A conference on "Gir=F3n: Forty Years Later" was held on March 22-24 in
Havana, Cuba to mark the defeated, US-sponsored, counter-revolutionary
invasion at Playa Gir=F3n near the Bay of Pigs, four decades ago.
Participants in the meeting included former top advisers to U.S. President
John F. Kennedy and CIA officials; commanders and other combatants of the
Cuban forces in the April 1961 battle; members of the Brigade 2506 invasion
unit; and academics from both the United States and Cuba.
Cuban President Fidel Castro joined in much of the conference. On the very
eve of the US-backed invasion attempt, on April 16, 1961, Castro, as the
young leader of the revolution, had rallied the Cuban people in a speech
explaining that the revolution was socialist. Castro personally oversaw the
command of the victorious Cuban forces that repelled the invasion.
The Australia-Cuba Friendship Society in Sydney is holding a celebratory
event on the 40th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs at 7 pm, Saturday, April
21st in the Edge Theatre, King St, Newtown. Guest speakers will include the
new Cuban Consul-General to Australia, Sicilia Fernendez Dominguez, and
Peter Ross from the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at
UNSW. The event will also include video clips, songs, poems, photographs
and literature on revolutionary Cuba and the Bay of Pigs.
A central organiser of the Havana conference was Jose Ramen Fernendez,
today a vice president of Cuba, and at the time commander of the main
column that repelled the CIA-organised forces at Playa Gir=F3n. Fern=E1ndez
recently spoke at ACFS events in Sydney while here as president of the
Cuban Olympic Committee. In a recent testimony, Fern=E1ndez points out that
"from a strategic and tactical point of view, the enemy's idea was
well-conceived=85What they lacked was a just cause to defend."
With an invasion force of 1500 Cuban-born exiles, the Kennedy
administration aimed to entrench a beachhead on an isolated piece of Cuban
territory to set up a "provisional government". This would then have called
for direct military intervention by Washington and its closest Latin
American allies to restore the old propertied classes and military command
to power. In this way the White House and CIA hoped to overturn the Cuban
revolution and wipe out its example. But they underestimated Cuba's workers
and peasants. In less than 72 hours Cuba's popular militias, Revolutionary
National Police, and Rebel Army routed the invaders, inflicting what Fidel
Castro termed "Yankee imperialism's first great defeat in the Americas."
Building on this victory, the Cuban people transformed both their country
and themselves. In the process, they inspired millions of working and
democratic-minded people and youth across the world. They showed it is
possible to stand up to the enormous might of the U.S. government, to
tackle seemingly insurmountable odds - and win.
For more information, contact Ron Poulsen (02) 9798 8740 or 0413 450 981
Or Rebecca Pinkstone (02) 9565 1197 or 0419 256 572
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