Today, April 17, is the 65^th anniversary of the launching of the U.S.-organized invasion of Cuba. In less than 72 hours of combat in April 1961 near the Bay of Pigs, Cuba’s revolutionary militias, police, and armed forces defeated the assault by 1,500 mercenaries armed, trained, supported, and deployed by Washington.

In the process, the Cuban people set an example for workers, farmers, and youth the world over: with political consciousness, class solidarity, courage, and revolutionary leadership, one can stand up to enormous might and seemingly insurmountable odds — and win.

Many decades later, the wealthy families that rule the United States still can neither accept nor extinguish the example the Cuban people and their revolutionary leadership set in April 1961.

To mark that weighty victory for the world’s working people, we publish below the statement Cuba’s revolutionary government issued today on the occasion of this important anniversary.

The headline, subhead, photo, and text below are taken from the original published in the English-language edition of the Cuban daily Granma. Notes and minor editing of the translation are by World-Outlook.

— World-Outlook editors

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Bay of Pigs is today and forever!

As long as there is one woman or man willing to give their life for the Revolution, we will be victorious!

Author: Government of the Republic of Cuba | internet@granma.cu

April 17, 2026, 14:04:14

Cuba is living under the constant siege of the United States government, whose escalating threats have intensified in recent months. In addition to the brutal energy blockade, which exacerbates the genocidal policy of embargo of the last six decades, there are the declarations by representatives of the U.S. government elite regarding intentions of military aggression.

The material and human cost of this blockade is a disgrace borne by the government of the greatest empire of all time. It is an illegal and inhumane act, a violation of international law, condemned every year by almost all member states of the United Nations and, as recent polls have confirmed, rejected by the majority of the people of the land of Lincoln.^[1]

Faced with this collective punishment, the Cuban people offer the noblest and most admirable examples of resistance. Since the executive order was issued on January 29th,^[2] the response of this people, who continue to confront the challenges of shortages in every task and daily activity, has been even more stoic.

Amid such urgent needs, a web of slander is also being waged to discredit Cuba and its government. The prevailing media machine is waging a dishonest war against us, filled with exaggerations, lies, and denigration, which never identifies the true cause of the situation and blames the Revolutionary Government for the crisis coldly and deliberately provoked by those who attack us. They resort to such mendacious pretexts as claiming that our country constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security or designating us as a supposed State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Thus is revealed the hypocrisy of the executioner, whose intentions are described in the Memorandum of Under Secretary of State Lester Mallory, dated April 6, 1960, during the revolutionary process, when he clearly expressed the true meaning of [U.S.] criminal policy: That “every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba… a line of action which,… makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.”

This harassment has also extended to the realm of Cuba’s bilateral relations with other countries. The United States exerts constant pressure on governments in the region, not only to break diplomatic ties with the Island, but also to abandon their own people, expelling healthcare professionals who have been for years a beacon of hope for the poorest.

Isolating us is also part of their strategy; however, there are pillars of dignity throughout the world, peoples and governments that do not yield. There are the examples of Mexico, Russia, China, Vietnam, and other sister nations. There are the members of the Our America Convoy, who, defying threats, pressures, and risks, in a symbolic gesture, decided to give us, beyond material aid, their support; reaffirming José Martí’s^[3] maxim that “whoever rises up with Cuba today rises up for all time.”

Heirs to a historical legacy, with the blood of the Mambí^[4] and rebels in our veins, honoring the example and courage of the heroes and martyrs of the Homeland; like the 32 brave Cuban combatants who fell in Venezuela^[5] and the young people who thwarted the terrorist infiltration through Villa Clara,^[6] we affirm today that Cuba will never be a trophy, nor just another star in the American constellation.

We are a nation with a great history and convictions to defend; of peaceful, supportive men and women. A people who, through their daily work, vindicate Cuba; and who, like on the sands of Bay of Pigs 65 years ago, under the cry of “Homeland or Death!”, will achieve victory in defense of sovereignty and socialism.

In the centennial year of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz,^[7] architect of the first great defeat of Yankee imperialism in the Americas; with the privilege of having Army General Raúl Castro Ruz,^[8] standing firm alongside his people, continuing with one foot firmly in the stirrup; we ratify the call for national and international mobilization made this April 16th by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and we reaffirm his words:

“As long as there is one woman or one man willing to give their life for the Revolution, we will be victorious!”

“The socialist character of our Revolution is not a phrase of the past, it is the shield of the present and the guarantee of the future!”

“Bay of Pigs is today and forever!”

NOTES

[1] Abraham Lincoln was U.S. president from 1861 to 1865. He is known for having led the Union to victory over the forces of the Confederate States of America, which fought to preserve slavery during the U.S. civil war. In 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves held within the states that had rebelled were forever free. Lincoln was killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1865.

[2] On January 29, 2026, U.S. president Donald Trump issued a new executive order declaring a “national emergency” due to the “unusual and extraordinary threat” that Cuba allegedly poses to the United States. The White House announced it will impose harsh punitive tariffs on any country that trades oil with Cuba. “This is unvarnished economic warfare, a major escalation of Washington’s unrelenting efforts over more than six decades aimed at asphyxiating the Cuban people and overthrowing their socialist revolution,” said the World-Outlook editorial We Stand with Cuba — For All Time.

[3] José Martí, born in Havana in 1853, was a poet and essayist who died in battle in 1895 fighting for Cuba’s independence from Spain. His patriotism and martyrdom made his name a symbol for liberty throughout Latin America. Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892 and is considered Cuba’s national hero.

[4] The Mambí were guerrilla independence fighters who fought in the 19th-century wars to liberate Cuba from Spanish colonial rule and to abolish slavery. Primarily active between 1868 and 1898, they formed the Ejército Libertador de Cuba (Cuban Liberation Army).

[5] Thirty-two Cuban soldiers died while putting up fierce resistance to U.S. forces that stormed the presidential residence in Caracas on January 3, 2026, and ultimately kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. For more information see ‘Cuba: Committed to Peace, Ready to Fight for Its Sovereignty’.

[6] For more information see the section “Armed, terrorist attack against Cuba” in ‘Cuban People Act with Creative Resistance’ (II).

[7] Fidel Castro was the central leader of the Cuban revolution. He served as Cuba’s president from 1976 until his retirement in 2008. He died in 2016. The year 2026 marks the centennial of his birth.

[8] Raúl Castro is another central leader of the Cuban revolution. He is a general in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. He served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, from 2011 to 2021, and as Cuba’s president between 2008 and 2018, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro.

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