Cangamba, the hell where Castillo went searching for peace

The battle of Cangamba took place almost 38 years ago; however, it remains intact in Enrique Ventura Castillo Tamayo’s memory, because "the hell we lived through for nine days is difficult to forget," says this man with tears in his eyes and his voice choked with emotion.

"That epic will never fade from the minds of the Cubans who fought alongside some 400 Angolans, but it should also be known by the new generations as the place where some 500 combatants prevented the forces of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), supported by South Africa, who surrounded and attacked us, from achieving their objectives".

From August 2 to 10, 1983, the positions defended by Cuban internationalist combatants and the Popular Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) in the town of Cangamba, in Moxico province, were besieged by UNITA troops.

During those days the heroic resistance of the Cuban and Angolan combatants, with the support of our fighter planes and helicopters and the Special Destination Forces disembarked at the rear of UNITA, prevented the latter from isolating Moxico and seizing Luena, a city they aspired to proclaim capital of a so-called 'Black Republic' separated from Angola, in search of international recognition.

“I remember I arrived in Angola on May 20, 1983. They took us to Funda, a military transit unit in Luanda, to tell us where we would be stationed,” says Castillo, as he is known in Majagua, the town in the province of Ciego de Avila where he has lived since 1969.

“I was part of the 32nd Brigade of Fight Against Bandits, but we were called to Cangamba, where the enemy's mortars and machine gun fire rained down on us without mercy,” he recalls.

“Truth be told,” claims this man who is first cousin of cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, "we resisted and won that battle because we had the best strategist, who was not there in person but knew every corner of that place like the back of his hand. Fidel also led us to victory because the messages of encouragement he sent us gave us all the courage of [Ìndependence War General Antonio] Maceo and Che Guevara’s example of solidarity.”
One of Fidel’s lines is engraved on his memory: ‘May Cangamba become UNITA’s graveyard!’

“We went hungry and thirsty, we drank water from car radiators, from banana stumps, but we never thought of surrendering,” he stresses.

“Resisting was our thing, confident that we would come out the winners with the support of the fighter pilots and the Special Destination troops who weakened the siege, even if we were outgunned and outnumbered,” says Castillo, who was decorated for his attitude in Cangamba with the second degree of the Ernesto Che Guevara Order.

The conversation stops for a few minutes because the interviewee cannot hide the pain and sadness he feels when he thinks of his fallen comrades.

Castillo takes a deep breath and expresses: "Only when I die will I stop remembering my 18 compatriots, whose lifeless bodies passed through my hands, as did those of dead Angolans".

The triumph of the MPLA in Angola prevented the United States and South Africa from gaining a foothold in southwest Africa at the time, and we Cubans contributed to that, he reflects.

This man, who is 74 years old today, July 15, still has a lot of history to tell, because after the battle of Cangamba he joined the forces that recaptured and liberated Mussende, an Angolan town also occupied by UNITA.

For his active participation in that combat he received the Antonio Maceo Medal for Valor. It could not be otherwise, because Enrique Ventura Castillo Tamayo loves and defends peace even in hell itself.