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Seventy-three relatives of fifteen political prisoners have written to UNESCO and the government of Cabo Verde asking that a crucial chapter of the nation's history not be erased. The letter, sent in June, concerns the Tarrafal Camp—a detention facility that held dozens of Cabo Verdean citizens between December 1974 and July 1975, during the turbulent months when Portuguese colonial rule was ending and the country was moving toward independence on July 5, 1975.

The prisoners held there during this period were detained without court conviction and often without formal charges. Many had simply held views that diverged from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), the dominant political force steering the nation toward independence. Some had supported alternative approaches to the transfer of power; others had questioned the party's vision for unity between Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Their crime, in the eyes of authorities, was political difference at a moment when such difference was treated as threat. The testimonies gathered by the families describe detentions motivated by suspicion of opposition to the political process underway, by alleged links to movements deemed adversarial, and by nothing more concrete than political disagreement.

Vera Mendes, whose father Rufino José Silva was among the last prisoners released—days after independence—has become the driving force behind the effort to preserve this history. She is the youngest daughter of a man who was imprisoned for his membership in the Union of the Peoples of the Cape Verde Islands, a party that wanted elections and wanted to listen to the people. When her father and others left Tarrafal in July 1975, they believed they would each return to their home islands. Instead, they were deported to Portugal and left at the airport with nothing. Vera's father rebuilt his life in Lisbon, where her mother and four siblings eventually joined him. Vera herself was born there in 1979, a child of exile born from her father's detention.

The omission that prompted the letter is specific and troubling. When Cabo Verde's government published the ministerial order approving the founding document of the Tarrafal Museum in March 2026, the period from 1974 to 1975 was left out entirely. The museum exists; the UNESCO World Heritage Site application is underway. But the story of what happened during those final months of transition—the detentions, the deportations, the families torn apart—was not included in the official narrative. The four requests in the letter are direct: recognition of the camp's use during that period, its integration into the museum's scientific and historical narrative, the inclusion of prisoners' memories and testimonies and names, and assurance that any international recognition will uphold historical truth and inclusive memory.

Among those detained were intellectuals, farmers, and ordinary citizens from different parts of Cabo Verde. Some spent years trying to obtain official documents proving they had never collaborated with the fascist regime, struggling to clear accusations that had followed them into exile. A book published this year, "Tarrafal, 1975 – The Camp of Silence," investigates these blind spots in the prison's documented history. Vera Mendes read her father's writings and listened to stories from families who had endured similar fates. She felt compelled to act.

"This is not a political issue," she told those who asked why she was raising it now. "The history of Cabo Verde's democracy and independence remains incomplete. There is an omission. And my aim, and that of the families who signed the letter, is this: to highlight that there is an omission and that it must be rectified." The letter was addressed to UNESCO, to Cabo Verde's prime minister, and to the president. More family members have since come forward to add their names. Vera has spoken with experts from Cabo Verde's Institute of Cultural Heritage at events dedicated to the site and its UNESCO nomination, and she reports they were aware of this third phase of the camp's history—a sign, she hopes, that the omission might yet be corrected.

What drives the effort is not anger but a simple desire for completeness. "May one day our grandchildren and great-grandchildren be able to visit Tarrafal and see photographs of their grandparents or great-grandparents, because they too are part of Cabo Verde's history and deserve recognition," Vera said. The application to UNESCO is still underway. The question of whether the full story will be told remains open.