"A great school for the Cuban people, who learned not to have fear of their enemy"   FIDEL CASTRO 

By María Josefina Arce

Today, April 19th, is a date of great significance for the Cuban people, protagonist 63 years ago of a historic feat. The nascent revolution, led by Fidel Castro, inflicted a resounding defeat to U.S. imperialism at Playa Giron (also known as the Bay of Pigs), in the province of Matanzas.

Financed, armed and trained by the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, the mercenaries disembarked on Cuban soil, with the aim of establishing a beachhead and requesting the intervention of the forces of the northern country to reestablish its domination over the Caribbean nation, cutting off its sovereignty and independence.

But the heroism and determination of the Cubans to defend their homeland prevailed. As Fidel had pointed out at the burial of the victims of the bombings that preceded the mercenary invasion, "...for this revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, we are ready to give our lives".

The Bay of Pigs invasion was one of the many attacks to which the revolutionary process has been subjected since its triumph in January 1959, and which have continued throughout all these decades.

One of the first actions against the Cubans was also the genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade that continues to this day, even though the current U.S. president, Joe Biden, promised in his election campaign to change the policy towards Cuba.

It has been decades of resistance and sacrifice, in which the epic of the Bay of Pigs has accompanied the people to face all kinds of aggressions ranging from biological warfare, with the introduction by Washington of plagues in our territory, attempts to assassinate the leaders of the revolution, attacks against our diplomatic headquarters in other States, to the downing in mid-flight, in 1976, of a Cuban commercial airliner with 73 people on board.

In spite of its failures, the United States does not cease its terrorist actions and the allocation of funds for this purpose. The campaigns to discredit the Caribbean nation continue, which Washington, appealing to lies, includes in every spurious list to justify its policy of economic asphyxiation and to provoke the destruction of the revolution.

Today, the main scenario of this undeclared war has moved to the social networks, where attempts are being made to create negative states of opinion about the work of the revolution in order to destabilize the country.

Now, as recently denounced by Cuban media, taking advantage of the complex economic situation of the country, they are trying to reedit the July 2021 riots, financed and promoted from U.S. territory.

But the people are well aware of the example of those Cubans who on April 19, 1961 dealt a resounding defeat to U.S. imperialism. That is why they have decided to move forward, defying the current difficulties, aggravated by the hostile U.S. policy.