Cuba pays tribute to its internationalist combatants

 HAVANA, Cuba, May 26 (ACN) Cuba pays tribute today to its internationalist combatants, on the 34th anniversary of the end of Operation Carlota, a Cuban military mission in Angola, decisive to preserve the independence of that country.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), in a message on X evoked the date, which marked the end of the internationalist aid provided by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (FAR) to the People's Republic of Angola.
The party leader pointed out that his country will always pay tribute to its heroic internationalists, who in Operation Carlota reached 300 thousand military and 50 thousand civilian collaborators, since its beginning in 1975 until the end, on May 26, 1991.

Likewise, he assured that Cuba will pay tribute to those who died in this epic, 2,000 combatants, whose remains were repatriated to their country during Operation Tribute.

On November 5, 1975, the Cuban government decided to send troops to the African nation, in response to the request for collaboration of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), to confront the foreign aggression that sought to thwart the country's independence.

The date marked the beginning of Operation Carlota, which was so named to pay homage to a black slave who 132 years ago led the uprising of the Triunvirato sugar mill in the province of Matanzas, and gave her life in the effort.

With the Cuban quick response to the MPLA, it was guaranteed that the independence of the People's Republic of Angola would be proclaimed at midnight on November 11, as planned.

Cuba's military mission in the African nation ended in 1991 with the withdrawal of the last internationalist soldier.