João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was a Bissau-Guinean politician and military officer who served as President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999, except for a three-day period in May 1984, and from 2005 until his assassination in 2009.
After seizing power from President Luís Cabral in a military coup in 1980, Vieira ruled as part of the Military Council of the Revolution until 1984, when civilian rule was returned. Opposition parties were allowed in 1991, and Vieira won a multiparty presidential election in 1994. He was ousted at the end of the 1998–1999 civil war and went into exile.