Hélder Vieira Dias

Who is Hélder Vieira Dias?

General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Jr, known by the nickname "Kopelipa", is director of the National Reconstruction Office, a top governmental position in Angola. He is — along with fellow "top generals" Francisco Higino Carneiro, João Maria de Sousa, Roberto Leal Monteiro, and Kundi Paihama — one of the military leaders holding top ministerial posts for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the political party that has ruled Angola since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. The general has been referred to as "the highest and most trusted member of the president’s entourage".