Havana, April 17 (RHC)-- Cuba remembers today the first great battle in defense of socialism, in 1961, in response to the invasion of some 1,500 armed mercenaries, trained and sent to the island by the United States.

Also known as the Bay of Pigs, Playa Giron and Playa Larga, southwest of the Zapata Peninsula, in the western province of Matanzas, were the sites chosen for the landing of the Amphibious Assault Brigade 2506 trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Guatemala, which sailed from Somoza's Nicaragua.

A day earlier, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, had proclaimed the socialist character of the process of transformations initiated on the island on January 1, 1959 after the victory of the Rebel Army against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959).

During the funeral honors of the victims of the U.S. bombing of different points of the national territory, as a prelude to the mercenary invasion, Fidel Castro expressed: this is the socialist and democratic revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble.

"And for this revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, we are ready to give our lives," he affirmed.

The crowd gathered near the Cristobal Colon Cemetery in Havana then expressed, with rifles raised, their decision to defend the homeland against the aggressions of the northern neighbor.

Under the orders of Fidel Castro, battalions of the Rebel Army, the National Revolutionary Police and the popular militias defeated the invaders in less than 72 hours after heavy fighting, and inflicted, in Fidel Castro's words, "the first great defeat of imperialism in America".

Five days later, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was forced to publicly admit the full responsibility of his country's government for the invasion of Cuba (Source: Prensa Latina). (Source: Prensa Latina)