The ceremony, held in the Ciénaga de Zapata, the place where the mercenary troops organized, financed and directed by the United States were beaten on April 19, 1961, to become the first great defeat of imperialism in Latin America.

On behalf of the Girón veterans, Lieutenant Colonel Arnaldo Hernández highlighted the importance of this battle, which frustrated in less than 72 hours the attempt to make a beachhead that would serve as a pretext for a US military intervention, with the purpose of overthrowing the revolutionary government.

They tried to take away our hope, our freedom. The protagonists of the triumphant Revolution lived convulsive and decisive moments, there was no other alternative than to defend the justice conquered by Fidel (Castro), Hernández expressed.

For her part, Claudia Herrera ratified the gratitude and commitment of the new generations with which they faced the military onslaught.

In the act, 21 artillery salutes were fired in honor of those who fell in the revolutionary epic, and cards of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Union of Young Communists were delivered to new militants of those organizations.

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