A plane from Barcelona, Spain, with the body of the former president on board landed in the Angolan capital on Saturday evening, journalists noted. About 20 people were present at the airport to welcome the coffin of José Eduardo Dos Santos. Several children of the late president and his widow Ana Paula Dos Santos were also present. Onlookers applauded as the coffin, covered with an Angolan flag, passed by.
After months of legal battles in Spain, Ana Paula Dos Santos took advantage of the decision of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which entrusted her with her husband’s body, to repatriate it as quickly as possible to Angola.
The widow faced fierce opposition from her daughter-in-law, Tchizé Dos Santos. The latter wanted a burial in Spain because she accused the current president of using her father’s image to promote his re-election. A few months ago, when he started his campaign, João Lourenço, who has been leading the country since 2017, called for a vote to “honour the memory” of the late president. A “global shame” for Tchizé Dos Santos, who is at the heart of the accusations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds brought by João Lourenço against his family.
But the appeal filed with the Spanish justice system did not prevent the transfer of the remains. For the time being, there is little information about the funeral. The government is expected to communicate on the matter shortly.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who led Angola without division from 1979 to 2017, died on 8 July, aged 79, in a Barcelona clinic where he had been hospitalized after a cardiac arrest on 23 June.