Havana, Nov 4 - Operation Carlota, in which Cuba assisted Africa, today marks the half-century since its inception, evoking anecdotes and pride as the island's most just, prolonged, massive, and successful internationalist campaign.
Carlota was a libertarian African slave who, on November 5, 1843, led a rebellion at the Triunvirato sugar mill in Matanzas, in the central region of the island.
After 132 years of being brutally dismembered by Spanish slaveholders, her name inspired the operation that officially began on November 4, 1975.
During those days, Cuban advisors shed their blood alongside Angolan soldiers for the first time to prevent an invading South African military force from taking Luanda, the capital of that country.
The Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, upon learning of these events in Cuba and in response to a request for help from the leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Agostinho Neto, ordered the transfer of the first combat units via air and naval routes.
More than 300,000 combatants and another 50,000 civilians went to Angola to overcome the civil war, repel the South African invasion, fend off attacks from Zaire, and guarantee the independence of the African country—an action that was also crucial for the liberation of Namibia and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa.
At the forefront of coordinating Operation Carlota was always the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, alongside Army General Raúl Castro.
Documentary sources attest to the feeling of pride among Cubans for the war in Angola, which garnered popular support. On May 25, 1991, Operation Carlota was declared concluded.
An official report from the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba specified that 2,016 Cubans lost their lives in Angola—of these, 787 in combat actions, 524 due to illness, and 705 from accidents.
The blood of the African Carlota merged with that of Cubans in history.
Fifty years after the start of Operation Carlota, glorious epics remain present, including the decisive battle of Cuito Cuanavale, and names of cities and geographical locations in Angola such as Cabinda, Cunene, Cangamba, Quifangondo, Ebo, Sumbe, Benguela, and many more where Cubans were present continue to resonate.
The solidarity between both peoples endures to this day, as Cuban professionals from various fields carry out internationalist missions on African soil.
