Mandela con fidel castro biography

What's your reaction? You will live in the memory of future generations, and in your memory the Cubans who died defending the liberty of their brothers in other lands of the world,” Castro wrote Juventud Rebelde, on the island’s state newspapers.

In 1975 Cuba began sending troops to southern Africa to support independence, over 300,000 soldiers set foot on Angolan soil alone, according to Cuban state newspaper Granma.

Nelson Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 1962.

You have not come to our country…when are you coming to South Africa?”

This was not mere courtesy. Mandela would later visit Argentina and Brazil, but his point of reference on the American continent would always Cuba.

In a dialogue recalled on Cuban TV on Thursday night, Mandela tells Fidel, “Before you say anything, you have to tell me when you are coming to South Africa.

The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 inspired a young Mandela. Later in life, Mandela credited Cuba’s military support to Angola in the 1970s and 1980s with playing a role in debilitating South Africa’s government enough to result in the legalization of his party, the African National Congress, in 1990.

Nelson Mandela visited Cuba in 1991, months after his release from prison.

“First in the struggle against Apartheid he did not hesitate to give us all his help and now that we are free we have many Cuban doctors working here,”

Formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and South Africa began after May 11, 1994, though a friendship already existed between Castro and Mandela.

Cuba also agreed to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18.

For Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, Fidel Castro sent a congratulatory message to the leader:

“Glory to you, Nelson, who while in prison for 25 years defended human dignity!

Cuba was the first Latin American country that he had visited. When are you coming?”

“I have not visited my South Africa homeland,” Castro responded, and he paid off his debt in 1994. Its aid was given freely, rooted in revolutionary internationalism.

 

Angola and “Operación Carlota”

▪︎ In 1975, South Africa, backed by the CIA, invaded Angola to crush the newly independent MPLA government.
▪︎ Cuba responded with Operación Carlota, deploying 36,000 troops to repel the invasion.
▪︎ At the height of the conflict, Cuba maintained 50,000+ troops in Angola—more than the US ever stationed in any African theatre during the Cold War.
▪︎ Cuban pilots flew thousands of sorties, neutralizing South Africa’s air superiority.

The Turning Point: Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (1987–88)

▪︎ The battle, commanded largely by Cuban officers, was the largest in Africa since WWII.
▪︎ The South African Defence Force (SADF) suffered heavy losses, including the retreat of its elite 61st Mechanised Battalion.
▪︎ Mandela later declared: “Cuito Cuanavale was the turning point for the liberation of our continent and my own freedom.”
▪︎ The victory shattered the myth of SADF invincibility and forced Pretoria into negotiations.

From Angola to Namibian Independence

▪︎ The defeat at Cuito Cuanavale directly led to Namibia’s independence in 1989, stripping South Africa of its buffer zone.
▪︎ With regional dominance broken, apartheid’s strategic collapse accelerated.
▪︎ Cuba’s sacrifices in Angola reverberated across southern Africa, opening the path to Mandela’s release in 1990 and the dismantling of apartheid.

Beyond the Battlefield: Doctors, Engineers, and Educators

▪︎ Cuba trained tens of thousands of African doctors, engineers, and officers, building long-term state capacity.
▪︎ These programs were offered free of charge, even as Cuba itself faced economic hardship under the US embargo.
▪︎ This investment in human capital became vital for post-apartheid South Africa and other African nations.

The Symbolism of Cuba’s Defiance

Cuba’s role was not only military but moral.

Revolutionary Cuba showed that a nation of limited means could help vanquish apartheid—a system supported by Washington and its allies.

Mandela’s meeting with Castro was thus a recognition of shared struggle. “You have not come to our country — when are you coming?”

Fidel Castro responded, “I have not visited my homeland South Africa, but I love it as if it were my homeland.”

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela developed such a close relationship that it’s impossible to forget when speaking about the African leader in Latin America.

After his trip to the Communist island he visited Argentina and Brazil — the beginning of his relationship with Latin American countries that had recently lived under dictatorships, like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru.

South African business leader and philanthropist Bertie Lubner, in an interview with TeleSUR, explained that it shouldn’t be forgotten that many South African leaders had already visited Latin America in the past while Mandela was in prison.

“Members of the African National Congress party had already visited foreign countries with socialist components like Cuba, East Germany, Russian and in that way embraced socialism, equality,” Lubner explained.

When Mandela arrived to Cuba in 1991, Cubans were summoned onto the streets of Havana to receive the African leader who was awarded the country’s highest honors.

“If you ask any Cuban who Mandela is, they will place him among the greatest men who have ever lived,” Havana journalist Maria Elena Calderín told TeleSur.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president and Fidel Castro was the guest of honor at the inauguration ceremony.

“What Fidel [Castro] has done for us is difficult to describe with words,” Mandela said.

Despite being a small island under constant US pressure, it demonstrated that solidarity could reshape history.

He spent 27 years in prison. Slander and hatred could do nothing against your endurance of steel. He was released on February 11, 1990.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first democratic elections and remained in office until 1999.

With the creation of the South African National Party in 1948, the policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid, went into effect.