Joao de Barros

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Guinea-Bissau A West African state between Senegal and Guinea which came under Portuguese influence in 1588, and which in 1879 became the colony of Portuguese Guinea. Soon after its transformation into a Portuguese overseas territory in 1951, resistance began to form under A. Cabral, who founded the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e de Cabo Verde (PAIGC, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) in 1956, demanding independence for both Portuguese Guinea and neighbouring Cape Verde from Portuguese rule. It quickly gained popular support in both countries, and in 1963 began armed resistance to the Portuguese authorities. It achieved independence on 10 September 1974, whereupon President Luìs Cabral (b. 1931) introduced socialist and anti-colonialist policies, with the support of Cuba and the USSR. Economic difficulties and resistance to political union with Cape Verde (many of whose immigrants were already resented because of their political domination within Guinea-Bissau) led to a coup which toppled Cabral in 1980. General Joao Bernardo Vieira was installed as President, and restored civilian rule in 1984. He opened the country to foreign investment and carried out economic reforms in conjunction with the IMF. Despite these, it remained one of the world's poorest countries, with an average annual inflation rate of 70 per cent (1985–93) and the world's lowest average life expectancy, 39 years, in the early 1990s. The first free elections took place on 3 July 1994, and resulted in a comfortable majority for Vieira's ruling party, the PAIGC. Viera was deposed in a military revolt led by Antsumane Mané, whose forces managed to bring the county under his control from 1998 to 1999. The elections in late 1999 resulted in only 25 seats for the PAIGC, which came behind the Partido para a Renovação Social (PRS) with 37 seats, and the Resistência da Guiné-Bissau with 27 seats. Kumba Yala of the PRS was elected President. Yala struggled to impose his authority on Mané, who led a renewed—but this time unsucessful—revolt. Mané was shot in November 2000. The political situation continued to be unstable, with all the three major parties being unable to compromise.

João de Barros , 1496–1570, Portuguese historian. Of noble family, he early entered the service of the prince who became King John III . The most important office he held (1533–67) was that of factor, or crown administrator, for Guinea and the Indies. His position gave him access to the documents of the Portuguese Empire in Asia and Africa and to the military and colonial officials that staffed it; he used this knowledge to produce his brilliantly written Décadas da Ásia (4 vol., 1552–53, 1563, 1615), a stirring narrative of the building of the Portuguese Empire.

Figueiredo, Joao Baptista de (b. 15 Jan. 1918, d. 24 Dec. 1999). President of Brazil 1979–85 After a career in the Brazilian army, in which he rose to the rank of general, he was one of the planners of the 1964 military coup. He was chief of National Intelligence until 1979, when he was appointed President by Geisel, whose social and populist gestures he sought to continue. Military rule was further relaxed, until in 1984 he oversaw the election of the first civilian as President in twenty-one years (with effect from 1985).