| There were short interventions from Bernard Regan CSC chair, Kevin Courtenay Deputy General Secretary of NUT, Andrew Murray of Stop the War, and Cuban Journalist Reinaldo Taladrid. Comandante Dreke was deserving of his title. He drew parallels between the victory at Playa and the armed attacks and terrorism against Cuba with the current world situation, as well as linking the generation of the triumph with the succeeding and contemporary generations in their ongoing support for the proclamation of the socialist character of the revolution made by Fidel in the midst of the Playa Giron events. He concluded with calls for unity in the cause of peace, dignity and the future and denounced war and aggression. It was a great meeting, well organised and and with a good turnout. Historic Victory at Playa Girón The U.S. attempt to invade Cuba at Playa Girón fifty years ago took place at a time when the U.S. imperialists had already caused many tragedies through coups, military interventions and other interference in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thus, the decisive victory of Cuba over the enemy forces at the Bay of Pigs, regarded as the first defeat of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, had significance not only for Cuba, but for all the peoples of the Americas. In 1961 the CIA was completing the details of Plan Pluto, to establish a beachhead on Cuban territory and create a situation where the U.S. could provide itself a pretext to self-righteously intervene and place a puppet regime in power. To carry out this plan, it assembled the infamous Brigade 2506 -- made up mostly of henchmen of the former U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, as well as mercenaries, terrorists and overthrown oligarchs. In the days before the actual invasion, the U.S. and its mercenaries had stepped up their provocations, including bombing the bases at Havana and Santiago de Cuba, causing death and considerable damage. Likewise, U.S. aircraft disguised with insignia of the Cuban Air Force carried out attacks on Cuba. Retired Colonel Armando Martínez Alvarez, in a March 24 item in Granma International, recounted how just days before the events at Playa Girón, he and other Cuban youth had been mobilized by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro into an anti-aircraft unit to defend Cuba from airborne attack: "On April 15, 1961, at 06:00 am, three Cuban airports: Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, suffered a surprise attack by eight B-26 bombers flying out of Puerto Cabezas, Republic of Nicaragua, painted with the insignia of our air force in order to cause confusion, in their attempt to destroy the small and inadequate combat air force on the ground (the action prior to the mercenary invasion), thwarted by the opportune foresight of Fidel, who had ordered the aircraft to be dispersed. "Only one of the eight aircraft that we had at that moment was destroyed, but the machinegun fire resulted in seven people killed and 53 wounded, mostly civilians. Two enemy planes were damaged by anti-aircraft fire, and one pitched into the sea, as could be seen from the Comodoro Hotel, located in what is now Playa municipality. The rookie gunners riddled the mercenary aircraft and, before dying, one of them, Eduardo García Delgado, wrote the name of Fidel on the wall for posterity with his own blood. "On April 16, at the burial ceremony for those who died, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro solemnly declared before thousands of men and women with guns held aloft, the socialist nature of the Revolution and decreed a national mobilization given the imminence of the mercenary assault." Emboldened by their cowardly acts of terrorism and recklessness, and deluded in their thinking that the Cuban people would support them, the U.S. imperialists and their mercenaries then proceeded with the invasion. The mercenaries who landed at Playa Girón on April 17 were poorly organized and ill-equipped. Their delusions of being greeted with open arms were abruptly shattered by the reality that the Cuban people were united with Fidel and the army and would not permit Cuba to become a U.S. colony once again. Despite being backed by the U.S. military, the mercenaries were defeated by April 19. Many Cuban patriots died and a great number of farmers and civilians were victims of enemy fire. Some 1,200 invaders were taken prisoner and later exchanged for medicine, medical equipment and funds for Cuban children. The demand of the Cuban and world's peoples that Cuba be permitted to forge its independent path, free from U.S. interference, be it armed aggression, terrorism, the economic blockade, etc., is as relevant today as it was in 1961. This year's anniversary comes in the context of the acquittal in a U.S. court of notorious U.S.-backed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the ongoing unjust imprisonment of the five Cuban heroes and attempts by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to foment dissent amongst the Cuban people. This is in addition to wider attempts by the U.S. imperialists at interference throughout Latin America, such as the recent coup in Honduras, where it is now building new military bases, the seven new bases in Colombia and the reactivation of the Fifth Fleet in 2007, to name just a few examples. Fifty years after its decisive victory at Playa Girón, the Cuban Revolution is stronger than ever, calmly overcoming every obstacle in the path of its socialist development, be it natural or manmade. All indications are that 50 years after Playa Girón, the U.S. imperialists are more isolated than ever. The people of the world resolutely reject U.S. terrorism against Cuba and its retrogressive recourse to violence as a solution for differences between itself and Cuba or any other nation. The U.S. imperialists should finally learn the lesson of their ignominious defeat at Playa Girón and keep their hands off Cuba. Hail the Victory at Playa Girón! Long Live the Cuban Revolution! Hands Off Cuba! Playa Girón, Where History Changed - Radio Havana Cuba, April 1, 2011 - Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano reminds us in his book The Memories of Fire, that former U.S. President, Dwight Eisenhower, approved the invasion of Cuba in March 1960 at the same desk where he signed the order to overthrow the progressive Guatemalan government of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. The same team of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, was responsible for carrying out that action, and the pilots who had previously bombed Guatemalan towns, were then used to make a treacherous attack against Cuba. For the White House, history had not moved even an inch between 1954 and 1961, when Operation Pluto was drowned in the sands of Playa Girón. At that time, the U.S. government had two supporting puppets in Central America: Miguel Idígoras Fuentes, a bitter fruit of the murder of that Guatemalan spring event, and Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, who had betrayed, on Washington's orders, Augusto Cesar Sandino, the General of Free Men, a patriot who had given the dust of defeat to U.S. troops, without ultimately enjoying his cherished dream of finally freeing his homeland. Both countries were under the heavy military boot imposed from the north and the two were key points in the coup attempt against Cuba. Thus, military camps were established in Guatemala in the northern departments of Petén, and Retaluleu, in the south, to train mercenaries. Right there, beginning to take his first steps as a murderer who has just been acquitted by the U.S. justice system after leaving a huge regional trail of blood; that was Luis Posada Carriles. The ships full of the henchmen of Batista's former police and army, along with a large group of sugar oligarchs, their heirs or trusted employees, and their instructors from the CIA and the Pentagon, all departed from Nicaragua. However, Eisenhower was not in the Oval Office anymore; so, the task of the invasion was passed on to his successor, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but with the difference that history itself had changed in a few years and that Latin America and the Caribbean will never be again the same place as they used to be before April 1961. Cuba, in less than 72 hours, made the greatest contribution to the freedom of our continent since the successful Haitian slave revolution in September 1789. In spite of what they expected at the White House and mansions in Florida, people did not come to greet the invaders with flowers in their hands. They received them with a clean shot, and with their worn out air force, the people sank their famous Escondido River and Houston vessels while popular militias cleaned the beaches within hours. Five B-26 bombers were shot down and the rest of the invading force had to retreat. In the sands of Playa Girón, 1,200 mercenaries surrendered and it is unlikely that any of them ever came to understand the enormous historical significance of what was happening. For the first time, imperialism was completely defeated, and nobody will forget the image of the president of the most powerful nation in the world bowing his head to bitterly swallow and publicly acknowledge the failure. A wave of hope ignited those hearts where, despite losses such as Guatemala and Nicaragua, the seeds of liberty germinated, now fertilized by the conviction that the main enemy is not invincible after all. |