Cuba has an embassy in Pretoria, South Africa has an embassy in Havana. Cultural and historical ties, as well as shared struggles and common aspirations, create the basis for a strong bond of solidarity between Cuba and South Africa and the continent of Africa. Cuban leader Fidel Castro, seeing opportunity in the turmoil resulting from African decolonization, decided to escalate his assistance. After the arrival, Spain conquered Cuba and appointed Spanish governors to rule in Havana. Relations were strained during the apartheid era. Mandela and Castro on the Moncada Barracks to celebrate the Attack on the Moncada Barracks, 26 July 1991. The Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 in Portugal took the world by surprise and caught the independence movements in its last African colonies unprepared. Cuba–South Africa relations refer to the bilateral relations between Cuba and South Africa. In 1762, Havana was briefly occupied by Great Britain, before being returned to Spain in Florida. Cuba and the struggle for democracy in South Africa. Cuba has become an established strategic partner for South Africa in the Latin American region and within multilateral forums. After smooth negotiations, Mozambique's independence was granted on 25 June 1975, but Angolan control remained disputed between the three rival independence movements: MPLA, FNLA and UNITA in Angola-proper and Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) in Cabinda. Cuba became a Spanish colony in 1492 and the most important source of raw sugar in the 18th century before being crowned as the Pearl of Antilles. The revolution in Cuba, culminating in Fidel Castro’s seizure of power on 1 January 1959, was from the beginning based on a non-racial ethos, and revolutionary Cuba was an early opponent of apartheid and racial segregation. Although Spain had to engage in numerous bloody battles and costly campaigns against independence movements, it was able to hold Cuba up to 1898 when it lost the colony to the American in the Spanish-American War. Cuba’s intervention in Africa, which began in earnest in the mid-1970s, has proved very costly. The island of Cuba was inhabited by various Mesoamerican cultures prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1492.