Just when some might think that, exhausted by brutal U.S. attacks, Cuba would lose strength, here is our vanguard fighting with bare fists to make this extraordinary island a more prosperous, contented country.

Following a year of the pandemic’s pain and death, the world continues to seek solutions to control the virus that has ravaged even the most solid economies, while Cuba, “punished” by the most powerful empire on the planet, resists, having committed no other “crime” than giving back to Cubans what for centuries was denied, and rather than despairing, has mobilized to produce five candidate vaccines, the work of scientists trained by the Revolution.

As the world seems to collapse, Cuba rises to the occasion, with the light of our doctors, our hard-working population and our entire people, confident that we will put an end to the nightmare and continue our path toward prosperity, only possible with socialism as the foundation.

The confidence of our people is no accident. Another April features the most important meeting of the country’s political vanguard, the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which began yesterday and continues through the 19th.

Cubans know well that the debates taking place these days are intended to advance collective wellbeing. And we understand that this is no easy task, as the forces of evil insist on sullying the country’s purity, living in peace and wrapped in the nobility of our leaders and people.

Time is short and none will be wasted on bemoaning. We are going for more, in our own way. Nothing will stop the course agreed upon in a vote by the majority of Cubans, with the leadership of our Communist Party. If we are Cuba, surprising and admired, it is because we can unconditionally count on our Party.

During these days, when the Bay of Pigs and the 60th anniversary of Fidel’s proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, cannot be forgotten, April brings another victory.

(Taken from Granma)

Hundreds of locals, gathered near the sands of Playa Girón, recalled the man who led revolutionary forces to an irrefutably victory over a mercenary invasion orchestrated by the U.S. government.

Fidel’s talents as military strategist and his ability to take command at crucial moments have been recognized. His physical presence at the scene of the invasion contributed to keeping morale high among the militias and was decisive to their victory in those glorious days of April 1961, stated Kenia Otaño, a young resident from Ciénaga de Zapata, speaking during the act.

Meanwhile, combatant Peña Flor Gallo, who participated in the resistance, highlighted the importance of the unity of the Cuban people to securing victory; noting that this was the first time the government had given arms to the masses (militias, workers, campesinos) to defend the sovereignty of their homeland.

Also recalled during the act was the historical importance and moral lessons of Girón, which continue to grow and prove that a people committed to fighting to defend their sovereignty cannot be defeated.

Meanwhile, a total of 56 youths received their Young Communist League membership cards, while the same number of combatants were presented with a commemorative medal in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The act was presided by Jorge Cuevas Ramos, a member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat; Major General Raúl Rodríguez Lobaina, head of the Central Army; as well as Teresa Rojas Monzón, first Party secretary in Matanzas, and Tania León Silveira, president of the Provisional Assembly of People’s Power.

Also in attendance were combatants who fought at Girón; Nemesia Rodríguez and her family, and José Luis Centella Gómez, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain.

Speaking during the act, Party Provincial Bureau member, Hidovaldo Díaz Martínez, highlighted the extraordinary impact of the triumph, noting that 56 years on Playa Girón continues to be a shining example and proof of the immoral and deceitful measures used by the United States to attack other countries.

(Granma)

The declaration by Fidel came during the funeral acts for those who had been killed during the aerial bombardment against the air bases of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, which served as a prelude to the invasion of Playa Girón.

According to Yuniasky Crespo, a member of the Executive Bureau of the provincial Party committee in Havana, the victory of Playa Girón demonstrated to the world what the Cuban people were capable of.

Speaking during the event held on April 16, Crespo stressed that the anniversary marked a day of honor and glory, of respect, sacrifice and commitment. The event was attended by the highest representatives of the Party and the government in the capital: Mercedes López Acea, member of the Party Political Bureau and a vice president of the Council of State; and Reinaldo García Zapata, respectively.

The 60th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces medal was also presented to representatives of the combatants of Playa Girón, in recognition of their revolutionary efforts.

Upon receiving this distinction, we pay tribute to all those heroes who have given their lives for our independence, and in fulfillment of internationalist missions, expressed Reserves Colonel Alfonso Núñez Legué, on behalf of those presented with the medal.

We receive this medal, he added, with the pride of having served Cuba, and with the determination to defend her dignity and sovereignty.

(Granma)

The political and military support provided by the Eisenhower administration and the CIA to Idígoras, saved the dictatorial regime which had approved the use of an estate – the Helvetia owned by Roberto Alejos, brother of the country’s ambassador in the U.S. – for the purpose of training troops to invade Cuba. This attack did eventually take place at the Bay of Pigs, in April of 1961.

The arrogance of CIA officials and their Cuban agents provoked the uprising in Guatemala by a group of officers who were able to take the Matamoros Garrison with the goal of assuming government power. The insurgents demanded the closing of the Retalhuleu base, in the country’s southwestern region, and the removal of corrupt officers collaborating with Idígoras, who had taken the place of puppet Carlos Castillo de Armas, installed as head of state in 1954 by the CIA, after the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz, the elected President of Guatemala. Castillo was dealt justice by a soldier within the government’s own headquarters.

Among the 1960 insurgents were the Lieutenant Colonels Ricardo Sesam Pereira and Augusto Vicente Loarca (considered leaders of the revolt), and Major José G. Chicas Lemús, Captain Arturo Chur del Cid and Lieutenant Francisco Orellana. The rebels took the garrison in an operation in which

Colonel Lizandro Ortiz and Captain Ernesto Juárez Mayen were killed. Part of the troops there joined the rebellion and confiscated a large number of weapons. From Matamoros they marched to Zacapa where the majority of officers supported the uprising, meeting up there with Lieutenants Marco Antonio Yon Sosa, Luis Turcios Lima and Luis Trejo Esquivel.

Upon hearing of the insurrection, the CIA office in Guatemala City sent a message to J.C. King, head of the agency’s Western Hemisphere Division in Washinton, at 3:00am, November 13, 1960, reporting that “unidentified forces” had carried out a military attack. Another urgent message refers to the Secretary of Defense who was asking for information about ships in position to attack Guatemala.

CLOSING OF CIA TRAINING CAMP

Shortly thereafter, the CIA command recommended analyzing the possibility of canceling the GS-46-007 project (the Helvetia estate training camp) and reported that preparations were being made to use the U.S. personnel there and Cubans recruited for an invasion of the island, against the Guatemalan insurgents. CIA officials also reported supporting Idígoras’ forces, transporting troops on C-46 and B-52 planes as requested.

King responded that all of the Cuban recruits should be put on alert – if that had not already been done – and directed the CIA staff to be ready for any contingency. He asked that he be advised if the situation deteriorated any further, and shortly thereafter ordered the suspension of the GS-46-007 plan, and the evacuation of all forces to a secret location, to support the Idígoras government.

At 3:00pm that afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter was informed that the command post in Zacapa, as well as the military base and airport in Puerto Barrios were in the hands of unidentified rebels, with comments indicating that it was not known if the attack was solely to secure to weapons, ammunition and vehicles, or whether the assault was part of a bigger plan.

An embassy functionary called from Puerto Barrios and reported that the governor of the department had been arrested, and that the rebels were making radio broadcasts without mentioning any names of persons or parties involved.

Mid-morning reports indicated that bombings were taking place on Zacapa and the Puerto Barrios base, with missiles and 50 caliber machine gun fire. The army attempted to retake Puerto Barrios with troops transported from the capital and aerial support. Counterrevolutionary Cuban pilots bombed, while Idígoras ordered a state of siege and Congress met.

U.S. B-26 AIRCRAFT FLOWN BY CUBAN COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES

The U.S. ambassador requested that aerial and maritime space between Cuba and Guatemala be monitored, and told the Guatemalan Air Force not to interfere if activity were noted. The morning of the 14th, aerial patrols of airspace over the Gulf of Honduras began, where a destroyer was also sent as requested by the Idígoras government’s Minister of Defense. A decision was also made to send 200 Cuban recruits, training at the Helvetia estate, to fight the rebels in Zacapa and Puerto Barrios, and participate in the defense of the main camp there.

The U.S. command noted that the insurgents are not linked to the Cuban government, but suspected that ties did exist with Communists in the Guatemalan Workers Party (PGT), which was promptly denied.

Ydígoras named Colonel Ricardo Peralta Méndez as head of operations and ordered troops sent to repress the rebels.

With the CIA’s B-26 aircraft, later used against Cuba, counterrevolutionary Cuban pilots machine gunned and bombed facilities taken by rebels in Zacapa and Puerto Barrios.

The U.S. participation was kept secret to protect the CIA’s plans to bomb Cuba on April 15, sacrificing Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, who had been a Presidential candidate in the previous elections. The CIA official David Attlee Philips pressured Stevenson to present false testimony in the UN, to state that the attacks on Cuban airports had been carried out by Cuban pilots who had deserted that very day, taking off in Cuba, not from Nicaragua which was actually the case,

Years later Philips participated in the CIA’s assassination of General René Schneider in Chile, and was identified by the Congressional Select Committee investigating the shooting of President Kennedy , as the agent who ‘managed’ Lee Harvey Oswald.

OUTCOME OF THE ARMED CONFLICT

November 13, the Guatemalan people had awakened in a tense environment, with news of the armed uprising. On the 14th, the Foreign Ministry released a note sent to the Organization of American States, describing the events as “an invasion coming from Cuba,” an accusation which was denied by the CIA itself. The Guatemalan government and press reported that the rebels had been immediately neutralized, while admitting that high ranking officers had been killed at the Matamoros Garrison, where troops had joined the uprising and ammunition captured.

Insurgents there decided to openly rebel against the regime given “its incapacity, and responsibility for the chaos reigning in the country’s politics and economy,” adding that they wanted to cooperate with the people to overthrow a government which did not respond to the desires of Guatemalans.

They then marched in the direction of Zacapa, to join the larger group of rebel officers, and called for a struggle to save Guatemala and install a government to establish social justice, in which wealth would benefit those who work and not the exploiters of the people.

The government’s air forces launched continual attacks on rebel positions to force them out. The majority of its troops, infantry and aerial, converged on key points where the rebels were strong, and bombing by U.S. B-26 planes, stationed at the Helvetia, was decisive.

The government announced that the insurrection had been ended with a balance sheet of 13 dead and 60 wounded. Military and political leaders of the rebellion sought asylum in the Mexican embassy, including 52 Army officers who departed for Honduras.

Nevertheless, the 1960 uprising led to the formation of a strong revolutionary current in the country, and continued resistance in the mountains by the November 13 Movement, led by Marco Antonio Yon Sosa and Luis Augusto Turcios Lima.

Armed conflict persisted until the creation of the National Reconciliation Commission to resolve and end the confrontation, which culminated its work with the establishment of peace accords, in 1996.

The 1960 uprising had sought such an outcome, but was frustrated principally by U.S. support for the regime, and the intervention of the CIA and its Cuban mercenaries.

(Granma)

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

The Cuban American extreme right in Miami is happy these days because they have had a few victories in the city. Of course, these are so decadent that in fact they are pyrrhic victories. The segment of Cuban society living here cannot tell a victory from a defeat. This is no news, just more of the same. As I have said before, these people have no sense of ridicule.

A few days ago, there was a vote in one of the cities of Miami-Dade County to elect its mayor. With majority support from Cuban voters, James Cason was elected.  This is the guy, ill-remembered by Cubans in the Island, the man who was appointed Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana with the main objective of orchestrating confrontations with the Revolutionary Government.

It is a well-known fact that Mr. Cason, rather than a career diplomat, was a professional provocateur. His appointment had, among other purposes, the aim of provoking the Cuban Government to expel him from the country and therefore create conditions for a confrontation between both governments which would lead to a severing of the existing fragile relations.  That was the mission that today’s mayor of Coral Gables had;  and it was precisely by those provocative actions in Havana that the gentleman won the support of the Cuban American right wingers.

Cason is like the proverbial elephant in the glass menagerie and, consequently, can bring nothing good to Coral Gables. After his failure in Havana, he was sent to Paraguay and managed to earn the hatred of the Paraguayans. He had to end up in Washington in the arms of Frank Calzon, a savvy Cuban American, who has lived selling the snake oil of human rights, travelling around the world, and grabbing hundreds of thousands US dollars from the American Government. The anti-diplomatic ambassador moved to South Florida and now represents the right wing voters in one of its cities. The Cuban millionaires who live there are joyful. Let’s see what happens when this backfires.

Also, a few days ago in triumphant march by road – he has been forbidden to travel by plane – entered the hero of Miami’s Calle Ocho, Luis Posada Carriles. He got a champion’s welcome: press conference in a law firm in the morning, a red carpet reception in a private club, dinner there, and half a page of photos in El Nuevo Herald. He thanked the American justice system that acquitted him and the Miami extreme right which provided the money to pay the lawyers.

The Posada Carriles case is peculiar. The people who support him say that he is innocent of the crimes he is accused of committing; that he had nothing to do with the in-flight explosion of the Cubana de Aviación aircraft; that he had nothing to do with the bombs placed in Cuba at the end of the 90′s; that he did not torture anyone when he was a commissar of the political police in Venezuela; that he did not lie when he said he had crossed the Mexican border to enter the US.

In conclusion, for these people, Posada is a sort of saint

p>A Playa Girón hero told me a couple of days ago that he frequently felt nostalgic about those days when at only 20, he manned a mortar battery and went to battle with a smile, because all his utopias were intact.

Even I felt infected by his feelings as I reviewed images and memories with Silvio´s Preludio and Sara´s La Victoria, playing in the background.

The history, our history is so strong, so powerful, so real, that it plays those tricks on us quite frequently. Then we embrace it and feel that the years of glory are already in the past. The nefarious tendency to think our offspring will not have the opportunities or the utopias to feed their nostalgia come old age depresses and paralyzes us.

But on this April 16th., nostalgia took a leap forward; it jumped into the future. The utopias of the Girón hero must have experienced a greening just like mine, even when there is an almost 20 year age difference between us, and more or less twice that between him and the young kids who changed my perspective.

Fifty years are an entire life: it has been a long and hazardous journey among scarcities, ambitions and enemy aggressions, but the country that rallied in the morning of April 16th was the country in the dreams of the hero and in the dreams of those of us who never were heroes but had always aspired to become one.

Let anyone show me in the map of today’s world a place where a sea of children makes the waves for a historic yacht, where people of all ages and races who have never met before come together in sweat and joy shouting the same slogans; where all who expected a brief and quick popular parade, because spontaneity was its only mobilizing force, were astounded by a wide and infinite human wave.

Let them show me so I can believe it that there is another geography where the martial step of the military is suddenly replaced by the merrymaking of a beehive of singing children led by a young man whose father was taken by an act of terrorism and whose revenge is to create with joy.

But most importantly, however, apart from all of this, after all of this; let somebody find a country whose destiny is determined by consensus, where after collecting millions of opinions from its people, more than two thirds of the guidelines projected by the Executive were transformed to consider what the common people recommended.

Naturally, for nostalgia to settle definitively in the future another fundamental component is required; to have our President standing up before the nation delivering his account and galvanizing all of us with his improvised remarks and his profound and at times painful self-criticism.

That in his report that President brings to us time and time again the leader that is seemingly not there but is in fact present in every idea he put forward and was not materialized. And from that exercise of governance –another exclusive feature of our tenacious history– we all learn that nothing is perfect, that everything is improvable and that we believe in man and his material environment, but that we would be nothing without that deep spirituality which was handed down to us by Varela and Marti, by Cintio Vitier and Fidel Castro.

The fact remains that in spite of the errors of some and the deviations of others our guidance has never lost its track. And all the utopias are intact though their names may have changed and are not always found in the same places where we used to know them.

But he is no ‘one battle’ hero trading on former glories. He is a veteran of numerous campaigns and is still as enthused today about the revolution he witnessed 52 years ago as he was then. Rejoicing in the equality that was achieved for everyone in socialist Cuba Dreke praised every aspect of a revolution made by the people for the people.

He is a living representative of Cuba’s selfless internationalism and determination to struggle to maintain the revolution and their independence. He spoke movingly of his rights as a black man – rights not given because of how much money he had – but because he had the human right to be treated the same as every other Cuban.

He talked about Cuba’s solidarity in the world – a vision of “sharing not what was left over but of sharing the little that they had”.

“Cuba will continue to struggle in this world for peace “he said “We created a socialist revolution under the noses of the empire and we will defend it. When Cubans go to other countries we are all volunteers. We don’t go to steal petrol or destroy a people’s dignity. We go in defence of dignity and the right to freedom and a better life” he said to thunderous applause.

After the triumph of the revolution then (vice president) Richard Nixon met Fidel Castro in New York in 1959 for a brief meeting – which lasted about 30 minutes – and in which Nixon treated Castro as dirt. Afterwards he sent a classified memorandum to then President. Eisenhower stating that Castro was just another Communist and that “we should get rid of him”. And so began the war that continues to this day.

On April 17 1961, the day following air strikes by the US led mercenaries, a CIA trained invasion force consisting of more than 1500 men, landed on the southern coast of Cuba in Playa Giron in the Matanzas Region,

This area was chosen for the invasion for two strategic reasons: firstly, the area which is surrounded by swamps provided natural barriers and therefore protection against Cuban forces and secondly, this area with only limited access would give them an opportunity to defend themselves against attack.

The brigade consisted of members of Cuba’s past ruling class and former Batista allies. In total the counter revolutionaries owned in pre revolution Cuba: 27 square miles, 10000 houses and buildings, 70 factories, 10 sugar refineries, 5 mines, 2 banks and 2 newspapers.

Dreke told of the Cuban plans made to ensure that if the invasion was successful the Cubans would resort again to guerrilla warfare having carefully deployed troops throughout the island. As it was, tactical superiority and the determination of the people and the armed forces ensured the invasion was immediately defeated and most of the rebels captured.

Kevin Courtney from the NUT drew on the inspiration of Dreke as a student leader in Cuba to praise our student demonstrators today and the need for all of us to build on the inspirational march on the 26th. Recognising the first thing the Cuban’s did as revolutionaries was to prioritise education as a means to achieve social justice, he reminded the audience that it is still their priority today and how important education professionals are viewed in socialist Cuba.

Andrew Murray from Stop the War coalition celebrated this landmark in history of anti imperialist struggle by relating it to the struggles today in the so called ‘war on terror’. The war on Libya is an ambitious attempt to rehabilitate the doctrine of liberal intervention – a strategy that has already seen millions killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognising this is not an international war but a neo-colonial war fought by neo colonial powers he ridiculed the lack of intervention in states like Bahrain and Yemen where western power interests are at one with the state.

Award winning journalist Reinaldo Taladrid Herrero, was born 3 months after the Bay of Pigs and represented yet another Cuban generation dedicated to the fight for social justice for the people. He spoke of the legacy of that victory both at home and abroad. “Even with the blockade imposed by the most powerful country in the world Cuba has always responded to disasters or health needs around the world – from the hills of Pakistan to the continent of Africa – the spirit of Playa Giron lives on to this day” “It represents not mission impossible but the building of something new” he said to applause “and if all you people here in London tonight can celebrate the victory of poor people against the empire then truly another world is possible”

The meeting ended with a call for everyone to support the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, demand justice for the Miami Five and continue to struggle for Cuba’s right to its own sovereignty and self determination.

In this April 1961 file photo, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro jumps from a tank as he arrives at Giron, Cuba, near the Bay Of Pigs. On April 17-19, 1961, the beach was the stage for one of the most memorable chapters in the struggle between Washington and Havana: the invasion of Cuba by a CIA-trained band of armed exiles. (Bohemia Magazine/AP)

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (lower right) sits inside a tank near Playa Giron, Cuba, during the Bay of Pigs invasion, April 17, 1961. (Raul Corrales/Granma/CP/AP)

The Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba was also opened today.

I really enjoyed the detailed account of the parade as well as the music, gestures, faces, intelligence, gallantry and fighting spirit of our people. I also enjoyed seeing the happy face of Mabelita, sitting on her wheelchair, and the children and teenagers of “La Colmenita”, who have multiplied several times.

It is worth having lived to watch this spectacle today and is also worth remembering forever those who died to make it happen.

This afternoon, during the opening of the Sixth Congress, I was able to notice in the words expressed by Raul and the faces of the delegates to that event, the most important of our Party, the same feeling of pride.

I could have been at the Revolution Square perhaps for one hour under the sun and the heat, but not three hours. I could have felt attracted by the human warmth that was created there, and that would have been a dilemma for me.

Believe me; it hurt me when I saw that some of you were looking up, trying to find me at the tribune. I thought you will all understand that I can no longer do what I did so many times.

I promised you I would be a soldier of the ideas, and I can still fulfill that duty.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 16, 2011
7:14 p.m.