Gabriel Baccus Matthews

Who was Gabriel Baccus Matthews?

Gabriel Baccus Matthews was a Liberian politician. He was the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Liberia and the United People's Party and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liberia twice.

As a young man, Matthews joined the dissident movement against President William R. Tolbert. After the April 1980 coup in which Tolbert was overthrown and Samuel K. Doe came to power, Matthews became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time. Matthews was Foreign Minister until 1981. He later fell out of favor with Doe, who became increasingly dictatorial. During the 1980s, he was the main opposition politician in Liberia. In 1990, Matthews again became Foreign Minister, as Doe's death left the country without a stable government. Matthews was instrumental in bringing the ECOMOG Peacekeeping force to Liberia. He remained foreign minister until 1993 when he was replaced in a cabinet reshuffle. At the end of the civil war, Matthews stood unsuccessfully as the candidate of the United People's Party in the 1997 presidential election. In 2005, Matthews announced his support for George Weah in the 2005 presidential election.

Matthews died on September 7, 2007 after a brief illness.