Cape Verde only war for independence against Portugal between 1974 and 1975, the efforts of the Caboverdean Armed Forces have now been turned to combating international drug trafficking. In 2007, together with the Cape Verdean Police, they carried out Operation Flying Launch ("Operacão Lancha Voador"a), a successful operation to put an end to a drug trafficking group which smuggled cocaine from Colombia to the Netherlands and Germany using the country as a reorder point. The operation took more than three years, being a secret operation during the first two years, and ended in 2010. Although located in Africa, Cape Verde has always
Santa Cruz, Cape Verde Praia were separated to become the Municipality of Santa Cruz. In 2005, a southern parish of the municipality was split off to become the Municipality of São Lourenço dos Órgãos. At the federal level, it belongs to the constituency of Santiago North. Since 2004, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) is the ruling party of the municipality. The results of the latest elections, in 2016: The municipality of Santa Cruz is twinned with: Santa Cruz, Cape Verde Santa Cruz is a "concelho" (municipality) of Cape Verde. It is situated in the eastern part of the island