When the Cuban Revolution came to power after the triumph of the rebel forces led by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro on January 1, 1959, it constituted an event that had an enormous impact on the international revolutionary movement, and showed the oppressed masses that it was possible to overthrow tyrannies by means of armed struggle.
The Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, knowing the situation in Algeria, established relations with the patriots of the National Liberation Front of that African country and in January 1962 sent them a thousand and a half weapons on the Cuban ship ¨Bahía de Nipe¨.
The first Cuban medical brigade, composed of 58 people, including 32 doctors, 4 stomatologists, 14 nurses and 8 technicians. arrived in the Algerian nation on May 24, 1963.
Cuba, under the sure leadership of the undefeated Commander Fidel Castro, cooperated with the national liberation movements of the Belgian Congo, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, and defended the sovereignty of Ethiopia.
The greatest proof of solidarity of those times was the sending of experienced Cuban military men together with Ernesto Che Guevara to Bolivia, who, although they did not succeed because they did not find the expected support, wrote an important and immortal passage of the struggle against the evils of the Latin American peoples.
Fidel Castro unconditionally supported the struggles against dictatorships in Latin American nations such as Nicaragua with Anastasio Somoza, Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay with Alfredo Stroessner.
At the request of President Agustino Neto, Fidel Castro sent him military aid to prevent the capture of Luanda by South African forces and subsequently guarantee the withdrawal of the enemy, with which the African nation would obtain its definitive independence.
This military collaboration constituted the highest expression of solidarity of the Cuban people with any country, and of greater political scope. The presence of the Cubans in Angola propitiated the independence of Angola and Namibia, on the one hand; and the end of the segregationist regime of Apartheid, after the agreement with the United States.
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (1987-1988), which defined the end of the war, was directed by Fidel Castro from Havana, demonstrating his skills as a great military strategist, and his determination to defeat the enemy of the Angolan people at any cost.
(Further information coming)