Fifty years ago, Operation Carlota guaranteed Angola’s independence and paved the way for the subsequent dismantling of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the independence of Namibia.
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2025 / Author: Hedelberto Lopez Blanch
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE / GRACIAS ESPECIALES AL AUTOR DE ESTE ARTÍCULO
Hedelberto Lopez Blanch / hedelberto@opciones.cu
Relations between Cuba and Africa strengthened starting in December 1964, during an extensive tour undertaken by Commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara through Algeria, Mali, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea-Conakry, Ghana, Dahomey (now Benin), and Egypt, where he met with several Heads of State and Government and numerous leaders of liberation groups and movements on the continent.
In Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), he met with the top leaders of the Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA): Agostinho Neto, Lúcio Lara, and Luís de Azévedo, who expressed their need for instructors to train their fighters.
Cuba dispatched a group of military instructors to Congo to train its guerrillas, who at that time had two fronts of war: one in Dembo and Nambuangongo, 100 kilometers northeast of Luanda, and another in Cabinda.
The events that took place in Portugal in April 1974, with the overthrow of Marcelo Caetano’s dictatorship, paved the way for the future independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa. That year, the MPLA represented the purest form of the Angolan nationalist movement, which was confronting the ambitions of two groups supported by the United States, South Africa, and Zaire: the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by CIA collaborator Holden Roberto, and the National Union for the Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by the ruthless Jonas Savimbi, a collaborator of the Portuguese secret services, the CIA, and South Africa.
By mid-1975, the MPLA controlled 12 of the country’s 16 provinces, and everything indicated that it would easily reach its goal of November 11, Independence Day.
In August, Zairian forces joined the FNLA to launch an offensive in northern Angola, while South African troops entered from the south and seized the Calueque and Ruacana dams, 30 kilometers inside the country.
The boost from Cuban aid came in early August 1975, when a seven-member mission, led by Commander Raúl Díaz Argüelles, arrived in Luanda, where they were received by Agostinho Neto.
After evaluating the mission’s report, the Cuban government authorized the deployment of a group of advisors who would train thousands of Angolans over approximately six months.
In mid-August, Díaz Argüelles returned to Luanda to inform Neto that, instead of the requested 100 men, Cuba would send 480 for four Revolutionary Training Centers (CIRs), in addition to the group that would remain in Luanda, where he would serve as head of the Cuban Military Mission in Angola (MMCA). Neto and his collaborators immediately agreed.
By the end of September, only about 50 members of the MMCA had arrived in Angola. Around that time, two Cuban planes transported 142 instructors to Angola, while between the 16th and 20th of that month, the ships Vietnam, La Plata, and Coral Island sailed from Havana with 300 men, equipment, and supplies for the five groups that would be stationed in Cabinda, N’Dalatando, Benguela, and Saurimo, as well as the group heading the Military Mission in Luanda.
Between November 2nd and 3rd, in Catengue, Cuban instructors and Angolan students from the Benguela CIR (Research and Innovation Center) attempted to halt the South African Zulu armored column, but faced with the enemy’s superior numbers and equipment, they were forced to retreat. In this violent encounter, Cuban and Angolan blood was shed for the first time.
Upon learning of the powerful South African invasion from the south and the Zairean invasion from the north, which could annihilate the revolutionary forces on the island, in a lengthy meeting held from the evening of November 4th to the early morning of November 5th, 1975, led by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, and following a request from the president of the MPLA (Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples of Angola), Agostinho Neto, the Cuban government leadership decided to deploy special troops to confront the aggression.
Thus began the famous and historic Operation Carlota, named in honor of the Black woman of the same name, an African slave who died in rebellion in Cuba on November 5, 1843, after leading a group of slaves in an uprising at the old Triunvirato sugar mill, located in the province of Matanzas.
Initially, due to the urgency of the situation as the invading forces approached the Angolan capital, approximately 650 men from the Special Troops of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) and an artillery regiment from the Revolutionary Armed Forces were sent to reinforce the Cuban forces.
On November 9, the first company of the reinforced battalion of special forces from the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) arrived in Luanda by air, supported by platoons of 82mm mortars from the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), along with anti-tank weapons. The following day, FAPLA troops, backed by some twenty Cuban advisors operating several BM-21 multiple rocket launchers (sent from Havana), halted the advance of the aggressor forces at Quifangondo, 20 kilometers north of Luanda. The invaders’ downfall against the Angolan people had begun.
The reinforcements arrived in the old Britannia aircraft of Cubana de Aviación, which had to make refueling stops in Nassau and Brazzaville, piloted by courageous Cuban pilots who flew a total of 101 missions. A regiment of artillery from the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) was being transported by ship to the area. These trips increased in number due to the urgency of the situation, eventually becoming a long convoy of merchant ships carrying weapons and men in sufficient numbers to win the war.
From November 1975 to March 1976, approximately 36,000 heavily armed internationalist troops arrived in Angola.
After halting the enemy at Quifangondo, Angolan and Cuban forces, in bloody and decisive battles, launched an offensive against the Zairians in the north and against the South African racists in the south-central part of the country.
The defeat at Quifangondo left the aggressors—the FNLA, Zairians, white mercenaries, and South African advisors—stunned and terrified.
On the Central and Southern fronts, constant and fierce battles took place against the South African Zulu and Foxbat forces, among which the battles of Ebo and Morro de Tonga stood out. For many military personnel and historians, the war was decided at Ebo, because if the enemy had broken through the established defensive line, it would have been very difficult to stop their advance towards Luanda. It was in this battle that First Commander Raúl Díaz Argüelles demonstrated his great leadership skills. He later died on December 11, 1975, when the BRDM-2 reconnaissance vehicle he was traveling in struck a mine.
On March 27, 1976, Cuban-Angolan troops reached the border post with occupied Namibia, and on April 1, a meeting was held with a South African delegation.
The then First Commander (as Cuban ranks were called at the time), Leopoldo Cintra Frías (Polo), on behalf of the MPLA, signed an agreement with the South African military that aimed to establish respect for the borders violated by Pretoria.
The first phase of Operation Carlota (which, due to constant South African aggression and at the request of the MPLA, was extended until July 1989 after the defeat of the racist troops at Cuito Cuanavale) had been a resounding success, and from Cabinda to Cunene, Angola was one country, one people.
The Cuban-Angolan-Namibian victory against the South African troops at Cuito Cuanavale paved the way for the implementation of United Nations Resolution 435, which led to Namibia’s independence and subsequently to the fall of the racist regime in South Africa.
During those years, approximately 300,000 Cuban military personnel and 50,000 Cuban civilians participated in this epic struggle. A little over 2,000 lost their lives in the conflict, and their remains were repatriated to Cuba on December 7, 1989, during what was known as Operation Tribute.
On May 25, 1991, with the return of the last 500 Cuban military personnel who remained in Angola, Operation Carlota concluded. And as Army General Raúl Castro Ruz had said in 1976:
“From Angola, we will take with us the deep friendship that unites us with that heroic nation, the gratitude of its people, and the mortal remains of our beloved brothers who fell in the line of duty.”
IMAGE CREDIT: The aid provided by Cuba to the people of Angola was decisive for their victory. Author: JR Archive
[ SOURCE: JUVENTUD REBELDE ]
