In statements this Tuesday night to the foreign press, the Portuguese President declared that his country should bear the costs of colonization and slavery. During the celebration of the 25th of April last year, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had declared that Portugal should apologize for its colonial past.
Published to: 04/24/2024 – 19:33
2 min
It was at an event last night with foreign journalists, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that Portugal assumes full responsibility for the crimes committed in the Portuguese colonial past.
The Portuguese head of state claims that these crimes had costs. A cost that, says the President of the Republic, Portugal has to pay. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa assumes that it is necessary to evaluate how it is possible to repair actions that were not punished, those responsible who were not arrested, assets that were looted and were not returned.
The declaration by the President of the Republic of Portugal gains relevance as we mark the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April 1974, in celebrations that will be attended in Lisbon by the heads of State and Government of Portuguese-speaking countries .
A year ago, in the Assembly of the Republic, in the welcoming session for Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who had traveled to Portugal at the time when the 49th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution was being celebrated, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had already argued that Portugal should apologize but, above all, it should take full responsibility for exploitation and slavery in the colonial period.
These statements come in a context in which there have been growing demands from civil society organizations for Portugal and other former colonial powers to compensate the countries they occupied and for a special court to be established on the issue.
During practically the 500 years of Portuguese colonization, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and taken from their territories of origin to distant places, namely the American continent, where their strength was used in slave labor.
