Cubans Recall Victory over 1961 US -led Mercenary Invasion

 Havana, April 17 (ACN) Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party Central Committee and Cuban President, recalled the 1961 US-led mercenary invasion on Bay of Pigs, western Matanzas province, which is considered the first big military defeat against US imperialism in Latin America.

The head of state wrote on X that the mercenaries were provided with abundant and modern weapons and counted on the support of US warships for the invasion, after they were trained by the US army.

However, they lacked three crucial weapons: moral, ideals and courage, said Diaz-Canel and added that in less than 72 hours they all surrendered to the moral, ideals and courage of the Cuban people.

Cubans now mark 64 years of that invasion, a plan approved by former US President Dwight Eisenhower and implemented by also former US President JFK, which seemed to be perfect; but they were not aware of nature of the Cuban people or Fidel Castro, Communist Party Organization Secretary Roberto Morales wrote on X.

In early hours on April 17th, 1961, an armed detachment, trained by the US army landed on Cuban territory through the Zapata Swamp, on the southern coast of Matanzas province.

Some 1500 troops made up the mercenary contingent, which departed Puerto Cabezas harbor, in Nicaragua, onboard five US warships, escorted by other naval units.

Those troops landed here with the aim of establishing a beachhead and setting up a counterrevolutionary provisional government, which would request a US intervention in Cuba to be immediately approved.

But the Cuban people, led by Fidel Castro, defeated the invaders in just 66 hours and forced them to surrender in the evening of April 19, 1961.

Over 150 revolutionary combatants and several civilians were murdered under the shelling of mercenary warplanes.

The Bay of Pigs invasion, whose code name was Operation Pluto, represented the first big military defeat of US imperialism in Latin America.