The head of government recalled on the social network Tiwtter, that on April 17th, a group of mercenaries made “an unsuccessful attempt to snatch the sovereignty obtained in the revolutionary triumph of January 1st, 1959”.

On that historic day, some 1,500 men recruited, trained and financed by the Central Intelligence Agency arrived to the Cienaga de Zapata, one of the most isolated regions of Cuba, as part of Operation Pluto, approved the previous year by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Cuban patriots took some 1,200 mercenaries as prisoners and on April 24, 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) acknowledged his government’s involvement in the invasion.

This was the first major failure of the United States on American soil, and which revealed the island’s decision to defend its socialism.

jrr/jav/mgt/lld