Notes
[1] Miguel Rivero, “Morir por Angola,” Lisboa, 24/08/2007.
[2] Enrique García, a former senior official of Cuba’s DGI (General Directorate of Intelligence) who defected in 1989 says Fidel Castro confirmed to his Political Bureau that the Kremlin had asked Cuba to send the military force to Angola, guaranteeing that the USSR would provide the military equipment. (Interview, San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 21, 2017.)
[3) 1970-91 - The Era of “Internationalism” <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cuba/far-history-2.htm>
[4] Carlos Pedre, Angola, la guerra innecesaria. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
[5] Ver Norberto Fuentes, Dulces Guerreros Cubanos, Middletown: Cuarteles de invierno, 2017.
[6] “O que Cuba deu - e o muito que levou - de Angola,” http://www.angola24horas.com, 02 abril 2016.
[7] Testimony of a Cuban who served 33 months in Angola and prefers to remain anonymous, interviewed by telephone from Miami by Maria Werlau (CubaArchive.org), August 22, 2017. See also: Francisco de los Riscos Murciano, General de Brigada de Ingenieros SEM, "Angola, un escalón en la estrategia cubana-soviética en Africa," Boletín de Información No. 213, Ministerio de Defensa (España) enero-febrero 1989. http://bibliotecavirtualdefensa.es/BVMDefensa/i18n/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=71717
[8] Ibid, op.cit.
[9] Omer Freixa, “Solidaridad a la cubana,” www.puentedemocratico.org, 11 noviembre 2015.
[10] Osmaira González Consuegra, “Angola, 40 años después,” lavanguardia.cu, 24 agosto 2007.
[11] Blog HavanaLuanda (https://havanaluanda.wordpress.com) published a list of 2,106 Cuban soldiers killed in Angola since 1975, as it appears in the inscriptions at Freedom Park, a monument erected in South Africa for those killed in the border wars in Namibia and Angola. This list was reportedly delivered in 2006 by the Cuban ambassador in South Africa, Esther Armenteros, to Dr. Mongane Wally Serote, administrator of Freedom Park.
[12] Jihan El-Tahri, Cuba: una odisea africana, Arte / BBC Films / Independent Television Service (ITVS), 2007.
[13] Juan González Yuste, “Mil cuatrocientos soldados cubanos, muertos en Africa,” Washington, El País, 19 julio 1978.
[14] “10,000 Cubans Reported Killed in Angola War,” Washington, Associated Press, June 16, 1987.
[15) Ibid.
[16] José Antonio Fornaris, “Angola: muchas cosas por contar,” La Habana, Febrero 2007, CubaNet.org, 7 marzo 2007.
[17] O. González Consuegra, op.cit; Miguel Rivero, “Morir por Angola,” Lisboa, www.cubaencuentro.com, 24/08/2007.
[18] Testimony of a Cuban who served…, op.cit.; Carlos Pedre, phone interview from Miami 2ith Maria Werlau (CubaArchive.org), 24 agosto 2017.
[19) Testimony of a former helicopter pilot from Cuba who served in Angola, by telephone from Miami, with Maria Werlau (CubaArchive.org), 17 September 2017.
[20] Tania Díaz Castro, “Los muertos olvidados de La Guerra de Angola,” CubaNet.org, septiembre 19, 2014.
[21] Cuban general Rafael del Pino, who defected in 1987, describes an attack in 1977 that killed hundreds, especially women and children, when the Cuban General Staff hastily ordered to destroy a village taken by alleged FNLA troops when, in reality, the population was just having a party at the main town square. (Rafael del Pino, Proa a la Libertad, Mexico: Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 1990, p. 228-229.)
[22] Chemical weapons are prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. In 1988, the United Nations Security Council sent a team of Belgian toxicologists to investigate reports that Cuba had used chemical weapons in Angola. They certified the existence of chemical weapons waste, including sarin and VX gas, in the plants, water and land where Cuban troops were alleged to have thrown them. Further evidence found that other substances, such as napalm, had been used against civilian populations supporting UNITA. (Voix d'Afrique magazine published on February 6, 1990 photos of people, including women and children, deformed by a chemical attack in Angola in the 1980s. (Jonathan T. Stride, “Who will check out Fidel Castro’s new chemical / biological weapons plant in East Havana,” www.fiu.edu/~fcf/bio.chem.plnat91097.html)
[23) A Cuban helicopter pilot who served Angola in 1983 reports that –in an operation directed by Cuban general Rubén Martínez Puentes– Cuban-manned helicopters were outfitted with two 55-gallon tanks of a napalm (a highly flammable mix prepared with gasoline and liquid soap) that was thrown at civilian populations, entire villages, supportive of UNITA. (Testimony of a Cuban former helicopter pilot, op.cit.)
[24] Experts estimate that between 500,000 and 1 million mines were placed, some estimates go as high as several millions. (Adam Mynott, “Angola´s landmine legacy,” BBC, 29 November, 2004.)
[25] <https://www.halotrust.org/where-we-work/africa/angola/>
[26] Angola - First Civil War - 1975-1994.
[27] Despite the recent election of a new president in Angola, it does not represent a change of leadership or system. (See: Gabriele Steinhauser, “Angola’s New Leader Faces Daunting Turnaround Task After Disputed Vote,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 25, 2017; Gabriele Steinhauser and Patricia Kowsmann, “Corruption Cases Cast a Pall Over Angola’s Coming Presidential Election,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 22, 2017.)