After pacifying the urban podar popular movements, which had been causing internal conflict within the organization, the MPLA focused on neutralizing the FNLA and UNITA threats.  In contrast with that of the USSR and Cuba, the American and South African presence in Angola was more clandestine and less popular.  Cuba, another poor country with a colonial heritage, was seen as extending Third World solidarity to the Angolans and defending them from a racist South Africa.  Both South Africa and the US also had strong ties with the Portuguese, and this association with imperialism made them unpopular with many groups in Angola.