Operation Carlota, 49 years of a glorious epic.

Qualified by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz as the most just, prolonged, massive and successful internationalist military campaign of our country, Operation Carlota, which took place between 1975 and 1991 in the People’s Republic of Angola, marked a milestone in the history of the largest of the Antilles and evidenced its stubborn repudiation of imperialism and racial discrimination.

CARLOTA: REBELLION WITH A WOMAN’S FACE

Qualified by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz as the most just, prolonged, massive and successful internationalist military campaign of our country, Operation Carlota, which took place between 1975 and 1991 in the People’s Republic of Angola, marked a milestone in the history of the largest of the Antilles and evidenced its stubborn repudiation of imperialism and racial discrimination. But this epic, which resulted in the victory of the Angolan liberation flank over the South African troops, the liberation of Namibia and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa, owes its name to one of the most admirable figures of the libertarian struggle of our Island: a brave Lucumi slave baptized by many as «La Negra Carlota» (Black Carlota).

Torn from her native Angola and subjected since then to the bloody yoke of exploitation, Carlota witnessed the brutality existing in the sugar plantations on Cuban soil, the indolence of the master’s whip and the agony of dehumanization. Her reluctance to these atrocities made her the embodiment of the resistance and fury of the vexed in their anti-colonial struggle.

Aware of the persuasive message of emancipation that lay behind the loquacious din of the slave drums, which had become an alternative means of communication between distant plantations, on the night of November 5, 1843, Carlota, together with a daring multitude, staged a formidable and surprising revolt in the Triunvirato sugar mill in Matanzas, starred in a formidable and surprising revolt in the Triunvirato sugar mill of Matanzas, liberating on the way numerous oppressed people in the sugar mills «Concepción», «San Lorenzo», «San Miguel» and «San Rafael», as well as in numerous coffee plantations of Matanzas.

Although barefoot, with threadbare clothes and a sharp-edged weapon in hand, the extraordinary courage and the notorious military skills with which she was equipped made her an admirable leader of these mobs that resounded in the Antillean fields and inspired other slaves to repel all manifestations of exploitation and disconsolation against them and their loved ones.

Besieged by the repressive Hispanic forces in «San Rafael», an unequal and bloody combat undermined the progressive liberating deployment of a great part of the spirited insurgents led by Carlota, who was captured and savagely dismembered as an example.

The vestiges of that enclave that was the scene of the first slave uprising on the island during the colonial period survive in the Slave Route, an international project sponsored by Unesco and the World Tourism Organization that commemorates the unpleasant events of Triunvirato and immortalizes the legacy of that heroic woman who did not hesitate for a second to stand up for freedom and offer her life to make that enterprise a reality.

OPERATION CARLOTA: CUBA AND AFRICA FOREVER UNITED

In a historical context where the struggle against colonialism and apartheid prevailed in international relations, Angola, under Portuguese rule, was in a complex process of struggle for its independence with various colonial forces and pro-Western groups limiting its possibilities of emancipation.

At the beginning of 1975, Portugal undertook to recognize Angola as an independent country through a commission made up of the colonizing nation and three organizations that fought for governmental control: the Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, led by Agostinho Neto, Holden Roberto and Jonnas Savimbi, respectively.

Although November 11th was set as the date for declaring independence, the organizations headed by Roberto and Savimbi, aware of the popular support that Neto’s Movement had, prepared a military action to undermine the rise of the latter and distribute power at will. In this scenario and faced with the threat of seeing his desire for liberation shattered, the Angolan representative requested support from the Cuban government.

The deed officially began on November 5th of that year, when upon learning of the death of West Indian military advisors established in Caporolo after a confrontation with an invading flank, Fidel Castro ordered the air and naval transfer of the first combat units to Angolan soil, which multiplied until reaching the not inconsiderable figure of some 300 thousand rebels, 50 thousand civilian collaborators and more than two thousand who offered their lives throughout the battle.

From Cuito Cuanavale, Quigafondo and Cabinda, to Cangamba, Camabatela, Ebo and other enclaves, witnessed the might of the Cuban-Angolan forces, which in little more than a decade and five years managed to undermine the South African crusade, always supported by the American troops, as well as preserve the independence and territorial integrity of Angola, emancipate Namibia and put an end to the apartheid regime.

THE MOST JUST AND MEMORABLE CUBAN INTERNATIONALIST EPIC

Forty-nine years have passed since the revolutionary vigor of that Lucumi slave, baptized by many as «Black Carlota «, flowed through the veins of those thousands and thousands of Cubans who, in solidarity and honorable gesture, responded to the call of the brotherly Angolan people to consolidate their freedom and recover the independence that, like the largest of the Antilles in its historical struggle, had been stolen from them.

Precisely, the repatriation of the remains of the fallen in Operation Carlota and other internationalist missions that took place on December 7, 1989 originated the glorious Operation Tribute to, on the same date, honor every year those who perished working for the sovereignty and self-determination of other lands, whose sacrifice lives on today more than ever in the hearts of these countries twinned by history and the yearning for freedom.

Beyond a memorable and unparalleled bellicose chapter, Operation Carlota forged an indestructible bond between Cuba and Africa, an unbreakable bridge of friendship that today has a place in the medical, educational and cultural cooperation and the mutual search for prosperity and development that characterizes both nations.

Those young Cubans, moved by an ideal of justice and fraternity, left their home to fight side by side with the Angolan people, manifesting, in a noble and generous gesture, the image of this Caribbean island as a trench of struggle for the solidarity and integrity of the oppressed peoples.

Written by Yadiel Barbón.