During Angola's civil war, Cuban forces fought alongside the Marxist–Leninist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government; against the Western-backed National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) guerrillas who were aided by the South-African army. The present day outcome of the war resulted in the MPLA changing from a Marxist–Leninist party to a multi-party democratic system based on neoliberal principles (the MPLA also dropped the "Labour Party" extension to its name as a clear sign of dropping their communist aspirations). From an economic standpoint, Cuba has lost its preferred status among Angolans and South Africa has become the biggest single investor and trading partner with Angola (outside oil sales).
Pedro Rosso Leal is the current ambassador of Cuba to Angola.
History
1960s
Cuba's relationship with Angola started in the 1960s as part of the "Second Revolution" movement announced by Fidel Castro. The movement intended to bring Marxism–Leninism to Africa starting primarily in Zaire (today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The failed attempt to make a foothold in the Zaire presented various lessons to Cuba which were used in identifying better candidate nations, leaders and better opportunities for success.
Jonas Savimbi, the future president of UNITA, met with Fidel Castro's ally and revolutionary Che Guevara in 1965. Guevara told his superiors he did not trust Savimbi, and Savimbi possibly presented a danger. This was probably linked to the fact that Savimbi did not have any notable aspirations towards Marxism–Leninism. However, to Cuba's surprise, Agostinho Neto (the then leader of the MPLA) had a very strong Marxist leaning which suited the Cuban agenda. In the 1960s Cuba mobilized a task force to assist Agostinho Neto to build an army and carry out a terror campaign against the Portuguese colonial leaders with the intent of gaining independence and installing a Marxist state.
1975
In 1975, in response to the demands of the Carnation Revolution, Portugal decided to pull out of its African colonies. By this time Cuba had already infiltrated and commenced large scale activities in the Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola. Of these African colonies, Angola has vast amounts of oil and an abundance of other natural resources. Given that the 1970s became the awakening of the oil age and knowing that Angola's large oil reserves would serve well to make it a rich and strong backer of a Marxist expansion, Cuba focused on primarily supporting Angolan Marxist rebel movements over the liberation movements of other Portuguese colonies, thus beginning the special relationship between Cuba and Angola.
Portugal set Angola's independence date for 11 November 1975. Three prominent liberation movements contended for the role of leading the newly formed independent country, namely: UNITA, FNLA and the MPLA. Each of the three movements received foreign assistance, UNITA from Western countries, FNLA from China (and later from the West) and MPLA from the Soviets and Cuba. Although many exhaustive attempts were made (by Portugal) to get the three movements to agree to a peaceful democratic system of power sharing (with multi-party democracy), the specter of being the sole ruler of Angola seemed to undermine any peaceful solution. Cuba added to the failure of the Alvor Accord (to bring the three parties together) by inducing MPLA to believe that with Cuba's backing they could dominate any military confrontation and win Angola's rule.
With the failure of the Alvor Accord, the stage was set for a high-noon shoot-out among the three parties in a win-all competition. The victor would become the leader of Angola. It seemed a foregone conclusion that the party which held control over Luanda (the capital city) on 11 November 1975 would be recognized as the governing party. This put the MPLA (who had a base following in Luanda) at a natural advantage. The other two parties then sought foreign military assistance to take on the Cuban-backed MPLA and make an attempt to gain control of Luanda.