beginning in the early 1980s, fonseca worked as a law instructor at various universities, including the university of lisbon, the institute of forensic medicine of lisbon, and the university of asia oriental in macau. upon returning to cape verde, fonseca served as the minister of foreign affairs between 1991 and 1993, before then running for presidency in the 2001 elections. that year, he lost to the african party for the independence of cape verde (paicv) candidate, pedro pires, with fonseca being affiliated with the paicv's major rival opposition party, the movement for democracy. after the paicv candidate pedro pires served two terms as the president, fonseca ran for president again in 2011. with the support of his party, he won the presidency in the second round of voting, and in so doing became the 4th president of cape verde.