Speakers agreed that it was Washington’s first military intervention in Latin America, where the United States was defeated by a people in arms. It was also a victory also for the Latin American peoples.
Cuban Ambassador Carlos Rafael Zamora spoke to the audience that filled the auditorium of Casa del Maestro (Teacher’s House), in downtown Lima, and expressed his appreciation to the Peruvian Solidarity Coordinating Committee for the organization of the event.
The diplomat evoked the heroic deed of April 1961 and pointed out that the people in arms, militiamen and the Revolutionary Armed Forces prevented the mercenaries from occupying a beachhead and quickly defeated them.
According to the invaders’ plans, he explained, a group of elements would disembark on the beachhead and proclaim themselves the government of Cuba, which would be recognized by the United States and would call for a US invasion.
The invaders were defeated in less than 72 hours by the combatants who fought for socialism, which had been proclaimed days before by the leader Fidel Castro in the mass rally at which the people bade farewell to those killed during Washington’s bombings of Cuban airports.
The 63rd anniversary of that victory “is a day of great significance for Cubans and for the peoples of the world who fight for freedom, independence and a better world,” Zamora said.
“In Giron, we fought for freedom and the peoples’ right to build their own future free from interference, exploitation and imperialist plundering of their wealth,” he added.
He explained the historic roots of the US eagerness to annex Cuba, since the early 19th century, a factor that prevented the Caribbean island from achieving its independence in the first decades of that century and was expressed in the military occupation at the end of the same century.
That is why, we have not celebrated the bicentennial of independence like most other Latin American countries, since Cuba only became independent in 1959, with the triumph of the revolution, Zamora pointed out.
The ambassador stated that the world has changed since Girón, as well as the forms of struggle, and underlined as a current priority the defense of peace to prevent a new world war that would cause the holocaust of humanity, and the fight against climate degradation that keeps the human race on the brink of extinction.
“The fight for the survival of the planet is now the obligation of all, regardless of political positions and ideologies,” the diplomat stressed.
The president of the Peru-Cuba Parliamentary League, Congresswoman Silvana Robles, in turn, pointed out that the Bay of Pigs victory inspired other peoples’ struggle, even though it was not the only one that inspired the struggle of the peoples of the world.
The leader of the Peru-Cuba Solidarity Coordinating Committee, Cathy Campos, said that Girón “is a symbol of the people’s courage and their unwavering decision to defend their sovereignty.”
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