In the early hours of April 19, 65 years ago, news of the victory against the mercenary invasion of Cuba sparked explosions of jubilation among millions of Cubans mobilized throughout the country or quartered with the nascent militias in preparation for what could be a long war.
The mercenary invasion orchestrated by the CIA and the United States government to overthrow the Cuban Revolution lasted less than three days. The fledgling Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), together with the National Police and the militias, led by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, inflicted U.S. imperialism's first major defeat in the Americas.
Under the direct command of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary troops annihilated the invaders in just 66 hours of combat. The invaders surrendered on the sands of Playa Girón at 5:30 p.m. on April 19, 1961. Fidel then issued Communiqué No. 4: “Forces of the Rebel Army and the National Revolutionary Militias stormed the last positions occupied by the invading mercenary forces on national territory,” which immediately sparked national jubilation.
The enemy was defeated, with a toll of 89 dead, 250 wounded, and 1,181 prisoners. The mercenary leadership fled without a fight. Cuban casualties numbered 157 combatants killed and more than 300 wounded, whom the people of the Zapata Swamp and the people of Cuba remember as Eternal Heroes of the Homeland.
Five days later, US President John F. Kennedy publicly admitted the full responsibility of the United States government for the invasion of Cuba.
Throughout the country, starting on the 17th, the main internal supporters of the counterrevolution were detained as a precaution to prevent the formation of a fifth column within the country, and the newly arrived four-barreled anti-aircraft guns had their baptism of fire against enemy aircraft.
With those young gunners and pilots who together shot down the enemy aircraft, the Day of the FAR's Anti-Aircraft Defense was established on that date. On the 18th, with the retreat that the Cuban mechanized forces forced the invading troops to the beach, Tanker Day was established. Both branches of the Cuban Armed Forces are also celebrating their 65th anniversary these days.
The National Literacy Campaign did not stop either; on the contrary, the training of more than 100,000 students as Conrado Benítez Brigade members was increased. These young people, with their primers to teach reading and writing, occupied all the plains and mountains where illiterate people lived.
The literacy brigade members also contributed their martyrs, murdered by the growing counterrevolutionary banditry in regions of the country, before Cuba was declared a Territory Free of Illiteracy in December 1961.
Much has been written about what this demonstration meant for Cuba and Latin America—a demonstration of how difficult it is to defeat a people united in defense of revolutionary ideals—and much more will have to be written as imperialism attempts again to eliminate popular gains.
Playa Girón, or the Bay of Pigs as the invaders called it, changed the course of the Cuban Revolution, making clear the true enemy we faced. This forced the country's leadership to radicalize the process, prepare internally, and strengthen its international alliances for the battles to come.