In the early morning of April 17, 1961 a counterrevolutionary brigade, composed of 500 men, trained and transported by the US, arrived in the Zapata Swamp, south of Matanzas in Cuba. They disembarked at two points of the Bay of Pigs: Playa Giron and Playa Larga, with the purpose of establishing a beachhead and setting up a provisional government, which would immediately request the intervention of the United States.
The response was not long in coming. All the people were mobilized: the Army and the Militias, led by Commander Fidel Castro. Plans for the defense of the entire national territory were put into effect and the immediate arrest of some 3,000 elements disaffected with the Revolution, on whom the CIA was counting to provide decisive support to the mercenary invasion, was carried out.
In Contramaestre, as in the rest of the country, forces were being prepared for the defense of the Revolution. Here a powerful Battalion had been created, integrated by members of the rebel army and the national revolutionary militias with the objective of fighting the internal counterrevolution.
Andrés Núnez Lora, historian of the city, comments on the active participation of Contramaestre in the events of Girón.
“Other personalities of the territory were operating in different parts of the country. José Manuel Galardi Alarcón, who later became Lieutenant Colonel of the State Security, was the man who captured the list of those who came in the mercenary brigade for Bay of Pigs and handed it over to the State Security.”
“He describes it in a book called Operation at the Airport, Orlando Pantoja Tamayo was also among these personalities who managed to capture the list of those who came through Bay of Pigs; which was very important to know the dimension of that aggression. It was an important contribution of Contramaestre, the fact that he had informed those who came to attack through Bay of Pigs. There are those who fought in Bay of Pigs and did not die. For example, there is Manolito Garcia, from Paso de Laja, who fought and captured reactionaries there. He told us well how those episodes took place.””
“There were people from the territory who had been affected because there were measures with store owners, who came and he recognized them. But, what was happening in Contramaestre when the mercenary attack on Bay of Pigs took place: the internal counterrevolution was neutralized. All those who were disaffected, all those who were potential counterrevolutionaries were locked up, that is to say, they were neutralized.”
“The 78th battalion went to defend the coasts of the eastern provinces in the Mar Verde area because as it was an attack coming from outside, they mobilized for the coasts, to try to defend, if the aggression came from here.””The 78th battalion went to defend the coasts of the eastern provinces in the Mar Verde area because as it was an attack coming from outside, they mobilized for the coasts, to try to defend, if the aggression came from here.”
“The 78th battalion went to defend the coasts of the eastern provinces in the area of Mar Verde because as it was an attack coming from abroad, they mobilized for the coasts, to try to defend, if the aggression came from here. It must be said that Santiago de Cuba had a school for recruits, therefore our combatants were not in the school of Matanzas like other territories that were in that school. Santiago de Cuba had a school of patriotic formation of military formation, therefore there were no representatives there but yes, three fell in the sands of Bay of Pigs; others fought as Manolito, Galardi, who gave the list of those who came and all the people mobilized in defense of the Revolution”.
Was it not because they were mobilized there, but because they were in that place, the counter-machinists who participated directly in the events of Bay of Pigs?
“They were in that region, he agreed. Many left when the triumph took place on January 1st, they left in the caravan, and if they were mobilized there, they were part of the rebel army in the western provinces and intervened in the Girón attack, as in the case of Gándara. In the case of Galardi, he was a member of the State Security, together with Orlando Pantoja Tamayo.”
With the actions that were developed here in this province, where there were included Contramaestrians, it was an important support to that action?
“It was an important support for the neutralization, the counterrevolutionary elements could do internal damage. All the counterrevolutionary potential was neutralized; they were arrested and the CDR, the DOP, which was the state security at that time, the revolutionary police acted. They all intervened. The powerful battalion of 546 soldiers withdrew to the Mar Verde area to protect our coasts.”
“Everything begins with the attack on the Cuban airports in Santiago de Cuba, Ciudad Libertad, that is the first event, on the 15th and in the burial of the fallen, the socialist character of the Revolution is made known; therefore those who fell in Bay of Pigs, fell not only defending the Homeland, but also defending socialism; therefore that is called socialist patriotism.”
Three sons of this people fell at Bay of Pigs defending the nascent socialist Revolution and the homeland where they were born: Manuel Galán Mora, Orlando Vega Oconor and Alejandro Beltrández Mojena. The homeland beholds you proudly!
