Victory of Playa Giron. Image: X DíazCanelB

Havana, April 19 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel today celebrated the victory of the Cuban people, on April 19, 1961, against the Bay of Pigs (Playa Giron) invasion by mercenary forces at the service of the United States.

On his X account, the Cuban leader said: "Today we celebrate our Girón of Victories, 63 years after the great battle of all the people for socialism and I am very honored to belong to a generation that took its first steps just when Cuba was inflicting the first great defeat to imperialism in the Americas."

On April 17, 1961, around 1,500 armed mercenaries, trained and transferred to the island by the United States, began to disembark in the vicinity of the Zapata Swamp -a territory in the south of the western province of Matanzas- with the intention of overthrowing the nascent Cuban Revolution.

After three days of intense fighting, the Cubans defeated the aggression orchestrated from Washington and executed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The purpose of the military invasion was to form a beachhead to establish a provisional government, which would request the recognition and intervention of the United States and the Organization of American States.   (Source: Prensa Latina).