Alcora Exercise
| Formation | 14 October 1970 |
|---|---|
| Founder |  South Africa,  Portugal |
| Type | Military alliance |
| Purpose | Internal and external defense |
| Headquarters | Pretoria |
Region served | Southern Africa |
| Membership | South Africa Portugal Rhodesia |
Official language | English, Portuguese, Afrikaans |
Director-General, PAPO | Major-General Clifton |
Main organ | Alcora Top Level Commission (ATLC) |
Alcora Exercise (Template:Lang-pt, Template:Lang-af) or simply Alcora was a secret military alliance between South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia, 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").
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 South West Africa and Rhodesia and to prepare the defense of the Portuguese, South African and Rhodesian territories against an expected conventional military aggression from the hostile governments of the African neighbor countries.
Alcora was the formalization of informal agreements on military cooperation between the local Portuguese, South African and Rhodesian military commands that had been put in place since the mid-1960s. Alcora was kept secret and referred as an exercise (not an alliance or treaty), mainly due to the pression of the Portuguese Government, that feared the external and internal political issues the would be raised if it appeared associated to the Apartheid regime of South Africa and the minority rule in Rhodesia, in a contradition with the official Portuguese doctrine of the existence of racial equality in Angola and Mozambique.
Under Alcora, South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia cooperated in the Angolan War of Independence, the Mozambican War of Independence, the South African Border War and the Rhodesian Bush War.
The Alcora alliance collapsed due to the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of the 25 April 1974 and the subsequent independence of Angola and Mozambique that followed.[1][2]
References
- ^ Afonso, Aniceto; Carlos de Matos Gomes (2013). Alcora. Divina Comédia. ISBN 978-989-8633-01-9.
- ^ A military alliance between Portugal and African states that few knew about, Irish Times 25 April 2014