Word: savimbi
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...Angolans have good reason for wanting to rid themselves of the Cubans. The impoverished Luanda government must pay the troops in precious hard currency. Moreover, the Cubans have not succeeded in stamping out the resistance of Jonas Savimbi, a South African-backed rebel whose forces roam free in much of southern Angola. Dos Santos evidently believes a Cuban withdrawal will bring in significant Western economic aid to exploit Angola's vast mineral resources. But any withdrawal of the Cubans would leave open to question the fate of Savimbi and his antigovernment forces. Says one U.S. analyst: "There are many...
...months, reports have circulated in Europe and the U.S. about Cuban "kidnapings": African youths, taken involuntarily from their peasant homes and flown to Fidel Castro's country for ideological indoctrination. Jonas Savimbi, leader of the anti-Marxist, rebel UNITA movement in Angola, has even used the word slavery to describe what is taking place. The stories, which are given some credence by Western observers in Africa, cast a shadow over one of the Cuban President's proudest achievements: the creation of 15 revolutionary schools on the Isle of Youth...
...Neto had spent years in prison and exile. When Portugal granted independence to the 400-year-old colony in 1975, Neto's Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (M.P.L.A.), backed by Russia and Cuba, became involved in a three-way power struggle with the rival guerrilla forces of Jonas Savimbi and Holden Roberto, both of whom had Western support. After gaining the upper hand with the aid of some 2,000 Cuban troops, Neto embarked on a troubled presidency marred by continued civil war, serious economic difficulties and bitter dissension within his party...
Four years ago, after Portugal withdrew from its former colony, Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.) and 25,000 Cubans apparently had defeated UNITA and another liberation movement, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.). But Savimbi fought on. Since January, his guerrillas claim to have killed 350 government soldiers or Cubans, while suffering only 150 fatalities. Savimbi has recruited heavily among his fellow Ovimbundu (40% of the country's population) and other southern Angolan tribes, which have deep-rooted hostility toward Neto, a mixed-race assimilado, and the Cubans...
Traveling by a clandestine UNITA supply route, TIME'S Peter Hawthorne last week entered southern Angola for an exclusive interview with Savimbi. Dressed in characteristic fatigues and gun belt, the former political science student at Switzerland's Lausanne University spoke of the war, UNITA'S goals and the dangers of Soviet expansionism in Africa. "The battle we are fighting is not only for the independence of Angola," he said. "It is also for the independence of the West." Excerpts from the interview...