Playa Girón: In the Heart of Cubans

Solvision

Friday, 16 April 2010 09:53

Elayne Valera Cobas

Guantanamo.

Playa Girón, Bay of Pigs, has a special significance for all Cubans. This place is located in the western province of Matanzas, in Cuba. That name has transcended in time, in Apr 1961 that town witnessed one of the most glorious pages in the history of the island, the first greatest defeat of US imperialism in Latin America.

The story began from the very first of January 1959 with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. The government of the United States, which served as shelter to the murderers and thugs of the overthrown bloody dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, was-and still remains-as the perfect habitat to nurture the most nefarious plans against the Cuban government and people.

On April 15, 1961, aircrafts coming from the United States of America, camouflaged with Cuban insignias, unsurprising bombed several Cuban airports in Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, respectively.

The strategy was conceived as the prelude of the invasion to Playa Girón planned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The treacherous attack was faced by the brave Cuban defense forces and the mercenaries fled northwards.

The next day, April 16, during the funeral of the bombarding victims, the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro, proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution, which for 50 years is a bastion of the Cuban people who defend their sovereignty and social justice.

With the same patriotic fervor in which Cubans vowed that day to preserve their conquests, the people triumphed over the mercenary invasion and defeated them in 72 hours. It was the result of joint actions at that time: the Cuban Rebel Army, the National Revolutionary Police, the militia men and the people in general, a union that prevails and makes valid the sentence of the historic leader of the Revolution:

"They shall not have Cuba ever!"

Those were days that cannot be forgotten, as Fidel Castro said in his recent reflection, because the commitment to the martyrs of Girón is an everlasting inspiration for all Cubans, who for half a century have waged a relentless battle against the greatest power of the world that still is not aware that the Cubans have built in front of their eyes, the first socialist revolution in Latin America.