João Viegas Carrascalão

Who was João Viegas Carrascalão?

João Viegas Carrascalão was an East Timorese politician. He was one of the candidates in the April 2007 presidential election in East Timor.

He studied topography and surveying in Luanda and specialized in cartography in Switzerland. He is president of the Timorese Democratic Union which he also co-founded. He supervised the August 11, 1975 coup which eventually started the civil war. The latter forced the governor, Lemos Pires, to flee as well as the Portuguese contingent stationed on the nearing island of Ataúro. Consequently Carrascalão moved to Australia and resided there throughout the Indonesian occupation. He integrated the leading agencies of the CNRT. He moved back when East Timor's independence was finally given.

In the 2007 presidential election, he took eighth and last place with 1.72% of the vote. He later served as East Timor's ambassador to South Korea from 2009 until his death in 2012.

He was the Director of Department of Geographical and Cadastral Surveys during the Portuguese Administration of Timor and was Minister of Infrastructure during the Transitional Government of East Timor by the UNO.