Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao (1946) was born in Manatuto, Timor-Leste on June 20th. After receiving primary and secondary education in Daley, he went to work in Dili, the capital, and worked as a surveyor, teacher and journalist for Voice of Timor. Gusm? o joined the Revolutionary Front for East Timor Independence in 1974, and served as the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Front in 1975. 1978 12 After the death of lobato, the leader of the East Timor Revolutionary Front for Independence, he became the de facto leader of the Front. Gusm? o 198 1 presided over the first meeting of the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor in March, and was elected as the leader of the Front and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for National Liberation of East Timor.

Gusmao 1992 1 1 was arrested by the Indonesian army and sentenced to life imprisonment the following year, which was later reduced to 20 years' imprisonment. 1In February 1999, the Indonesian government put Gusm? o under house arrest under the pressure of the international community. On September 7 of the same year, he was pardoned by President Habibie and became the chairman of the National Council of Timorese Resistance. He resigned in August 2000. In February 2002, Gusm? o announced his participation in the first presidential election in East Timor. On April 14 of that year, he won the presidential election and officially became the first president of East Timor after independence on May 20th. In August 2007, President Horta appointed Gusm? o as Prime Minister.

In prison, Gusm? o concentrated on studying resistance strategies, while learning English, Indonesian and law, and continued to paint and write poems. He won the Timor Poet Award, some of his paintings were sold to fund the activities of resistance organizations, and his political papers were compiled into a book "East Timor: One Nation, One Country". Gusm? o became a symbol of East Timor's "fight for freedom", and the international media called him "Mandela of Timor".

Gusm? o's wife is Australian. She has a son and a daughter.