War has an Ugly Face, says Nurse About the US-led Bay of Pigs Invasion

 Matanzas, April 18 (ACN) “Gray days which you wouldn’t like to live, war has an ugly face which you only notice once it hits near you,” this is the way Cuban woman Cira Rivero describes the battle waged by the Cuban people against the April 1961 US-led Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion, in which she served as a nurse.

Lot of movement and noise all night, planes overflying the city, constant unrest, Cira recalls the events 62 years ago, as she was on second year of nursing when she and her colleagues were called to support medical assistance at the Matanzas provincial hospital.

At 22, Rivero faced one of the greatest challenges of her profession: ambulances brought the wounded from different areas, the hospital got overcrowded with patients, who were vaccinated with tetanic toxoid to prevent them from getting the Tetanus, since they came with many wounds, swollen bodies, unconscious and some of them did not survive.

She said that the ambulance sirens caused uncertainty in the nurses, they were concerned about their families, and every time an ambulance reached the hospital she looked through the windows fearing to see any of her two brothers come wounded, because they were fighting the invasion.

Unforgettable and moving hours were experienced those days by suffering mothers, fathers or children who lost any of their relatives in the battle. Although Cira and others like her restlessly worked all those days to safe all the lives possible, the memories still hurt; it was a war that stained with blood the lives of many people, but finally came to an end with the victory of the Cuban people on April 19, 1961, said the nurse with bright eyes.

The 1961 US-led Bay of Pigs invasion aimed at toppling the young Cuban revolution caused Cuba 176 lives, 300 wounded and 50 disabled persons, while the over 1 thousand 500 mercenaries armed with all kind of weapons were defeated in less than three days and inflicted 89 casualties, 250 wounded and 1 thousand 197 prisoners.