Opposition+to+Castro;+the+nature,+extent+and+treatment+opposition


 * Bay of Pigs Invasion**

The Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt by a US trained force of exiled Cubans called Brigade 2506 to invade southwest Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro and his communist government. The invasion was unsuccessful and the Cubans won a decisive victory in a matter of days. The US force consisted of about 1400 exiled Cubans who were trained by the CIA, 2 CIA agents and the US air force while the Cubans numbered around 15000. In the end around 118 of the American force were killed and 1189 captured while the Cubans lost approximately 176 of its regular army and 4000-5000 of its militias and armed civilian fighters. The two main reasons to why the US force lost were the cancellation of air strikes and the change of the landing site by President Kennedy. After the first wave of air strikes by the air force, Kennedy ordered a halt so that his administration could claim “plausible deniability” if things went wrong. This was also the reason for the change of the landing site from Trinidad to the Bay of Pigs. Although Trinidad was the perfect landing point for the invasion force since it had great port facilities, armaments, supplies and was a counter revolutionary fervent of activity where a rising of the people might’ve been possible. Trinidad was also located close to the Escambray mountains which was the anti-communist rebel stronghold so in case of a failure, the US invasion force could retreat into the mountains and start a guerrilla war with the Cuban army. Between April and October 1961, hundreds of executions took place in response to the invasion and finally after 20 months of negotiations with the US, the Cuban government released the rest of the captured invasion force for a sum of $53 million in food and medicine. This invasion accelerated a deterioration in Cuban-American relations and resulted in support for Castro rising in Cuba.

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