Hernâni Coelho

Hernâni Filomena Maria Coelho da Silva (born 27 August 1964), also known by his nom de guerre Natan, is an East Timorese politician and diplomat, and a member of the Fretilin political party. He has been the East Timorese Ambassador to both Australia and South Korea. Between February 2015 and September 2017, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and from October 2017 to June 2018 he was Minister of Petroleum.

Early life and education Coelho was born in , in the then Portuguese Timor, to Adelino da Silva from Ossu and Zulmira Celestina Faria Coelho. He has eight siblings, including the KHUNTO politician and the Socialist Party of Timor (PST) chairman Avelino Coelho da Silva.

From 1971 to 1975, Coelho attended elementary school and Catholic boarding school in Ainaro. In August 1975 he transferred to the Externato (day school) Bispo de Medeiros in the colonial capital, Dili. When the Indonesians conquered that city on 9 December of the same year, Coelho's family fled to , the mountain where the Fretilin base was located. Coelho's father was the party's regional secretary, and led the resistance against the Indonesians in Hato-Udo. When that area fell, the family returned to their homeland, Viqueque. There, Coelho's father ran a FALINTIL hospital and training centre for guerillas.

While studying in Java, Coelho was active in the Students' Front for the Liberation of Timor-Leste (FELETIL). In particular, he tried to bring East Timor's aspirations for independence closer to his Indonesian fellow students, and worked as a liaison between the resistance in East Timor (the Armed Front and the Clandestine Front) and the resistance cells abroad (the Diplomatic Front). President José Ramos-Horta then appointed him as his Deputy Chief of Staff, in which position he remained until June 2012. In October 2013, he took up the post of ambassador of East Timor in South Korea.

On 16 February 2015, Coelho was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Upon the formation of the VII Constitutional Government on 15 September 2017, he relinquished that office to Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres, but on 3 October 2017, he was sworn in as the new Minister of Petroleum. His tenure as a Minister ended when the VIII Constitutional Government took office on 22 June 2018.

Personal life Coelho is married and has a daughter. He is fluent in Tetum, Portuguese, English and Bahasa Indonesia, and also speaks Cantonese, Javanese and Thai at a basic conversational level.

Honours