Xanana Gusmão

Biography

José Alexandre Gusmão, known as Xanana, was born in 1946 in Manatuto in Portuguese Timor to a family of schoolteachers. He left high school at fifteen for financial reasons, worked in a series of jobs and in the public service, and did three years of national service in the Portuguese army from 1968.

In 1975 he joined Fretilin, was briefly imprisoned by the rival UDT and became the party's press secretary; he filmed the declaration of independence on 28 November 1975, nine days before Indonesia invaded. He joined the armed resistance, and in 1981 a clandestine conference chose him to lead the Falintil guerrillas. In 1988 he left Fretilin to head a non-partisan national resistance council, and he drew world attention to the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre.

Indonesian troops captured him near Dili in November 1992. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993, later reduced to 20 years, and continued to lead the resistance from Cipinang prison in Jakarta until his release after the 1999 independence referendum. Returning to Dili, he led the transitional National Consultative Council and in April 2002 was elected the first president of independent Timor-Leste with 83 percent of the vote.

During the 2006 crisis he forced the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. In 2007 he founded the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) and became prime minister of a coalition government, serving until 2015; in 2008 his motorcade was fired upon during the attacks that wounded President José Ramos-Horta. He later served as planning minister and chief negotiator of the 2018 maritime boundary treaty with Australia, and became prime minister again in July 2023 after the CNRT's election victory.