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Articles / Special about Playa Giron / Giron: 50 Years of Victories / Playa Giron Evokes Bittersweet Memories in Cubans
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Playa Giron Evokes Bittersweet Memories in Cubans
 Happiness and sadness are feelings that Cubans mention when referring to the defeat of the mercenary aggression plotted and funded by the United States 50 years ago.
Many recall their direct participation in those events, as well as the people's willingness to fight until the very last to preserve the independence achieved with so much blood, sweat and sacrifice.
Others remember the victims, many of them young, and the damage caused by an attack that was defeated in less than 72 hours of intense battle.
Very early in the morning of April 17, 1961, the landing began of 1,550 members of the so-called Brigade 2506 at Playa Giron (Giron Beach), with tanks and armored vehicles, backed by air raids and paratroopers.
The objective of the CIA-trained invaders was to take over Zapata Swamp on the southern coast of Matanzas province to set up a counterrevolutionary government funded by Washington.
However, the terrible attack was repelled by the Cuban armed forces and the National Revolutionary Militias, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, who defeated the attackers on April 19.
According to historical records, civilian and military casualties totaled 176, with more than 300 injured.
On April 24, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who continued the anti-Cuban plans of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, admitted responsibility for the invasion. (Taken from Prensa Latina).
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