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Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos entering Havana in January, 1959.
Cienfuegos was Chief of Staff of the Rebel Army - he died in an aircrash on
28 October, 1959. The Cuban Province of Cienfuegos is named after him.
The Bay of Pigs "The first defeat of imperialism in Latin America"
On 17 April 1961, a US trained and financed force of mercenaries invaded
Cuba at Playa Giron. Within 72 hours the invasion force was defeated and
more than 1,000 taken captive. Among the prisoners were men who had
previously owned in Cuba 914,859 acres of land, 9,666 houses, 70 factories,
5 mines, 2 banks and 10 sugar mills.
In December 1962, Cuba released 1,113 mercenaries in return for $53 million
in medicines and baby food. Initially, Fidel Castro proposed an exchange
of an equal number of political prisoners from the United States, Spain,
Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Guatemala. This proposal was rejected by the
parties concerned.
MAY DAY IN HAVANA
More than one million citizens participate in the Havana May Day Parade.
Similar parades take place in all the major Cuban towns and cities.
THE BANNER OF THE IRISH WORK BRIGADES TO CUBA
Each year, in July and December, Irish brigidistas join brigidistas from
all over northern Europe and Britain for three weeks of work, politics,
culture, education and just having a good time in a Campamento just outside
Havana City.
The banner depicts two revolutionary heroes, James Connolly and Ernesto
'Che' Guevara. Che's fathers' name was Ernesto Guevara Lynch. The origin of
his Irish ancestry is unknown.
Chernobyl Children in Cuba
Victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster playing with Cuban children on
the beach at the special treatment centre near Havana.
Following an appeal from the World Health Organisation for assistance in
treating victims of the Chernobyl disaster, Cuba opened a special treatment
centre where more than 14,000 children and two thousand adults have
received treatment.
Cuba's commitment to internationalism receives very little exposure: Cuba
has more medical, educational and other professionals working abroad than
the World Health Organisation. With the arrival recently of 100 Hondurans
and Dominicans and 70 Bolivians, the total number of students in Cuba's
Latin America School of Medicine is now more than 1000. Meanwhile Cuban
Minister of Culture Abel Prieto has extended an offer of 60 scholarships to
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, so that Peru's youth can study
medicine for six years in Cuba. Fujimori expressed appreciation for the
gesture and stated that, in view of Cuba's notable advances in tropical
medicine, he plans to grant the scholarships to students from the
indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. According to Eladio
Vercarcel of the medical school administration, 940 students have already
started course work - 333 Nicaraguans, 259 Guatemalans, 233 Hondurans, and
115 Salvadorans. This is just the beginning of a commitment to train 1,000
doctors per year for the next ten years. In another instance, Cuba has
pledged enough medical personnel to transform the medical system in Haiti.
An international appeal to provide medicines and equipment from the
'developed' countries to assist this project has fallen on deaf ears except
for the contributions from NGOs.