«Μάλιστα μας έδωσαν παγωτό»

Η κουβανική εκστρατεία στην Αγκόλα

(δεν είμαστε χαζοί, μπορούμε να διακρίνουμε ανάμεσα στην αφήγηση και την προπαγάνδα)

πριν την αναχώρηση

Near completion of training, Ernesto’s group was unexpectedly assembled and informed they had been selected for a “special military course.” Things began to change shortly thereafter. Ernesto remembers “weird things going on ... stricter custody, more security and the military maneuvers began to get more complicated and more exhausting. We were taken to the medics for all sorts of tests and vaccines. We understood nothing of what was happening.” It was during this period that Ernesto was issued his first international passport, showing him attired in civilian clothes. The civilian suit was issued to him solely for the purpose of the passport photo, then removed and given to the next soldier his size. Phony civilian occupations were listed on the passport. Ernesto and his companions, just months out of high school, abruptly became architects, engineers and science professionals. “The whole process took about a month and we had absolutely no contact with the outside world. That was forbidden. However they treated us better, with more respect. They even gave us ice cream.

επί τω διεθνιστικώ έργω

“We left Landala around midnight,” he recalls, “using the roads on the northern route toward Zaire. At dawn, around 5am, we heard the sound of drums. Drums! Just like in the films. We thought the drums were coming from a nearby village, and that the tribe was happy at our appearance and was playing them as a welcome.” Nobel Prize winning Marxist writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his history of Operation Carlotta described the action in Linche:

It was an atrocious war in which one had to keep a lookout for mercenaries and snakes, rockets and cannibals. One Cuban commander fell at the height of battle into an elephant trap. The black Africans, conditioned by centuries of hatred of the Portuguese, were initially hostile to the white Cubans. Especially in Cabinda, Cuban scouts often heard their presence reported by the primitive telegraphy of the drum, whose tom-tom could be heard everywhere within a radius of some 35 kilometers.

απολογισμός

Ernesto now lives within the sizable Cuban expatriate community in the Republic of Panama. Life after the army included, marriage, defection and resettlement. Like most expatriates he stays updated on Cuban domestic politics, and considers the fate of the island without Fidel.There can be no doubt that significant change will occur in Cuba in the near future. How those changes reflect the history of Cuba during its “internationalist proletariat” era that began with Che Gueverra and ended rather ignominiously in Africa remains to be seen. How will the Cuban people view “Operation Carlotta?” A circumspect Ernesto describes his feelings on the matter:

“At the time we were heroes. We absolutely believed that what we had done was productive and necessary for Angola . . . we have come to realize that it was truly a useless mission. So many comrades died without achieving any real objective. So many families were affected. The whole business was based on the absurd concept of the international-proletariat, where the poor of Cuba needed to help other poor people in different countries on their way to revolution and social development. I personally was affected in many ways. My nerves were affected. I was badly wounded and nearly lost my life. I never received compensation for my wounds. I was simply one of the internationalist-proletariats.”