Havana, April 15 (RHC) Cubans remember this Wednesday the U.S. bombing of three air terminals in the national territory 59 years ago, while Washington persists in its aggressions against the island.
On April 15, 1961, camouflaged planes with Cuban insignia simultaneously attacked the airport of Ciudad Libertad, in the capital, the airbase of San Antonio de los Baños, in southeast Havana, and the airfield of the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.
The events, which occurred at dawn, were intended to make the international public opinion believe that an internal rebellion was taking place in the country shortly after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in January 1959, recalls Prensa Latina.
Furthermore, the action -which cost the lives of almost a hundred people- sought to provoke fear and confusion, to destroy the scarce and outdated Cuban air force, and to ensure impunity for an enemy incursion by land that occurred shortly after that.
The next day, at the mourning farewell to the victims of the air attacks, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared the socialist nature of the Revolution.
The airport sabotages were the prelude to the Bay of Pigs invasion -located in the western province of Matanzas, where a brigade armed, trained, and transported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arrived on April 17.
After 60 hours of hard fighting, the mercenaries were defeated. They surrendered in Playa Giron at sunset on the 19th, and this action represented the first major military defeat of imperialism in Latin America.
