. That makes 252 deaths since the election in October, as protesters accusing the governing party, Frelimo, of rigging the election have repeatedly clashed with the police and soldiers.
“The top opposition candidate has declared himself the actual winner of the election and has called on Mozambicans to shut down the country.
“Tires have burned in the streets, buildings have been looted and vandalized, angry mobs have erected informal pay-to-pass roadblocks and hundreds of prisoners have broken free” (John Eligon and Tavares Cebola, ‘Why is Mozambique in chaos?’, 26 December 2024).
The New York Times professes grave concern for the situation because Mozambique is “a strategic port country connecting southern Africa to other parts of the world.
“Its offshore natural gas reserves have attracted the largest foreign direct investment ever on the continent” (ibid.).
Oh “And the country has been battling an Islamic State-backed insurgency for several years that Western powers fear could allow terrorist organizations to gain a foothold in the region if it is not contained”.
If Mozambique, a country with a 62% Christian population as compared to 19% Muslim, is having problems with an Islamic-State backed insurgency it is all too probable that this is a force mobilised by US imperialism to harass and if possible topple an anti-imperialist government. The New York Times is effectively signalling that US imperialism may need physically to intervene in Mozambique to advance its interests under the pretext of combatting the Islamic State, a similar scenario to the fraudulent basis in which it has put its troops into Syria.
Although the New York Times mentions natural gas reserves, this is not the commodity that most interests US imperialism at the present time, as is explained by South African blogger, Sizwe SikaMusi on X:
“In recent years, Mozambique has become an important source of graphite, which is a key mineral used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. In 2023, 60% of China’s graphite imports came from Mozambique.
“Interestingly, China produces 77% of the world’s graphite, and in 2023, announced a ban on exporting the mineral, as part of the ongoing trade war with the United States. This ban forced other countries, particularly the US, to seek alternative sources. This is important because the US imports about half of its graphite from China and is entirely reliant on imports for its natural graphite supply, with no domestic production since the 1950s.
“As part of the China/US trade war, the US has implemented tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, meaning they not only cannot get Chinese graphite, but they now need even more of it for their EV industry. The US needs all the graphite it can get its hands on. This makes Mozambique increasingly crucial for both China and the US.
“However, the US has a problem in Mozambique. Mozambique’s ruling party, FRELIMO and the Communist Party of China have a long-standing relationship dating back to the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism in the 1960s. During this period, China supported FRELIMO with military training, weapons, and financial aid. After independence in 1975, the relationship evolved into economic and political cooperation. China has invested heavily in Mozambique’s infrastructure, energy, and mining sectors, including funding roads, bridges, and energy projects which aligns with FRELIMO’s development goals.
“Needless to say, the FRELIMO-China relationship is very inconvenient to the United States. Basically, the US needs FRELIMO out. It would therefore be naïve to believe that the US has nothing to do with the ongoing unrest in Mozambique and that it’s somehow just an organic uprising by a fed up public. If you are still in doubt, go read up about how the US has used Colour Revolutions to topple governments all over the world, and you will immediately see their fingerprints all over Mozambique”.
Every support must be given to FRELIMO and the people of Mozambique in their struggle to resist their country being reduced to another US colony and source of immense imperialist loot at the expense of the local population.
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