Cape Verde’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Brito, is to fly to Guinea-Bissau today along with the Portuguese secretary of state & foreign affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, following the assassinations of the President of the country and head of the armed forces. Brito will meet with other members of the CPLP (Community of countries of the Portuguese language) and the CEDEAO (Economic Community of African States), to discuss and analyze the future of the country.

President Joao Bernardo Vieira, who had ruled the country intermittently since 1980, was shot trying to flee his house on monday by renegade soldiers, after it became known that he had given the order for General Tagme to be killed.

In a meeting between the Brazilian and Cape Verdean governments in Praia, Santiago, an agreement was reached that $4 million dollars owed by Cape Verde would be converted into project funding for the education sector.

The debt, which had been building since the early 1980s and was in part from a loan to improve the telecommunications network, had been in negotiation in 1989, 1999 and 2006 and the two parties will meet again in March to sign an agreement.

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Cape Verde government revokes the bank’s operating license as Banco Insular is stripped of its status as an international financial institution

According to Cape Verde’s National Press website, Banco Insular, which has been connected with one of the largest financial scandals in Portuguese history, failed to meet “prudential norms, namely regarding the replacement of own funds, respect for the solvability ratio limit and respect for the credit risk concentration limit.”

In addition, the bank “has not respected the deadlines established by supervising authorities regarding the submission of annual reports and the presentation of audited accounts, with no plausible justification.”

Banco Insular was created in 1997 and began its activities in Cape Verde in the second half of 1998. In 2002, it was acquired by Insular Holding Limited in London.

Source (A semena)

The vice-president of the Canary Islands, José Manuel Soria, who is currently on a visit to Cape Verde, confirmed the interest of the Canaries to “widen the cooperation with Cape Verde”.

In a statement made to the press after the meeting with the Cape Verdean secretary of State of the Economy, José Manuel Soria pointed that the cooperation between the two countries has been “very fortuitous”, and announced new initiatives of contribution in the economic, enterprise and cultural sectors. “Our objective is to express to the Cape Verdean government, the support of the Canarian government by deepening the bilateral relations in the economic and enterprise sectors”.

Newly elected president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, intends to establish a good relationship with the archipelago of Cape Verde to help to build and promote a more secure world. In a short message, the President stated “I hope to work with you to construct a more secure world during the next four years and to promote a good relationship between our two countries”.

Barack Obama went on to thank Cape Verdean president, Pedro Pires, for his message of congratulations upon his election.