The mercenary invasion of Playa Girón, supported and financed by the United States was defeated in less than 72 hours by the people

 By: Roberto Morejón

Throughout the country, Cubans have evoked the criminal bombings of exactly 62 years ago against three airports, before the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón, supported and financed by the United States and defeated in less than 72 hours by the people, under the accurate leadership of the historic leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro.

On April 15, 1961, in a cowardly action, planes camouflaged with Cuban insignia, which departed from Puerto Cabezas, in Nicaragua, attacked the air terminals of Ciudad Libertad and San Antonio de los Baños, in Havana, and Santiago de Cuba.

The surprise aggression was aimed at destroying the small Cuban air force to guarantee the mercenary brigade control of the air and to terrorize the population, especially in the two most important cities of the island.

Seven people died during the attacks, bravely repelled by Cuban fighters and pilots, which Washington tried to present to the world as an internal uprising against the nascent revolution.

A day later, at the burial of the victims, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro declared the socialist character of the revolution, before an impressive crowd gathered in the capital.

Those were days of great tension, but the courage and determination of Cubans to defend the sovereignty of the country in the face of new attempts to seize our territory prevailed. It was also imperative to defend the revolution, that transformed the work of social justice.

In less than 72 hours the mercenary invasion was defeated, but the United States has never ceased in its determination to overthrow the Cuban revolution. A year later, it made official a genocidal measure that is still in force today.

The inhuman economic, commercial, and financial blockade remains in place, intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though in more than sixty years it has not succeeded in starving the Cubans of hunger and disease.

But to that unilateral measure, described as genocidal and obsolete by governments all over the world, other actions of the different U.S. administrations against Cuba have been added over time.

Sabotages, the introduction of diseases, provocations from the Guantanamo naval base, an illegally occupied territory in eastern Cuba, attempts to assassinate leaders of the revolution, and smear campaigns are some of the actions resorted to by Washington, which in recent times has relied on the use of new information technologies.

Social networks are used to generate states of opinion against the revolution and to try to provoke violent events that threaten the constitutional order of the nation.

But the example of those Cubans who with their courage and determination made possible the resounding victory of Playa Giron has accompanied the different generations, who have also made possible many triumphs.