The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Toronto Rally
Free the Cuban Five and End the Blockade!
On the Occasion of the First Military Defeat of
U.S. Imperialism in Latin America

"Giron: First defeat of Yankee imperialism in Latin America"

Saturday, April 17 -- 1:00 pm
U.S. Consulate in Toronto, 360 University Ave.
Organized by: Toronto Forum on Cuba
Sponsored by: The Latin American Solidarity Network

Hands Off Cuba!

April 1961: Raúl and Fidel Castro (far left and second from left) and the Cuban armed forces celebrate their victory
over the anti-Cuba U.S.-backed mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs invasion.

On April 17, 1961, CIA-trained anti-Cuba mercenaries invaded Cuba at Playa Giron, also known as the Bay of Pigs, where they met an overwhelming defeat in their unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the young Revolution. On this occasion, TML sends its warmest greetings to the Cuban people and their leadership and wishes them every success in further strengthening their Revolution.

The decisive victory over the enemy forces at the Bay of Pigs is regarded as the first defeat of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, where the U.S. imperialists had by that time already caused so many tragedies through coups, military interventions and other interference in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 1961 the CIA was completing the details of its Plan Pluto, to establish a beachhead on Cuban territory and create a situation where the U.S. could provide itself a pretext to self-righteously intervene and place a puppet regime in power. To carry out this plan, it assembled the infamous Brigade 2506 -- made up mostly of henchmen of the former U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, as well as mercenaries, terrorists and overthrown oligarchs.

Left: Fidel Castro commanding the Cuban troops. Right: Captured U.S.-backed mercenaries of Brigade 2506.

In the days before the actual invasion, the U.S. and its mercenaries had stepped up their provocations including bombings of the bases at Havana and Santiago de Cuba causing death and considerable damage. Likewise, U.S. aircraft carried out attacks on Cuba. Emboldened by their cowardly acts of terrorism and recklessness, and deluded in their thinking that the Cuban people would support them, the U.S. imperialists and their mercenaries went ahead with the invasion.

The mercenaries who landed at Playa Giron on April 17 were poorly organized and ill-equipped. Their visions of Cubans greetings them with open arms were shattered by the reality that the Cuban people were united with Fidel and the army and would not permit Cuba to become a U.S. colony once again. Despite being backed by the U.S. military, the mercenaries were defeated by April 19. Many Cuban patriots died and a great number of farmers and civilians were victims of enemy fire. Some 1,200 invaders were taken prisoner and later exchanged for medicine, medical equipment and alimony for Cuban children.

An important event took place on April 16, the day before the invasion. On that day, President Fidel Castro issued the historic declaration in Havana which established the socialist character of the Revolution. The defeat of U.S. imperialism at the Bay of Pigs and the inability of the U.S. imperialists to defeat the Revolution ever since, underscores socialism as essential to consolidating the Cuban Revolution. This small island nation has withstood the unrelenting U.S. attempts to conquer it through terrorist acts and the genocidal blockade precisely by establishing a profoundly human-centred society that has not only ensured the well-being of its own people under all conditions, but the peoples of the world who every day are assisted by its internationalist brigades.

Bay of Pigs and the Anti-Cuba Campaign

The fierce anti-Cuba media campaign currently underway by the U.S. and its European allies brings to mind the similar public relations campaign Washington launched prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion.

In those days, just like this month, April 1961 witnessed a well-orchestrated media campaign against the then emerging Cuban Revolution, using the U.S. control over the mass media.

The decision to overthrow the Cuban government by force had been long before made by the highest U.S. governmental spheres.

Those who had traditionally controlled the Cuban economy and society never imagined that the small neighboring country could make its own decisions and set its own direction.

As early as April 1959, after the interview with Fidel Castro, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon decreed it was imperative to eliminate the Revolution saying it posed a threat to U.S. interests.

Florida-based groups in charge of terror actions against Cuba were given increasing support, while a media campaign was developed aimed at ensuring future direct aggression.

In that media drive, the U.S. spared no effort to convince the world, with false news, of an internal rebellion on the island and of the support for a "government in exile" of traditional, corrupt politicians.

The strategy has not changed much with the passing of years, and a torrent of lies about the Cuban reality is being unleashed against Cuba, including the same support for those who prefer to be in the service of the enemy power.

Despite this campaign, [they cannot change that] the Bay of Pigs invasion has gone down in history as the humiliating defeat in less than 72 hours of a paid army which not even their costly media campaign could save.

Coup and Countercoup, Revolution

Caracas, Venezuela, April 13, 2010: Venezuela President Hugo Chávez swears in 30,000-plus members
of the Bolivarian National Militia, at Caracas' Bolívar Avenue, in celebration of April 13, a day of rebellion
and the victory of the people who, eight years ago, restored their president to Miraflores Palace.
(Photo: Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias)

On April 13, 2010, Venezuela commemorated the eighth anniversary of the coup d'etat backed by Washington that changed the Bolivarian Revolution forever.

In just 47 hours, a coup d'etat ousted President Chávez and a countercoup returned him to power, in an extraordinary showing of the will and determination of a dignified people on a revolutionary path with no return. The mass media played a major role in advancing the coup and spreading false information internationally in order to justify the coup plotters' actions. CIA documents revealed U.S. government involvement and support to the coup organizers

When Hugo Chávez was elected President in 1998, the Clinton administration maintained a "wait and see" policy. Venezuela had been a faithful servant to U.S. interests throughout the twentieth century, and despite the rhetoric of revolution spoken by President Chávez, few in Washington believed change was imminent.

But after Chávez followed through on his first and principal campaign promise, to initiate a Constitutional Assembly and redraft the nation's magna carta, everything began to change.

The new Constitution was written and ratified by the people of Venezuela, in an extraordinary demonstration of participatory democracy. Throughout the nation in early 1999, all Venezuelans were invited to aid in the creation of what would become one of the most advanced constitutions in the world in the area of human rights. The draft text of 350 articles, which included a chapter dedicated to indigenous peoples' rights, along with the rights to housing, healthcare, education, nutrition, work, fair wages, equality, recreation, culture, and a redistribution of the oil industry production and profit, was ratified by national referendum towards the end of 1999 by more than 70% of voters.

Elections were immediately convened under the new constitutional structure, and Chávez won again with an even larger majority, around 56%. Once in office in 2000, laws were implemented to guarantee the new rights accorded in the Constitution, and interests were affected. Venezuela assumed the presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with oil at approximately $7 USD a barrel. Quickly, under Venezuela's leadership, which sought to benefit oil producing nations and not those supplied, oil rose to more than $25 USD a barrel. Washington was uneasy with these changes, but still was "waiting to see" how far the changes would go.

Changes Washington Disapproved

In 2001, the Bolivarian Revolution proposed by President Chávez began to take form. The oil industry was in the process of being restructured, hydrocarbons laws were passed that would allow for a redistribution of oil profits and Chávez was recuperating an industry -- nationalized in 1976 -- that was on the path to privatization. An opposition began to grow internally in Venezuela, primarily composed of the economic and political elite that ruled the country throughout the prior 40 years, now unhappy with the real changes taking effect. Aligned with those interests were the owners of Venezuela's media outlets -- television, radio and print, which belonged to the old oligarchy in the country.

In early 2001, President Chávez attended the Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec, Canada. By now, Washington had undergone its own changes and George W. Bush had moved into the White House. President Bush also was present at the meeting in Quebec, and there announced the U.S. plan to expand free trade throughout the Americas -- the Free Trade of the Americas Act (FTAA). Hugo Chávez was the only head of state at the summit to oppose Washington's plan. It was the first showing of his "insubordination" to the U.S. agenda.

Later that year, after the devastating and tragic attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, Washington began a bombing campaign in Afghanistan. President Chávez publicly declared the bombing of Afghanistan and the killing of innocent women and children as an act of terror. "This is fighting terror with more terror" he declared on national television in October 2001. The declaration produced Washington's first official response.

U.S. Ambassador to Caracas at the time, Donna Hrinak, paid a visit to Chávez in the presidential palace shortly after. During her encounter with the Venezuelan President, she proceeded to read a letter from Washington, demanding Chávez publicly retract his statement about Afghanistan. The Venezuelan head of state declined the request and informed the U.S. Ambassador that Venezuela was now a sovereign state, no longer subordinate to U.S. power.

Hrinak was recalled to Washington and a new ambassador was sent to Venezuela, an expert in coup d'etats.

Washington Organizes the Coup

As Washington's concern grew over the changes taking place in Venezuela, and the insubordination of the Venezuelan President, business groups and powerful interests inside Venezuela began to contemplate Chávez's removal. Those running the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, were adamant to defend their positions and control over the company, as well as their mass profits, which instead of being invested in the country were being coveted in the oil executives' pockets.

A U.S. entity, created by U.S. Congress in 1983 and overseen by the State Department, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), began to channel hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups inside Venezuela to help consolidate the opposition movement and make plans for the coup. School of the Americas-trained Venezuelan military officers began to coordinate with their U.S. counterparts to organize Chávez's ouster. And the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, with the recently arrived Ambassador Charles Shapiro, was helping to put the final touches on the coup d'etat.

"The right man for the right time" in Venezuela, said an Embassy cable sent to Washington in December 2001, referring to Pedro Carmona, the head of Venezuela's Chamber of Commerce, Fedecamaras. Carmona was singled out as the "president-to-be" after the coup succeeded. That December 2001, oil industry executives led a strike, and called for Chávez's resignation. Their furor began to grow in early 2002 and by March, the strikes and protests against President Chávez were almost a daily occurrence.

The NED quadrupled its funding to Venezuelan groups, such as Fedecamaras and the CTV labor federation, along with a series of NGOs plotting Chávez's ouster. A State Department cable from the first week of March 2002 claimed "Another piece falls into place" and applauded the opposition's efforts to finally create a plan for a transitional government: "With much fanfare, the Venezuelan great and good assembled on March 5 in Caracas' Esmeralda Auditorium to hear representatives of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), the Federation of Business Chambers (Fedecamaras) and the Catholic Church present their 'Bases for a Democratic Accord.' ten principles on which to guide a transitional government."

Soon after, a March 11, 2002 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) top secret brief, partially declassified by Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger through investigations using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), revealed a coup plot underway in Venezuela. "The opposition has yet to organize itself into a united front. If the situation further deteriorates and demonstrations become even more violent the military may move to overthrow him."

Yet another CIA top secret brief from April 6, 2002, just five days before the coup, outlined the detailed plans of how the events would unravell, "Conditions Ripening for Coup Attempt...Dissident military factions, including some disgruntled senior officers and a group of radical junior officers, are stepping up efforts to organize a coup against President Chávez, possibly as early as this month...The level of detail in the reported plans...targets Chávez and 10 other senior officials for arrest...To provoke military action, the plotters may try to exploit unrest stemming from opposition demonstrations slated for later this month..."

A Corporate-Media-Military Affair

National papers in Venezuela headlined on April 10-11, 2002 that the "Final battle will be in Miraflores," the Venezuelan presidential palace, hinting that the media knew the coup was underway. That April 11, a rally began at the PDVSA headquarters in Eastern Caracas. The rally turned into a march of several hundred thousand people protesting against President Chávez and calling violently for his ouster. Those leading the rally, the presidents of the CTV, Fedecamaras and several high level military officers who had already declared rebellion just a day before, directed the marchers towards the presidential palace, despite not having authorization for the route.

Meanwhile, outside the presidential palace, Chávez supporters had gathered to support their President and protect the area from the violent opposition marchers on the way. But before the opposition march even reached the palace or the area near the pro-Chávez rally, shots were fired and blood began to spill in both the pro- and anti-Chávez demonstrations. Snipers had been placed strategically on the buildings in downtown Caracas and had opened fire on the people below.

Pro-Chávez supporters on the bridge right next to the palace, Puente Llaguno, fired back at the snipers, and the metropolitan police forces, who were firing at them. A Venevision camera crew, positioned near the pro-Chávez rally, took images of the firefight and quickly returned to the studio to edit the material and produce a breaking news story showing the pro-Chávez supporters firing guns with a voice-over stating they were firing on "peaceful opposition protestors." The images were rapidly reproduced and repeated over and over again on Venezuelan national television to justify calls for Chávez's removal. The manipulated images were later shown around the world and used to blame President Chávez for the dozens of deaths that occurred that April 11, 2002. The truth didn't come out until after the dust had settled and the coup was defeated. The television crew had been told to take the footage and manipulate it, under direct orders from Gustavo Cisneros, owner of Venevision and a variety of other media conglomerates and companies, and also the wealthiest man in Venezuela.

The high military command turned on President Chávez and took him into custody. He was taken to a military base on an island off Venezuela's coast, where he was either to be assassinated or sent to Cuba. Meanwhile, the "right man for the right time" in Venezuela, Pedro Carmona -- designated by Washington, swore himself in as President on April 12, 2002, and proceeded to read a decree dissolving all of Venezuela's democratic institutions.

Counter-Coup and Revolution

As the Venezuelan people awoke to television networks claiming "Good morning Venezuela, we have a new president" and applauding the violent coup that had occurred a day earlier, resistance began to grow. Once the "Carmona Decree" was issued, Venezuelans saw their worst fears coming true -- a return to the repressive governments of the past that excluded and mistreated the majority of people in the country. And Chávez was absent, no one knew where he was.

Between April 12-13, Venezuelans began pouring into the streets of Caracas, demanding a return of President Chávez and an ouster of the coup leaders. Meanwhile, the Bush administration had already issued a statement recognizing the coup government and calling on other nations to do the same.

But the coup resistance grew to millions of people, flooding the areas surrounding the presidential palace, and the presidential guard, still loyal to Chávez, moved to retake the palace. Word of the resistance reached military barracks throughout the country, and one in Maracay, outside of Caracas, acted quickly to locate and rescue Chávez and return him to the presidential palace.

By the early morning hours of April 14, Chávez had returned, brought back by the will and power of the Venezuelan people and the loyal armed forces.

These events changed Venezuela forever and awoke the consciousness of many who had underestimated the importance and vulnerability of their Revolution.

Argentina Reiterates Claim over Malvinas

On Friday, April 2, Argentina commemorated the 28th anniversary of the Falklands War, when it deployed troops to the Malvinas/Falkland Islands in defence of its sovereignty and territorial claim on the islands against British colonialism. 649 Argentine troops died in the 74-day conflict that began on April 2, 1982.

Speaking on April 2 from Ushuaia, capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego at the main commemoration, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner laid a wreath at the plaque bearing the names of all those who lost their lives during the war. Accompanied by Defence Secretary Nilda Garré, Tierra del Fuego governor Fabiana Rios, the three commanders of the armed services and hundreds of veterans, she gave a national address in which she spoke to the British colonial claims on the territory, most recently manifest by British oil exploration in the region. She called allegations that Argentina will launch a military raid to recover the Malvinas Islands "ridiculous" and "old intelligence" from "an old colonialist power." "Don't try to scare us with the spectre that we are going to take Malvinas militarily," she said.

Fernández de Kirchner called on other countries to pressure Britain to agree to negotiate the territorial sovereignty of the Malvinas: "With intelligence and perseverance we must execute this task on all fronts and in all international fora to expose the injustice, the incoherence of a country that [says it] wants to live in peace and respect borders, but it has a seat in the United Nations Security Council and does not respect UN resolutions," Fernández de Kirchner said. Argentina's claim to the disputed territory has been bolstered by the unanimous backing of 32 Latin American and Caribbean nations, including Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

"The Falklands claim transcends Argentina. It is a paradigm that goes beyond the Malvinas. It must be a national issue but also a universal example of the world, the society in which we live," Fernández de Kirchner said.

"We have the moral institutional and historic authority to demand respect for UN institutions, and claim that resolutions be complied with if we want to live in a civilized world and in peace," the president pointed out.

"[The British claim over the Falklands] is not an exercise of sovereignty but rather colonialism and probably the last such one. The question of the Malvinas is a stain that should be rubbed out," she added.

The president reiterated the tenuous nature of the British claim, saying that it "is not supported by law, geography or common sense." She added: "it is plain colonialism and evidence of the double standard of International law. You can't demand weaker countries -- for strategic reasons of developed countries -- to abide by international law and UN resolutions while one of them systematically violates them since 1965 because they have a seat at the Security Council."

Various events were also held throughout Argentina on April 2 in memory of those killed in the Falklands War. In the capital Buenos Aires, some 500 war veterans and others held a march to the British Embassy shouting, "Give us back our islands!" and "Out with the pirates!" while demanding a negotiated diplomatic solution to the dispute.

Katia Monteagudo, in a March 23 Prensa Latina item points out the significance of the untapped oil deposits in the region:

"The current strife between Argentina and the United Kingdom about the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands is the most red-hot example of conflicts over control of untapped resources.

"For more than 30 years, several British scientific missions have ratified the existence of important levels of oil riches in those islands' sedimentary basin.

"This year the dispute between both countries was fanned once again, after it was known that British enterprises had started to extract crude belonging to Argentinean subsoil.

"The dispute is even more complex as it is known that the islands could be pigeonholed among the big exporters of oil in the world, because they contain proven reserves outdoing the Argentinean ones by 300 percent, which today can barely cover [domestic] consumption for the next nine years.

"Located 650 kilometres from Argentinean coasts and 8,000 from the United Kingdom, the Malvinas Islands are surrounded by four big sedimentary basins.

"'They are thought to have 18 trillion barrels of probable reserves,' said Doctor Federico Bernal, publishing director of the Latin American Center of Scientific and Technical Researches.

"'These islands could become one of the main exporting powers in the world, with levels similar to the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Saudi Arabia,' Bernal affirmed.

"But this matter has kept on getting hotter as it was known that those amounts could guarantee 27 years of life for the Argentinean oil industry.

"Those non-exploited volumes, however, could multiply by ten the English reserves in the North Sea, where extractions have been declining since the '80s.

"Exacerbating this conflict will not only be harmful to Argentina, experts foresee. The unprotected of the planet, owners of valuable resources, will also have to be on the alert, because the era of colonial conquests is still in fashion."

Yankees: Remember April

History has its caprices which, as time passes, become symbols. On April 19, 1961, the Cubans defeated the mercenary invasion on the sandy beaches of Playa Giron. The Bay of Pigs invasion was backed and paid for by the U.S. government, in an attempt to reverse the revolutionary process and halt the initial steps of our socialism. Meanwhile, we celebrated the victory. In Venezuela, it was the 150th anniversary of the meeting of residents from the province of Caracas in Cabildo to begin the independence struggle that has found continuity in the triumphant Bolivarian Revolution.

Those were sufficient reasons for the empire to convert the war against Cuba and Venezuela into a kind of medieval crusade. They are so forgetful and obtuse that on this April 19, the 200th anniversary of Venezuela's independence struggle and the eve of the 50th anniversary of the empire's major defeat in Latin America at the Bay of Pigs, they have organized a meeting of "freedom activists, human rights and internet experts," directed at coordinating a strategic cyber-war on Cuba and Venezuela, in addition to Iran, Russia, China, Serbia, and other nations. The meeting is sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute and Freedom House.

They do not want to leave any loose ends. For its part, the Obama administration has launched, with the old cold war arsenal, a demented campaign against both nations, trying to avert the advance of the new regional organization, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), from which it is excluded and thus unable to exert its unwholesome policies from within against national liberation movements that have begun to consolidate and extend into its coveted backyard. It cannot bear the idea of being excluded.

This is what it is about. This is its current priority. The discredited Organization of American States (OAS) will not be allowed to die and the U.S. government will interrupt, in any way possible, the new regional organization. In order to achieve this it is willing -- as is always the case when something is not to its convenience -- to use brute force to destroy it, because the ALBA's strong development makes it nervous. The administration is aware that its friends in the media will later justify its actions.

On this occasion Obama and his team are going after what is to become a new hemispheric organization, born from the incapacity and genuflection of the current OAS, but the empire's objective has a longer reach: to get rid of the nightmare and insomnia prompted by the Cuban Revolution since that morning of January 1, 1959, which has resulted in the multiplication of Cuba's example. Now, they are going after Chávez, leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, that Revolution which arose from the particular characteristics of Venezuela and is advocating an eclectic socialism, with the aggravating quality -- for the United States -- that it is a country with enormous natural resources, possessing great hydrocarbon, gas and water deposits, resources that Washington needs like a vampire needs blood.

While this article is being written, young artists and intellectuals from various generations on the beleaguered and rebellious island are singing for the homeland because, in Cuba, independence is closely linked to culture and we turn to culture when we want to defend our socialist and internationalist principals and ideals of solidarity.

Meanwhile the sister nation of Venezuela -- where the justice system is processing eight Colombian agents paid to spy on the country with the objective of sabotaging the country's electricity -- is preparing celebrations for the bicentenary of the beginning of the independence struggle. During these festivities, a special and solemn session of Parliament will take place at which Argentine President Cristina Fernández will be a guest speaker, an event that coincides with the 9th ALBA Summit, whose presidents will accompany their brother and sister Venezuelans in this commemoration and in new efforts of multilateral cooperation.

For her part, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton moved one of her pawns into the region with the objective of terrifying the few cowards still under the control of the empire and converting them into a beachhead against the liberation process that is advancing and consolidating in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, among other nations.

The Latin American tour of Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs began with him throwing poison darts at Venezuela. In no less than a Colombian University, the yankee official demonized the defense agreements signed by President Hugo Chávez Frías and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"We are concerned," Valenzuela said, "by an arms logic which could be considered as something that could violate the peace of the continent (...) It is an issue that goes way beyond Venezuela. The principle should be: let's find a way to lower the arms race."

His words could provoke laughter if they were not charged with cynicism and shamelessness. The representative of Washington, worried about a so-called arms race in the Bolivarian nation, was expressing that concern in the very territory in which the United States has seven military bases with missile heads pointed toward neighboring countries disobedient to their dictates, and when that country has a aircraft carrier maneuvering with the Peruvian Armed Forces and has revitalized the Fourth Fleet, which is provocatively prowling through the Caribbean Sea.

And in order not to overlook the important media ingredient, the Reuters news agency sent a dispatch stating that the objective of the Russian Prime Minister is to meet "with the enemies of the United States," referring to his meetings with Chávez and Evo Morales in Caracas.

Reuters says nothing -- that would be like asking for pears from an elm tree -- of the U.S. refusal to sell traditional Hercules aircraft to Venezuela, despite the fact that they are used as a means of transportation and for rescue work.

In what constitutes an embargo directed from the North, Venezuela cannot purchase fighter planes from Spain either, due to Washington's pressure on that nation, and something similar happened with Brazilian Tuncano jets because they contain parts made in the United States. None of this is mentioned.

Meanwhile the empire continues to bank on presidential assassinations, the dirty war, rupturing institutional order, the search for new Pontius Pilates within the ranks of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, shortages of supplies to provoke unease in the population, and, of course, creating a climate of ungovernability. It cannot withstand the growing prestige of the Bolivarian Revolution and its leadership of a new type of regional cooperation with no political or ideological conditions and which prioritizes solidarity among the peoples.

The abovementioned George W. Bush Institute meeting against Venezuela and any other nation which does not hold similar interests is scheduled for April 19 in Dallas. It will be attended by members of the U.S. government and other organizations linked to the Washington intelligence community. It is worth noting that it was here where these same forces paid representatives of the Cuban-American mafia to assassinate John F. Kennedy, for quietly attempting a rapprochement with the Cuban Revolution. The place has a certain attraction.

And, as is usually the case with the empire, its lackeys, and the ridiculous remnants of European colonialism, they will once again get it wrong. April is the month of the year in which it has experienced the most reverses facing those who will never tire of fighting for and defending the independence, decorum and dignity of Latin America.