Police today dispersed a crowd of supporters in central Maputo using gunfire and tear gas, listening to presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, an hour after he returned to the country, with people being hit.
During his speech in the Mercado Estrela area, at around 10 am local time (two hours less in Lisbon), Venâncio Mondlane once again said, as he did in statements to journalists upon arrival at the airport, that he will go to any lengths to restore the electoral truth, reaffirming himself as the winner of the general elections of October 9th.
After a few minutes, when he spoke to supporters on top of a sound car, in which he symbolically took the oath of office again, and after several shots and tear gas thrown in the surroundings by the police, a police charge caused a general escape. , right after the call for demobilization, in the face of the sound of gunshots, launched by Venâncio Mondlane.
"When we got here the police came in bursts. They killed one, two, three. The bullet is here," said one of the supporters, Nélson Fumo, outraged, still at Estrela.
Moments of chaos followed, with bursts of gunfire and new tear gas launches, after a procession of thousands of people accompanied Venâncio Mondlane's car from the airport to the center of Maputo.
"Let everyone kill us, except our president," said Nélson Abrenjare, another supporter, shortly after the police charge, adding the objective: "To restore true freedom, this has nothing to do with freedom."
At the same time, Oliveira Chingone assured, when bursts of gunfire could still be heard in the area: "We will fight in the name of our country. Frelimo will not govern."
These supporters ended up fleeing through several surrounding streets, with police continuing to fire shots and launch tear gas.
Since this police charge, Venâncio Mondlane's whereabouts are unknown.
The presidential candidate arrived in Maputo today at around 8:20 am local time (two hours less in Lisbon), after two and a half months outside the country, and then headed to the center of the Mozambican capital with his entourage surrounded by thousands of people.
Speaking to journalists at the airport, Mondlane accused the Mozambican authorities of "a kind of silent genocide" in the repression of the contestation of the results of the general elections of October 9, but said he was available for dialogue and negotiation.
The candidate justified his return by saying that he could not remain outside the country when the people "are being massacred."
Clashes between police and protesters have already left almost 300 people dead and more than 500 people shot since October 21, according to civil society organizations following the process.
The Public Prosecutor's Office has opened proceedings against the presidential candidate, as the mastermind behind demonstrations that, in the province of Maputo alone, caused damage, due to the destruction of public infrastructure, to the value of more than two million euros.
The Supreme Court has previously stated that there is no arrest warrant issued for Mondlane in the courts.
On December 23, the Constitutional Council, the final court of appeal in electoral disputes, proclaimed Daniel Chapo, a candidate supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power), as the winner of the presidential election, with 65.17% of the votes, as well as the victory of Frelimo, which maintained its parliamentary majority.
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