OPERATION CARLOTA
The most just, lengthy, large scale and successful internationalist military campaign undertaken by Cuba
40 years ago, on November 5, Operation Carlota commenced in the name of the independence of the people of Angola and all of Africa
Author: Oscar Sánchez Serra | oscar@granma.cu
november 6, 2015 13:11:55
Cubans and Angolans provided an unparalleled example of bravery which led to a historic victory. Photo: Archivo
They are present across more than 3,785,000 Cuban households. It is almost impossible to find a Cuban family that does not count them among its members or friends. They wear no badge to identify them; they blend in with the rest of the people, be it at the grocery store, the ballpark or at a noisy domino table. Their children share the classroom with ours, with no other privilege than having been born in a land that provides them the right to education, to health, to their intellectual development, with equal opportunity.
However, they, the internationalist combatants, are not only heroes but the most faithful heirs of José Martí’s maxim: “Our homeland is humanity”. Forty years ago, on November 5, Cuba would provide the world with one of the most brilliant examples of heroism and, at the same time, humanism. Operation Carlota began, in the name of the independence of the people of Angola and, as such, of all Africa.
The operation was named after a Lukumí slave at the Triunvirato sugar plantation in Matanzas, who in 1843 led one of the many slave rebellions, in which she lost her life. She became a symbol of the heroic deeds of a people in defense of the noblest causes of the planet.