Rafael Moracen Limonta

Rafael Moracén, General of Division of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, combatant of the Rebel Army and Hero of the Republic of Cuba.

At a very young age he joined the forces of the III Eastern Front under the command of Juan Almeida. When the triumph of the Cuban Revolution occurred in January 1959 he entered Havana as a member of the Caravan of Freedom and was assigned to the Managua camp.

He received several courses in military training and cultural advancement and in 1965 he departed for the Republic of the Congo on an internationalist mission with the objective of advising the guerrillas of the MPLA who were fighting Portuguese colonialism in Angola. In 1973 he fulfilled a mission in Syria as chief of a tank battalion.

When Angola gained independence from Portuguese colonial rule, the FAR leadership designated him to advise the Presidential Battalion, an elite unit of the FAPLA, in charge of the security of President Agostinho Neto. His intervention would prove decisive in crushing the fractionalist elements during the uprising of May 27, 1977, by first coming to the aid of the Presidential Palace and later retaking the National Radio of Angola.

In his final years of life Moracén was a member of the National Directorate of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, a member of the Executive and Chief of the Secretariat of International Relations.

He was born on the San Quirino farm, Santa Filomena neighborhood, municipality of Palma Soriano, in the province of Santiago de Cuba. His father was a peasant and his mother worked as a maid in the home of a wealthy family in Santiago de Cuba.

He worked in the fields from a young age and when he turned fourteen he went to live in Santiago de Cuba and earned his living as a shoeshine boy, peanut vendor and other informal jobs. Two years later, he returned to agricultural work as a sugarcane cutter, charcoal producer, agricultural laborer and animal breeder.

His destiny, without imagining it, would have other horizons from that day when, at barely 13 years old, he learned of the events at the Moncada. First the dazzlement by the heroes, and then the whippings from the guard who repressed him for going to seek in those days one of the coupons for toys that Batista's wife sent as a gift to the barracks, would establish the parallel paths of his fate. "It was not very difficult for a child to recognize which side reason and truth were on. Since then I have had an aversion to the color yellow – because it is the shade of the uniform of the guards of the Batista dictatorship."

He was a simple shoeshine boy when he decided to depart for the Sierra Maestra. "It was February of 57, and I didn't know anything but Palma Soriano. I entered through the Buecito Mines, and in the heart of the Sierra I was afraid to say that I was going to rise up. The peasants thought I was going to rise up, and they told me that Fidel wasn't around there. I sold a watch and went to cut sugarcane at a central called Maceo, but I didn't measure up, because I didn't meet the norms. They told me to take the money, but that I didn't produce results.

"Some of my little friends knew that I was going to the Sierra. But I returned to the farm where I was born to make charcoal. Later, in 58, I went to the Third Front with Almeida, but I was a rifleman. Those who had good weapons went to set ambushes, but with that little rifle I had it wasn't possible. I asked to go disarm a guard, and I gave as an argument that I knew people in Santiago de Cuba from the Movement. I went to San Luis and the Chief of the Movement 26 of July told me that she was going to protect us, and she gave us her son and that we go to a cabaret and catch the guards between the two of us. The companion who accompanied me told me he was leaving. Obstinate, I went to a barracks. I saw a guard and pressured him to give me the rifle and I went to the Sierra, from there comes my nickname of Gunstealer," he confessed.

Later he told Almeida to authorize him to disarm another guard, and he did so, at a central called Santa Ana. "Then Almeida told me that I couldn't go out anymore, because they would be waiting for me to kill me."

He participated in the taking of Cueto, San Luis and Palma Soriano and in the attempts to take Dos Palmas. He was also sent to carry out missions of disarming soldiers in the city of Santiago de Cuba, San Luis and the Santana Central, today Chile.

Upon the triumph of the Revolution, Rafael Moracén was a soldier, a soldier who didn't know how to write his name. "I was illiterate, to such a point that everything Fidel said looked good to me, but I didn't understand it. When he said that this time the mambises were going to enter Santiago, I didn't understand it, because I didn't even understand what historical reality he was referring to."

On January 1, 1959 he was part of the rebel columns that entered Santiago de Cuba and later traveled to Havana as a member of the Caravan of Freedom headed by Fidel Castro. Assigned to the Managua camp, he was promoted to second lieutenant. A few months later he was appointed chief of a tank platoon.

Internationalist Missions
Congo Brazzaville

He held various positions in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and then came other missions for this simple man with a noble and brave heart. It was in 1965 that he departed to fulfill an internationalist mission in Congo Brazzaville to support the Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

"In 65 we departed on the ship Uvero, the largest we had at that time, and it was said that we were going to Algeria. We ended up in Guinea Conakry, and there we clandestinely boarded planes, until we reached the Congo, and then they handed us over to the Angolans.

"In July of 66 there was a Cuban troop in the Congo, when they attempted a coup d'état. And since they said I had experience they sent for me and I was the chief of part of the Cuban troop, and I participated in preventing a coup d'état in the Congo. It was a passage of experience for me and of respect for the troops of our country. In the end everything was resolved without deaths or injuries. Fortunately the problem was resolved."

Upon arrival they explained to him the need to obtain Angolan documentation for his movements in Brazzaville and to cross the border through the Cabinda province. They legalized him with the name Humberto, four days later they went to Dolisi, a town near the border with Angola, where the MPLA had a Revolutionary Instruction Center and large warehouses of weapons, ammunition and food. The headquarters of the second region was also based in the place.

As an advisor to the MPLA guerrilla he fought against the Portuguese colonial army, taught the MPLA insurgents assembly and disassembly, irregular tactics and especially how to set ambushes. After a year the direction of the MPLA decided to reinforce the struggle in the north, in the so-called First Region and decided to bring guerrillas to Brazzaville to prepare themselves. They divided them into three groups: Camilo Cienfuegos, Commander Cami and Bomboco.

In July 1966, when Moracén was in Kimongo preparing a column that was going to reinforce the first region, he was sent an order to present himself immediately in Brazzaville. Upon arrival, Jorge Risquet Valdés and Commander Rolando Kindelán informed him that a coup d'état attempt had occurred in the country and most of the rulers were sheltering in the Cuban camp.

The army and gendarmerie had taken over Brazzaville and the loyal heads of Security and the Army were imprisoned. They then ordered him to defend an intersection through which all trucks of armed soldiers passed, from one place to another, in an offensive position with instructions not to shoot unless they attacked them. Finally the Congolese authorities were able to control the situation and everything returned to normal.

From the Congo he continued on to Angola, to train the forces of the MAPLA. "With the experience I had from our guerrilla struggle, I criticized the actions of those there, who before the army arrived would shoot and retreat. I had the conception that Fidel taught us. Here we took weapons away from the enemy to arm ourselves. This came from the war of independence. I had the idea that to say we had fought we had to cause casualties on the enemy. But since they had warehouses to arm around 3,000 or 4,000 men, it didn't seem important to them to take weapons from the enemy. But when we set an ambush, we caused casualties and recovered weapons."

During his presence in the MPLA guerrilla in Cabinda he fell ill with malaria and Agostinho Neto himself – the supreme leader of the MPLA and future first president of Angola – treated him as a doctor.

Syria
In July 1967 he returned to Cuba. During the years 1968 to 1970 he attended the Superior Academy of the FAR General Máximo Gómez. He held various positions in the chain of command until in 1973 he again went on an internationalist mission to the Syrian People's Republic as chief of the First Tank Battalion. The mission was successful due to the good behavior and attitude toward the Syrians and other Arab countries that were fighting against Zionism.

"When Fidel made the decision for us to go there, I immediately joined. And our combatants demonstrated discipline, organization… just as the Syrians also gave me a very good impression," he assured.

He remained for one year and four months. In February 1975 he returned to Cuba aboard the ship Rossia. Upon arrival at the port of Mariel, the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Raúl Castro Ruz welcomed him. He later met with Fidel Castro at La Cabaña.

Operation Carlota
In the first half of November 1975 he was called to the General Staff where he was informed that he would go to Cabinda, as chief of a tank company. He participated in several battles until the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces informed him that a unit was going to be created subordinate to the president of Angola, Agostinho Neto and that it would be under his responsibility.

He began working on the formation of the Presidential Battalion and organizing the security of President Neto.

On May 27, 1975 ultra-leftist elements led by Nito Alves and Ze Van Dunen, supported by forces of the FAPLA attempted to overthrow President Neto. At 04:00 am they took over the prison and released all the prisoners; they seized the National Radio of Angola and began to demonstrate in groups in the streets. The main chiefs of the FAPLA went to the Ninth Brigade of Luanda to seek reinforcements. As they arrived, they were imprisoned. Other military personnel and officials were detained in their homes.

With his forces Moracén advanced on the Presidential Palace in support of President Neto. Since he didn't know who was involved in the conspiracy, upon entering the capital he left the tank company in reserve in the Zambizanga neighborhood. Already at the Palace he was called by Neto to go and retake the National Radio, which was in the hands of the coup plotters.

He moved to the National Radio in several trucks and armored personnel carriers. On the outskirts of the station they confront the coup soldiers guarding the facility with BRDM-2 vehicles and take the station. He requested support from Abelardo Colomé Ibarra – who was the chief of the Cuban Military Mission – and asked him to send him a company of tanks to lift the siege that the coup plotters had laid for the president. During the time he was at the station it did not stop broadcasting in support of Neto. Later, in support of other combatants he participated in the recovery of the Ninth Brigade of the FAPLA and the prison.

Moracén remained at the head of security for President Agostinho Neto until his death on September 10, 1979. He then continued with the same mission with President José Eduardo dos Santos until 1982, when he returned to Cuba.

In Cuba
In 1987 he graduated with a degree in Social Sciences and in 1995 he returned to Angola as Military, Naval and Air Attaché. A position he held until January 1998.

Member of the National Directorate of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, he has been for years a member of the Executive and Chief of the Secretariat of International Relations.