Raúl Díaz Argüelles and Cuba’s Mission in Africa
The Cuban mission in Angola, in which Comandante Díaz Argüelles participated from the beginning, destroyed the myth of the white oppressor’s invincibility, as Nelson Mandela said
Gabriel Molina Franchossi | informacion@granma.cu
December 16, 2015 17:12:34
Raúl Díaz Argüelles (with glasses) in Angola. Photo: Archivo
Brigadier General Raúl Díaz Argüelles completed the mission Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro gave him: Save the sister republic of Angola. He did so with the same decisiveness with which he spectacularly escaped Batista's henchmen 17 years earlier.
The now decorated Hero of the Republic - then Comandante Raúl Díaz Argüelles - died December 11, 1975, 40 years ago, victim of a landmine, as he was leading a group of soldiers in Angola.
President Agostinho Neto had asked Fidel to send military instructors to train Angolan troops, to respond to the provocations of South Africa and Zaire, financed by the United States government, which had begun to send material aid to the Angolan National Liberation Front (FNLA) of Holden Roberto and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi.
George Costello, CIA head of operations in Africa, reported to his agent John Stockwell that the U.S. was organizing a 14 million dollar program to support Savimbi and Roberto, and that weapons were being sent by air. (1)
The group of Portuguese military officers who had assumed power in that country, in April of 1974, decided to end colonial rule and establish republics in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola, the latter with significant oil reserves in the enclave of Cabinda. Portugal announced that, on November 11 of that very year, they would relinquish state power to Angolans, and were discussing a tripartite government.
Holden Roberto then said that on the 10th, he would take Luanda with his troops and remove Neto, who had been designated provisional president, since the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, (MPLA) which he led, was the most representative, largest and most diverse of the country’s pro-independence forces - principally because its platform was one of class struggle and attracted broad support across the nation.
Comandantes Raúl Díaz Argüelles and Carlos Fernández Gondín were respectively designated chief and deputy chief of the Cuban contingent sent by Fidel.
In August of 1975, a small group of Cuban instructors arrived in Angola; in October, the rest of the first Cuban military mission arrived on three medium-sized ships; and on November 4, 1974, Cuba sent special troops. The instructors and special forces, along with the sure fire of a BM21 artillery brigade, were decisive to the defense of Angola’s independence at that historic moment.
THE LEGENDARY CHIEF OF OPERATIONS
According to his comrades in arms, Raúl Díaz Argüelles was a natural revolutionary and rebel, like his parents, Raúl and Marina, who fought against the Machado dictatorship.
“In all compañeros, he instilled a fighting spirit, the intention to win, and enthusiasm for the completion of all tasks – a competent leader with proven bravery and a real comrade. He was always to be found in the most difficult situations, we all felt great pain when we learned he had been killed.” (2)
“His image was one that stayed with you. It wasn’t easy to disagree with him; his nature was serious, firm, very strong, demanding and responsible. He had lots of opinions, and always argued with the confidence that he was right.” (3)
Díaz Argüelles enrolled in the University of Havana’s Engineering department, and soon began to participate in protests and demonstrations, joining José Antonio Echeverría and his revolutionary group, which included Fructuoso Rodríguez, Juan Pedro Carbó Serviá, José Machado, Faure Chomón, and Tavo Machín.
After the assault on the Presidential Palace and the death of Echeverría, Argüelles went to the United States, established his work there in exile, and flew back in a plane loaded with weapons - which landed, no less, on the Novia del Mediodía highway. Guillermo Jiménez found him a temporary hide-out in Havana.
He returned to Cuba with Faure Chomón, as part of the Scapade expedition, organized by the Revolutionary Directorate which disembarked in Nuevitas, making his way to Havana with Machín, Jiménez, Pepe Fernández Cossío, Tony Castell and Carlos Figueredo. Once in the capital, he took over as head of operations after Eduardo García Lavandero was killed, and participated in the legendary Santiago Rey assault, and the unprecedented attack on the Miramar police station, commemorated with a plaque bearing his name and that of Tavo, in the park on 60th St. and Ninth Avenue.
A SPECTACULAR ESCAPE
One of his most spectacular feats took place during this era, July 10, 1958. Díaz Argüelles reached his hide-out in a building on the corner of B and 21st, followed by agents of the dictatorship, unaware that José “Tato” Rodríguez Vedo and Pedro Martínez Brito has just been killed there. The door was ajar, and the veteran conspirator immediately realized he was trapped. He ran in the opposite direction toward a window facing the street. He slipped and fell, with shots whistling over his head; he jumped and threw himself from the third floor. His excellent physical condition, and a chicken coop below, saved him, although his ankle was fractured.
He looked up and saw the agent who had shot at him, and missed only because of his fall. The expert marksman took the agent out with his first shot, and since no one else was willing to put his head out the window, he was able to make a quick escape, from then on known as the most spectacular of the underground.
With his cover in the capital “blown,” Díaz Argüelles headed to the Escambray Mountains, to be become a commander. He participated in the battle of Villa Clara with the Directorate, still serving as part of its leadership.
After the triumph of the Revolution, he was assigned as head of the Department of Technical Investigations, attended the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) officers school, and served first as head of information, and subsequently artillery; operations; missile troops; and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As head of the 10th FAR leadership, he was assigned to supervise military collaboration with other countries. In Angola and throughout Africa, he is known by his nom de guerre Domingo da Silva, the leader of the historic effort of the small country of Cuba, which made a decisive contribution to stopping the apartheid South African army’s invasion of Angola.
On March 26, 1976, pushed back by Cuban-Angolan forces, South African troops withdrew and returned to their bases. In Quifangondo, a numerically inferior group of MPLA soldiers supported by Cuban artillery forced the attackers to retreat.
In Cabinda, the story was similar. On November 8, MPLA forces with 232 Cubans defeated an attack by Zairian troops.
On the 12th they went on the offensive, and expelled Mobutu’s soldiers, mercenaries and their supporters in Cabinda, obliging them to retreat to the border with Zaire, totally disorganized.
South Africa abandoned its last positions inside Angolan territory on March 27 of the following year. With the situation stabilized, Agostinho Neto’s government and Cuba agreed to reduce the number of Cuban military personnel in the country, leaving only the instructors. Nevertheless, a new South African invasion was launched, just as the Cuban withdrawal began, and it was stopped.
The victory in Angola sent shockwaves across South Africa, beyond Namibia and Angola. In the words of Nelson Mandela, the Cuba-Angola victory “destroyed the myth of the white oppressor’s invincibility... and served to inspire the combatative people of South Africa.”
And the memory Díaz Argüelles is part of this. It is no accident that, on Raúl Castro’s first visit to Angola as President in 2009, he concluded the trip with a pilgrimage to the Alto das Cruzes cemetery in Luanda, to place flowers on the tomb where the soldier’s remains were buried before eventually being returned to Cuba.
(1) John Stockwell. En busca de enemigos. Una historia de la CIA. P. 9
(2) Coronel Gonzálo del Valle. Angola. Editora Capitán San Luis
(3) Comandante de la Revolución Guillermo García
Gabriel Molina Franchossi | informacion@granma.cu
December 16, 2015 17:12:34
Raúl Díaz Argüelles (with glasses) in Angola. Photo: Archivo
Brigadier General Raúl Díaz Argüelles completed the mission Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro gave him: Save the sister republic of Angola. He did so with the same decisiveness with which he spectacularly escaped Batista's henchmen 17 years earlier.
The now decorated Hero of the Republic - then Comandante Raúl Díaz Argüelles - died December 11, 1975, 40 years ago, victim of a landmine, as he was leading a group of soldiers in Angola.
President Agostinho Neto had asked Fidel to send military instructors to train Angolan troops, to respond to the provocations of South Africa and Zaire, financed by the United States government, which had begun to send material aid to the Angolan National Liberation Front (FNLA) of Holden Roberto and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi.
George Costello, CIA head of operations in Africa, reported to his agent John Stockwell that the U.S. was organizing a 14 million dollar program to support Savimbi and Roberto, and that weapons were being sent by air. (1)
The group of Portuguese military officers who had assumed power in that country, in April of 1974, decided to end colonial rule and establish republics in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola, the latter with significant oil reserves in the enclave of Cabinda. Portugal announced that, on November 11 of that very year, they would relinquish state power to Angolans, and were discussing a tripartite government.
Holden Roberto then said that on the 10th, he would take Luanda with his troops and remove Neto, who had been designated provisional president, since the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, (MPLA) which he led, was the most representative, largest and most diverse of the country’s pro-independence forces - principally because its platform was one of class struggle and attracted broad support across the nation.
Comandantes Raúl Díaz Argüelles and Carlos Fernández Gondín were respectively designated chief and deputy chief of the Cuban contingent sent by Fidel.
In August of 1975, a small group of Cuban instructors arrived in Angola; in October, the rest of the first Cuban military mission arrived on three medium-sized ships; and on November 4, 1974, Cuba sent special troops. The instructors and special forces, along with the sure fire of a BM21 artillery brigade, were decisive to the defense of Angola’s independence at that historic moment.
THE LEGENDARY CHIEF OF OPERATIONS
According to his comrades in arms, Raúl Díaz Argüelles was a natural revolutionary and rebel, like his parents, Raúl and Marina, who fought against the Machado dictatorship.
“In all compañeros, he instilled a fighting spirit, the intention to win, and enthusiasm for the completion of all tasks – a competent leader with proven bravery and a real comrade. He was always to be found in the most difficult situations, we all felt great pain when we learned he had been killed.” (2)
“His image was one that stayed with you. It wasn’t easy to disagree with him; his nature was serious, firm, very strong, demanding and responsible. He had lots of opinions, and always argued with the confidence that he was right.” (3)
Díaz Argüelles enrolled in the University of Havana’s Engineering department, and soon began to participate in protests and demonstrations, joining José Antonio Echeverría and his revolutionary group, which included Fructuoso Rodríguez, Juan Pedro Carbó Serviá, José Machado, Faure Chomón, and Tavo Machín.
After the assault on the Presidential Palace and the death of Echeverría, Argüelles went to the United States, established his work there in exile, and flew back in a plane loaded with weapons - which landed, no less, on the Novia del Mediodía highway. Guillermo Jiménez found him a temporary hide-out in Havana.
He returned to Cuba with Faure Chomón, as part of the Scapade expedition, organized by the Revolutionary Directorate which disembarked in Nuevitas, making his way to Havana with Machín, Jiménez, Pepe Fernández Cossío, Tony Castell and Carlos Figueredo. Once in the capital, he took over as head of operations after Eduardo García Lavandero was killed, and participated in the legendary Santiago Rey assault, and the unprecedented attack on the Miramar police station, commemorated with a plaque bearing his name and that of Tavo, in the park on 60th St. and Ninth Avenue.
A SPECTACULAR ESCAPE
One of his most spectacular feats took place during this era, July 10, 1958. Díaz Argüelles reached his hide-out in a building on the corner of B and 21st, followed by agents of the dictatorship, unaware that José “Tato” Rodríguez Vedo and Pedro Martínez Brito has just been killed there. The door was ajar, and the veteran conspirator immediately realized he was trapped. He ran in the opposite direction toward a window facing the street. He slipped and fell, with shots whistling over his head; he jumped and threw himself from the third floor. His excellent physical condition, and a chicken coop below, saved him, although his ankle was fractured.
He looked up and saw the agent who had shot at him, and missed only because of his fall. The expert marksman took the agent out with his first shot, and since no one else was willing to put his head out the window, he was able to make a quick escape, from then on known as the most spectacular of the underground.
With his cover in the capital “blown,” Díaz Argüelles headed to the Escambray Mountains, to be become a commander. He participated in the battle of Villa Clara with the Directorate, still serving as part of its leadership.
After the triumph of the Revolution, he was assigned as head of the Department of Technical Investigations, attended the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) officers school, and served first as head of information, and subsequently artillery; operations; missile troops; and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As head of the 10th FAR leadership, he was assigned to supervise military collaboration with other countries. In Angola and throughout Africa, he is known by his nom de guerre Domingo da Silva, the leader of the historic effort of the small country of Cuba, which made a decisive contribution to stopping the apartheid South African army’s invasion of Angola.
On March 26, 1976, pushed back by Cuban-Angolan forces, South African troops withdrew and returned to their bases. In Quifangondo, a numerically inferior group of MPLA soldiers supported by Cuban artillery forced the attackers to retreat.
In Cabinda, the story was similar. On November 8, MPLA forces with 232 Cubans defeated an attack by Zairian troops.
On the 12th they went on the offensive, and expelled Mobutu’s soldiers, mercenaries and their supporters in Cabinda, obliging them to retreat to the border with Zaire, totally disorganized.
South Africa abandoned its last positions inside Angolan territory on March 27 of the following year. With the situation stabilized, Agostinho Neto’s government and Cuba agreed to reduce the number of Cuban military personnel in the country, leaving only the instructors. Nevertheless, a new South African invasion was launched, just as the Cuban withdrawal began, and it was stopped.
The victory in Angola sent shockwaves across South Africa, beyond Namibia and Angola. In the words of Nelson Mandela, the Cuba-Angola victory “destroyed the myth of the white oppressor’s invincibility... and served to inspire the combatative people of South Africa.”
And the memory Díaz Argüelles is part of this. It is no accident that, on Raúl Castro’s first visit to Angola as President in 2009, he concluded the trip with a pilgrimage to the Alto das Cruzes cemetery in Luanda, to place flowers on the tomb where the soldier’s remains were buried before eventually being returned to Cuba.
(1) John Stockwell. En busca de enemigos. Una historia de la CIA. P. 9
(2) Coronel Gonzálo del Valle. Angola. Editora Capitán San Luis
(3) Comandante de la Revolución Guillermo García
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