Future Mozambique consul allegedly expelled from Portugal in the ’80s

Diplomat Rafael Custódio Marques will be heading the consulate of Mozambique set to open in Macau this year, a Macau Forum delegate told the Times. According to an AP report dating back to 1989, a diplomat named Rafael Custódio Marques was expelled from Portugal for alleged involvement in the assassination of Mozambican rebel leader Evo Fernandes.
The Times tried to contact Mr Rafael Custódio Marques, who is already in the territory, but he declined to be interviewed over the phone before press time. A source within his delegation also refused to confirm if the new consul is, indeed, the diplomat that was expelled from Portugal in the late 1980s.
In 1989, a diplomat working as third secretary at the Mozambican Embassy in Lisbon, named Rafael Custódio Marques, was expelled from Portugal. Days after, a Portuguese diplomat working in Mozambique, Mr Jose da Silva Pereira, was ordered to leave the African country in apparent retaliation for Portugal’s expulsion of Rafael Custódio Marques.
AP reported that Portuguese authorities had accused Marques of involvement in the killing of former Mozambican rebel Evo Fernandes – leader of liberation movement later turned political party Renamo.
The expulsion order was allegedly given after Mozambique refused to lift Rafael Custódio Marques’ diplomatic immunity. Portuguese authorities were seeking to question him on the assassination case. At the time, a man held in connection with Evo Fernandes’ assassination accused Rafael Custódio Marques of helping plan the killing.
The Times contacted the Judiciary Police in Portugal to confirm whether he had been implicated in Evo Fernandes’ case, but received no response by press time.
According to reports in the Portuguese media, Alexandre Chagas confessed to the murder, saying he was acting in the name of the Mozambican government. Mozambique would later deny involvement in Evo Fernandes’ death, claiming he had been killed as a result of infighting amongst rebels.
Several discussions concerning Mr Rafael Custódio Marques’ involvement in the assassination emerged in Mozambican blogs throughout the years.
Rafael Custódio Marques, the diplomat heading the delegation establishing the new consulate in Macau, told the Lusa news agency yesterday that the consulate will open within one or two months. He stated that the opening of a consulate in the MSAR shows that relations between Mozambique and China have grown.  CP