Trovoada, Miguel dos Anjos da Cunha Lisboa (1936- )

São Tomé and Príncipe politician, prime minister 1975-79, president and commander-in-chief 1991-95 and 1996-2001. Following independence from Portugal in 1975, Trovoada became the country's first prime minister, while Manuel Pinto da Costa, with whom he had co-founded the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP), became president. The MLSTP became the sole legal party. Relations between the two leaders turned sour and President da Costa abolished the office of prime minister in 1979 and Trovoada was demoted to the position of minister of industry, housing and fisheries. Later that year, he was charged with plotting against the government, was imprisoned for 21 months and then exiled to France in 1981. He returned in 1990 after a new constitution was adopted officially ending one-party rule, and was elected president. In 1995 Trovoada was deposed in a bloodless coup, but was soon reinstated after agreeing to pardon the soldiers who participated in the coup. International threats to cut off aid to the country hastened the government's restoration. In 1996 Trovoada was re-elected to another five-year term, running against former president Pinto da Costa.

After Trovoada's return in 1991, the MLSTP lost the legislative elections and, running unopposed as an independent candidate, Trovoada won the country's first free presidential election. The MLSTP, which had dominated parliament since 1994, won a majority of seats in the 1998 legislative elections.

Trovoada was born in the city of São Tomé, and studied law at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. In 1960 he co-founded the MLSTP with his former classmate Manuel Pinto da Costa. The MLSTP then began operating out of its headquarters in Gabon. Trovoada held the post of secretary general for foreign affairs 1961-75, and was instrumental in gaining Organization of African Unity (OAU; later African Union) recognition for the MLSTP in 1972.