The São Tomé President was decorated on Tuesday by his Equatorial Guinean counterpart with the Grand Cross of the Order of Independence of Equatorial Guinea, "for his contribution to the process of accession and integration" of that country into the CPLP, it was announced today.
According to a post by the São Tomé Presidency on Facebook, Carlos Vila Nova was decorated by decree of the Equatorial Guinean President, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and took place on the day that Equatorial Guinea celebrated 10 years of its accession and integration into the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
The entry of Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish-speaking country, as a member state was approved at the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the CPLP held on 23 July 2014 in Dili, East Timor.
To celebrate, a session was held in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, attended by the São Tomé head of state, who holds the rotating presidency of the CPLP, and also by ambassadors representing the member states to the CPLP and, representing the executive secretary, the director-general, Armindo Brito Fernandes.
On Monday, before travelling to Equatorial Guinea, the São Tomé president highlighted the abolition of the death penalty and the institutionalization of Portuguese as an official language in Equatorial Guinea as actions by that country to move closer to the "criteria for living within the CPLP".
When asked by Lusa about the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea in light of the criticism levelled at that country, Carlos Vila Nova said that he sees the issue "relatively" and compared it to the United States of America, which is a "great democratic nation, an example of democracy" and "has the death penalty in some states", but it is something that people live with.
"As far as I know, Equatorial Guinea had already ratified the exclusion of the death penalty from its Constitution even before the São Tomé Summit [...]. Even when it had, I remember that in the last 20 years no one had been executed, which is not the case with other nations. I am not making comparisons to justify this. I believe that they are on a journey, they are doing an exercise to get closer to what are the criteria for living within the CPLP, if we can contribute to this, we will do so, we will help", he declared.
The São Tomé head of state said that Equatorial Guinea had completed several stages and ended up adopting Portuguese as one of the three official languages.
"In fact, there will be no shortage of anything [in the integration process]. There are always those details, for example, we have to recognize that Equatorial Guinea will never be a fluent Portuguese-speaking country in the near future. But this exercise is being done [with] the introduction of Portuguese into public administration, introduction into schools, so this takes some time. These are generational acts", said Calos Vila Nova.
Vila Nova assured that "the CPLP has contributed politically in order to facilitate the integration of Equatorial Guinea and Equatorial Guinea is undertaking this process".
The CPLP is made up of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor.
