A Strategic Partnership with Corruption

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The State Department has issued a press release, The United States and Angola: Deepening an Important Strategic Partnership, highlighting a former communist dictatorship that has pretended to be a democracy.  Technically, the oil- and diamond-rich country has a "new democratic process" being undermined by corruption. 
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Isabel dos Santos is the billionaire former first daughter of Angola. José Eduardo dos Santos was the leader of Angola and the communist "Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola" (MPLA.)

A Marxist movement, the MPLA still rules Angola but now claims to be opposed to corruption.

The State Deartment notes: In August 2017 the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party won presidential and legislative elections with 61 percent of the vote. MPLA presidential candidate Joao Lourenco took the oath of office for a five-year term in September 2017, and the MPLA retained a supermajority in the National Assembly. 

On the matter of corruption, State admits:

The government took some steps to prosecute or punish officials who committed abuses; however, accountability was limited due to a lack of checks and balances, lack of institutional capacity, a culture of impunity, and widespread government corruption.

In other words, Angola is still a corrupt dicatorship.

The book, Strategic Intelligence: Understanding the Hidden Side of Government, notes that the Soviet KGB supported the MPLA until its surrogate the Cuban DGI took over. 

The Soviets brag about this. See Unsung Heroes: The Soviet Military and the Liberation of Southern Africa, by Vladimir Shubin.

Ronald Reagan had a policy of aid for anti-communist freedom fighters, known as the Reagan Doctrine, but the George W. Bush Administration abandoned one of those freedom fighters, Jonas Savimbi, the legendary guerrilla leader of UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). UNITA had been fighting the MPLA for control of Angola.

Angolan government forces ambushed Savimbi and his troops in 2008 in a remote region of the southwest African country and he was reportedly shot 15 times.

CNS News reported:

Howard Phillips, Chairman of the Conservative Caucus called Savimbi a "great Angolan patriot, truly a man who served as a loving, self-sacrificing father to those of his countrymen who shared his love of freedom and who were willing to die to escape the bonds of Portuguese colonialism and communist tyranny."

But [the late] Phillips thinks the United States betrayed Savimbi. "Unfortunately, many Americans betrayed Savimbi's heroic friendship. Chevron and other oil companies and their minions in the top ranks of both major political parties degraded themselves for filthy lucre, even consenting to have their employees in Angola guarded by Fidel Castro's communist troops," Phillips said in a statement.

The State Department openly proclaims:

• U.S. companies have significant investments in Angola, particularly in the energy sector. GE, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cummins, TechnipFMC and Tidewater are all represented in the country.

• In 2019, a Chevron-led consortium announced plans to invest more than $2 billion to explore new offshore natural gas fields and increase gas production in existing fields, thanks largely to the Angolan government’s economic reforms and efforts to attract investment.

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