[NYTr] Angola and Cuba: A Friendship Built with Blood and Sacrifice

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Granma Daily - Sep 21, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art04.html

A Friendship Built with Blood and Sacrifice

By MARIA JULIA MAYORAL and ARNALDO MUSA

Angolan president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos arrived in Havana on Thursday
looking to strengthen friendship and fraternity between Cuba and Angola
which has been "built with blood and sacrifice" in the most difficult
times of his country’s struggle for independence and sovereignty.

In brief statements to the press, the Angolan leader and head of the
Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party greeted the island’s
people and recalled those Cubans who sacrificed their lives in Angola.
He thanked Cuba for always being alongside the African nation.

Dos Santos noted that important changes have occurred in the world in
recent years and that both Cuba and Angola are adapting to the new
conditions. He expressed interest in working together to improve the
life of the people of both countries.

The distinguished guest was met at the Jose Marti International Airport
by Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, vice president of the Cuban Council of
State. The welcoming party also included Politburo members Leopoldo
Cintra Frias and Pedro Ross Leal; the current Cuban ambassador in
Angola; Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque; and Rafael Moracen
Limonta, vice president of the Association of Veterans of the Cuban
Revolution.

The indissoluble blood ties that bond Cuban and Angola were underscored
Thursday evening as President Dos Santos met with a group of Cuban
internationalist veterans.

"In Angola we were shoulder to shoulder in the war against
colonialism," recalled Dos Santos, who pointed out that the Cuban
fighters also contributed to shore up the independence of Zimbabwe, to
achieve independence in Namibia, to erase the horrible Apartheid regime
in South Africa and help his country obtain peace.

"Many of our comrades are not with us today because they gave their
lives so our peoples could be free," said the Angolan leader, who
thanked Fidel Castro for responding to the request of President
Agostinho Neto in the mid-1970s to help preserve the independence of
Angola during the difficult times of the Cold War.

Also on Thursday, Dos Santos visited the Camilo Cienfuegos Military
School at Arroyo Arenas and paid tribute to Cuban National Hero Jose
Marti at the Plaza of the Revolution.

                              ***

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com


Dos Santos Pays Tribute to Cuban Fighters Killed in Angola

Havana, Sep 21 (Prensa Latina) President of Angola Jose Eduardo Dos
Santos paid tribute on Friday to the Cuban internationalist fighters
killed in Angola, and called to honor their ideas and dreams of a
better world.

Dos Santos laid a wreath and extolled those who gave their lives at the
mausoleum erected to the memory of these fighters.

They were generous to us. We are still alive because, by their
altruism, they secured our freedom and independence, he stressed, as he
wished honor and glory to those martyrs for the good of humankind.

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PL-39