Overall, Cuba's participation in the Angolan war received great popular support. This is affirmed not only by Cuban voices, but also by international media such as the Washington Post, which in 1976 reported that Cubans were proud of their country's contribution.
By Ariel Pazos Ortiz, translated from the Spanish
On May 25, 1991, Operation Carlota, the name given to Cuba's participation for more than fifteen years in the armed conflict in post-colonial Angola, came to an end.
At first, the Cuban leadership did not foresee the magnitude of its military collaboration with the newly independent Angola. The presence of the West Indian military in that African country was conceived as a relatively small mission, whose stated objective was to train the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and fight only if necessary.
However, events unfolded in an unexpected way. The largest island in the Caribbean became the protagonist of a transatlantic feat, in which more than 300,000 Cuban combatants were involved, of whom around 2,000 lost their lives according to historical records. In addition, a large contingent of civilian collaborators, not exempt from the risks of remaining in a territory at war, provided their services within the framework of the Operation. The writer Gabriel García Márquez reflected on the scope of Cuba's participation in Tricontinental Magazine in 1977: "(...) it is probable that not even the Cubans themselves would have foreseen that the solidarity aid to the people of Angola would reach such proportions (...)".
In a general sense, Cuba's contribution to the war in Angola gained great popular support. It's not just Cuban sources that agree. Even the Washington Post said in February 1976 that among Cubans the feeling was one of pride. Moreover, a study by the U.S. National Security Council reported in 1978 that "the average Cuban may not be very interested in Marxism-Leninism, but Cuba's role in Africa awakens his sense of nationalist pride."
García Márquez's prose also helps to form an idea of the actions of a significant part of the people around the conflict in Africa: "(...) it is known of a boy who left without his father's permission, and who later met him in Angola, because his father had also gone away secretly from the family."
There have been misrepresentations about the motivations for intervening in the war, on the other side of the ocean, during these past decades. To understand the international political context in which Operation Carlota took place, it is important to know that the island's presence in that southern African nation took place at a time when small steps were being taken between Havana and Washington towards a modus vivendi. In Western Europe, several governments were beginning to look more favorably on the Revolution. However, Cuba, selflessly, preferred to join its fate to the cause it believed to be the most just. The Cubans put their principles above pragmatic calculations. They were even aware, although they worked to avoid it, that they could clash with Portuguese troops still deployed in the former colony.
Carlota's beginning did not even expect explicit support from the Soviet Union. Piero Gleijeses, an Italian-American historian who carried out meticulous research on the relationship between the Cuban Revolution and African national liberation movements, provides evidence in his book Missions in Conflict that allow us to reach important conclusions: once the Cuban campaign was launched, Soviet logistical support was fundamental; but, contrary to what some maintain, Cuba did not act in Angola as the spearhead of the communist giant, but on its own initiative and taking on particular challenges.
Operation Carlota—named after a slave woman dismembered in 1843 for rising up in Matanzas—was not only necessary to help the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola win in the civil war. The military performance of the Cuban troops was decisive in repelling the South African invasion. The extraordinary military feat that began in 1975 also contributed to Namibia's independence and undermining the foundations of the oppressive apartheid system.
Raúl Castro, then Minister of the Armed Forces, said at the Mausoleum of Cacahual on May 27, 1991, two days after the arrival of the last internationalists who served in Angola: “The glory and supreme merit belong to the Cuban people, the true protagonist of this epic that history will remember for its deepest and most enduring significance.”
It closed an important stage in contemporary history, in which the men and women of the island played a decisive role. Analyzed in the light of these days, the deployment of Cuban troops in Angola, in order to help consolidate its independence, continues to be a colossal operation.
This article was translated from the Spanish and shared via a License CC-BY-NC
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