Nelson Mandela after his freedom thanked Fidel Castro for the decisive defeat Cuban troops helped Angola deliver to South Africa Defense Forces in 1988 at Cuito Cuanavale, in Angola, when the South Africans intervened to prop up CIA agent Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA forces.
The victory against the once-seemingly invincible South African military preserved Angola’s independence –although the country today needs another revolution against Dos Santos kleptocracy and tyranny–, freed Namibia and spelled the death of Apartheid in South Africa just a few years later.
Mandela said Cuito Cuanavale was “a turning point for the liberation of our continent and my people…”
