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Alcora Exercise
| Formation | 14 October 1970 |
|---|---|
| Founder |  Portugal South Africa |
| Dissolved | 25 April 1974 |
| Type | Military alliance |
| Purpose | Internal and external defense |
| Headquarters | Pretoria |
Region served | Southern Africa |
| Membership | Portugal Rhodesia South Africa |
Official language | Afrikaans, English, Portuguese |
Director-General, PAPO | Major-General Clifton |
Main organ | Alcora Top Level Commission (ATLC) |
Alcora Exercise (Afrikaans: Alcora Oefening, Portuguese: Exercício Alcora) or simply Alcora[1] was a secret military alliance of Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa, formally in force between 1970 and 1974. The code name "Alcora" being an acronym for "Aliança Contra as Rebeliões em Africa" (Portuguese expression meaning: "Alliance against the rebellions in Africa").[2]
The official goal of Alcora Exercise was to investigate the processes and means by which a coordinated tripartite effort between the three countries could face the mutual threat to their territories in Southern Africa. The immediate goal was to face the African revolutionary movements that fought guerrillas wars against the Portuguese authorities in Angola and Mozambique, to limit the spread of the action of these movements in Rhodesia and South West Africa and to prepare the defense of the Portuguese, Rhodesian and South African territories against an expected conventional military aggression from the hostile governments of the African neighbor countries.[3]
Alcora was the formalization of informal agreements on military cooperation between the local Portuguese, Rhodesian and South African military commands that had been in place since the mid-1960s. Alcora was kept secret and referred to as an 'exercise' (not an alliance or treaty), mainly due to the pressure of the Portuguese government, that feared the external and internal political issues that would be raised if it appeared to be associated with the minority rule in Rhodesia and the apartheid regime of South Africa, in contradiction to the official Portuguese doctrine of the existence of racial equality in Angola and Mozambique.[4]
Under Alcora, Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa cooperated in the Angolan War of Independence, the Mozambican War of Independence, the Rhodesian Bush War and the South African Border War.[5]
The Alcora alliance collapsed due to the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 and the subsequent independence of Angola and Mozambique that followed.[6][7]
- ^ Guardiola, Nicole (2009). A aliança secreta do apartheid, Rodésia e Portugal (in Portuguese). vho.org.
- ^ Barroso, Luís Fernando Machado (2013). "Da Desconfiança à Aliança: Portugal e a África do Sul na defesa do "Reduto Branco"". Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. 38 (1). doi:10.26431/0739-182X.1125. hdl:10071/7770. ISSN 0739-182X. Archived from the original on 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
- ^ Meneses, Filipe Ribeiro de; McNamara, Robert (2013). "Exercício Alcora: O que sabemos, e não sabemos, sobre a Guerra Colonial". Relações Internacionais (in Portuguese) (38): 125–133. ISSN 1645-9199. Retrieved 2 April 2021.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Correia, Milton (28 December 2016). "Belicismo e desestabilização na África Austral: Exercício AlCORA e Operação Colt". Cadernos CERU (in Portuguese). 27 (2): 67–78. doi:10.11606/issn.2595-2536.v27i2p67-78. ISSN 1413-4519. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
- ^ Aniceto, Afonso (2009). "Guerra colonial : uma aliança escondida". Nação e Defesa (in Portuguese). ISSN 0870-757X. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
- ^ Afonso, Aniceto; Matos Gomes, Carlos de (2013). Alcora (in Portuguese). Divina Comédia. ISBN 978-989-8633-01-9.
- ^ Murtagh, Peter (25 April 2014). "A military alliance between Portugal and African states that few knew about". Irish Times. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
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