[1] On November 14, 1980, a coup d'état by João Bernardo Vieira against "foreign" mestiços overthrew the government of Luís Cabral (half-brother of Amílcar) in Guinea-Bissau, leading to Cape Verde separating under Pedro Pires on January 20, 1981 and forming the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV).

Guinea-Bissau was, like other "non-aligned" African states, closer to the Soviet Union, while Cape Verde, nominally Marxist, formed relations with Western countries due to a dependence on food imports following drought.

[1] After multi-party politics was introduced in Cape Verde in 1990, the victorious Movimento para Democracia changed the flag and national anthem away from being similar to that of Guinea-Bissau.

The Cape Verde president Peres also mediated during the violent 2005 presidential election campaign in Guinea-Bissau, and following the 2009 assassination of Vieira.

[1] The air connection between the countries operated by TACV, which had been suspended following the April 2012 coup in Guinea-Bissau, was restored in June 2015 during a visit of Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves to Bissau to meet Domingos Simões Pereira and discuss economic and business relations.

Despite their shared language and culture, immigrants from Guinea-Bissau are often viewed as "manjacos", a derogatory term used for people from mainland Africa[1] and the legalisation of Guinea-Bissauans in Cape Verde has been long delayed.