General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Jr, known by the nickname "Kopelipa", is an Angolan general, former public official, and businessman with close ties to former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos.
[citation needed] Kopelipa belongs to an important Angolan family with strong ties to the MPLA.
[1] He is the nephew of Liceu Vieira Dias, who was a founder of the band Ngola Ritmos and the MPLA; the cousin of musician Ruy Mingas, who wrote the music for Angola Avante, Angola's national anthem; the cousin once removed of Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias, the Archbishop of Luanda;[2] and the cousin of opposition politician Filomeno Vieira Lopes.
[3] Kopelipa was director of the National Reconstruction Office, a top governmental position in Angola.
[4][5] He was — along with fellow "top generals" Higino Carneiro, João Maria de Sousa, Roberto Leal Monteiro, and Kundi Paihama — one of the military leaders holding top ministerial posts for the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the political party that ruled Angola since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.