{{Short description|Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 1973 to 1978}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Francisco Mendes | image = ChicoMendes.tiff | image_size = | caption = Chico Mendes at his wedding party in Ziguinchor, Senegal (1973) | order = 1st | office = Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau | term_start = September 24, 1973 | term_end = July 7, 1978 | president = Luís Cabral | governor-general = | monarch = | predecessor = | successor = Constantino Teixeira | constituency = | majority = | office2 = | term_start2 = | term_end2 = | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | constituency2 = | majority2 = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1939|2|7}} | birth_place = Enxude, Portuguese Guinea<br />(present-day Guinea-Bissau) | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1978|7|7|1939|2|7}} | death_place = Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | party = African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde | fields = | spouse = | children = | occupation = Politician | signature = | alma_mater = | footnotes = }} [[File:ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - 10 15 - Chico Mendes' marriage in Ziguinchor, Senegal - Wedding cake - 1973.tiff|thumb|Chico Mendes' marriage party in Ziguinchor, Senegal with Luís Cabral to the right of the cake, 1973]] '''Francisco Mendes''', popularly known by his ''nom de guerre'' as '''Chico Té''' (February 7, 1939 – July 7, 1978), was a Bissau-Guinean politician and revolutionary. He was the country's first Prime Minister and held that position from September 24, 1973, until he died in a suspicious car accident on July 7, 1978.
==Early career== Mendes was born on 7 February 1939 in Enxude, Guinea-Bissau.<ref name="paigcleaders">{{cite book |last1=Coutinho |first1=Ângela Sofia Benoliel |title=Os dirigentes do PAIGC (Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e de Cabo Verde): da fundação à rutura 1956-1980 |date=2017 |publisher=Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra |location=Coimbra |isbn=978-989-26-1154-9}}</ref> In the early 1960s, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) launched an armed struggle against Portuguese imperialism which would last more than a decade. Mendes was one of the few Guinea-Bissau students in secondary education when he abandoned school to join the PAIGC. He rose through the ranks in the 1960s, becoming a political commissar of the Bafatá area in 1962. In the years 1963–1964 he held the same function on the Northern Front. He entered the Political Bureau in 1964 and he became a member of PAIGC's Council of War in 1965. In 1967 he was appointed delegate of the Council for the Northern Front.<ref>https://escolatchicote.wixsite.com/tchicote/fransisco-mendes-tchico-te| {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616001628/https://escolatchicote.wixsite.com/tchicote/fransisco-mendes-tchico-te |date=2023-06-16 }} Chico Té</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/Guinea-Bissau.htm|title=The Banknotes of Guinea-Bissau|first=Peter|last=Symes|publisher=|accessdate=20 July 2016}}</ref>
==Prime minister== After negotiations between Portugal and PAIGC in early 1974, Portugal granted independence to Guinea-Bissau despite PAIGC having declared unilateral independence nearly a year prior. The PAIGC-led government was headed by Luís Cabral, half-brother of the PAIGC co-founder Amílcar Cabral whose assassination in Conakry on January 20, 1973, remains a mystery. Francisco Mendes was elected the country's first Prime Minister as ''Comissário Principal'' and in this role in the newly UN-member, Francisco Mendes was responsible for a series of socialism-inspired development programs, and a four-year drive toward national reconciliation. Mendes' signature graced the first four banknotes (10, 50, 100 and 500 peso) issued in 1976 in Guinea-Bissau.<ref name="auto"/>
Although the causes behind his death on July 7, 1978, are still disputed, it is mostly accepted that PAIGC was involved in it. A widely accepted theory – though unverifiable as of 2006 – is that dissent among PAIGC leadership may have led to his assassination.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}
==Honours== As an African nationalist and a national figure in the struggle for independence, Francisco Mendes has been honoured both in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. In addition to his face being featured on 500 Pesos Guineense (second (1983) and third (1990) issues),<ref name="auto"/> many schools and streets bearing his name can be found throughout Guinea-Bissau, and Francisco Mendes International Airport in Praia, Cape Verde was named in his honour.
thumb|left|Chico Mendes and Luís Cabral's wife at Mendes' marriage in Ziguinchor, Senegal, 1973, detail
==Personal life== He married in 1973 in Ziguinchor, Senegal and left two sons and two daughters behind.
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==References== {{reflist}}
{{Prime ministers of Guinea-Bissau}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Francisco}} Category:1939 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Prime ministers of Guinea-Bissau Category:Assassinated Bissau-Guinean politicians Category:People murdered in Guinea-Bissau Category:Assassinated prime ministers Category:African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde politicians Category:Bissau-Guinean lawyers Category:20th-century lawyers Category:African politicians assassinated in the 1970s Category:Politicians assassinated in 1978