During the Angolan War of Independence, Alves fought for the MPLA as a guerrilla in the forests of Dembos, rising through the ranks to become regional commander in the country's north.

After a number of his fellow activists were arrested and imprisoned in 1966, he left the capital and joined the MPLA in the forests of Dembos, where anti-colonial guerrillas had been fighting since the outbreak of the Angolan War of Independence.

[4] Alves was delegated to the Congress, where he gave the impression of being an instransigent Maoist, violently denouncing the factional leader Daniel Chipenda for his Eastern Revolt.

Although his interjections won the support of MPLA leader Agostinho Neto, Alves' speeches also lay the foundations of his own divergence from the movement's leadership, as he vocally expressed his desire for the Angolan Revolution to be one of black power.

[5] At the subsequent Inter-Regional Conference of Militants, held in the liberated territories of Eastern Angola, Alves called for a "struggle against the bourgeoisie", which he identified in racial terms as White Angolans.

[7] His ultra-left positions often aligned with the Communist Organization of Angola (OCA), a Maoist organisation which often denounced the MPLA as "bourgeois" and which was hostile to the "social imperialist" intervention of Soviet and Cuban forces in the Angolan Civil War.

[8] Alves himself was heavily inspired by the works of Enver Hoxha and Mao Zedong, but had been forced to renounce Maoism after the People's Republic of China backed UNITA.

[12] As supply chains broke down under their management, Nitista organs began stockpiling food in warehouses, leaving it to rot while store shelves remained empty.

Nitistas were subsequently removed from their posts, their organs were suppressed and brought under government control, and it was decided that future elections would only be permitted "where MPLA structures are sufficiently strong, organizationally stable and mature".

[14] Nito Alves himself was also removed from his post and the Ministry of Interior [pt] was abolished, bringing its functions under the direct control of the Prime minister and President of Angola.

Although Alves and a number of his supporters were kept on the central committee, they began plotting to overthrow the government, contradicting his own earlier declaration that "the coup d'etat, the putsch, is totally alien to socialism".

In an open break with the government's democratic centralism, Alves claimed without evidence that the MPLA had been taken over by "right-wing forces, by social-democracy allied to the Maoists" and called for a renewed "class struggle".

[17] As Nitistas rose up in open mutiny against the government, the Directorate of Information and Security of Angola (DISA) carried out a series of raids on the bairros, while the MPLA majority and many civilians denounced the activities of the Nitista-dominated CPBs.

When the Committee found Nito Alves guilty of fractionism, he responded with a series of unevidenced counter-claims against the government, which he variously accused of corruption, nepotism, "social democratic Maois[m]", diamond smuggling and even of being controlled by the CIA.

They captured the radio station and started broadcasting anti-government appeals, but when they called for a mass demonstration outside the presidential palace, they only managed to bring together 500 people.

[24] Alves himself was shocked to find out that Cuban troops in the country had immediately sided with Neto's government, which prompted him to question his "understanding of scientific socialism".

[28] In the wake of the coup's suppression, the Angolan economy rapidly began to improve and the MPLA was finally united with complete control of the country's political system.