US President John F. Kennedy had stated that "Under no circumstances would there be an intervention in Cuba by United States forces", however, 72 hours had not elapsed since his statements when, on April 15, 1961, American planes, coming from Guatemala, bombed the airports of San Antonio de los Baños and Ciudad Libertad, in Havana; and that one of Santiago de Cuba, with the aim of destroying the Cuban air force so that it would not hinder the future landing at the Bay of Pigs.
The cunning attack did not serve its purpose because the Cuban government had adopted measures to protect its aviation, they only managed to destroy two combat aircraft. However, the balance of this action was 53 wounded and seven dead, among whom was the young Eduardo García Delgado, who before dying wrote the name of Fidel on the wall with his blood.
The events of that day constituted the prelude to the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón. Immediately, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz ordered the mobilization of all the combat units of the Rebel Army and the National Revolutionary Militias, without interrupting production, the Literacy Campaign or fundamental revolutionary works.
On April 16, 1961, at the funeral of the victims of the criminal bombings, the maximum leader of the Cubans proclaimed the socialist character of the Revolution. With their rifles raised, the people vowed to defend their homeland to the last drop of blood.
Since the late 1960s, the US government was preparing a military aggression against Cuba, employing counterrevolutionaries of Cuban origin. Under President Eisenhower, the plans conceived by the CIA to invade our country, took shape, and were refined and implemented during the Kennedy presidency.
Cuba had repeatedly denounced to the UN that the United States was promoting a so-called "liberation army" of four or five thousand mercenaries. However, these complaints fell into the void and the recruitment of mercenaries in Miami marched "at full speed", as well as training in camps in Guatemala.
Operation “Pluto” - that's what the CIA plan was called - consisted of landing the mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs, occupying a beachhead there, setting up a provisional government and requesting the intervention of the OAS, in other words, of USA.
At the same time, in Cuba, the internal counterrevolution had intensified its campaign of sabotage and terrorist attacks, which due to their intensity heralded a greater aggression. A sabotage caused the fire at the Ñico López refinery; a pirate boat attacked the Hermanos Días refinery in Santiago de Cuba; attacks on two units in the Ten Cents chain and damage caused to La Época store; on April 13, El Encanto store was completely destroyed by a fire caused by a sabotage, in which the worker, Fé del Valle, lost her life.
Operation Pluto included a program of attacks on leaders, terrorist actions in the city and the countryside carried out by counterrevolutionary organizations and rebel gangs, as well as psychological warfare to confuse the population and public opinion.
In the cities, thanks to the foundation on September 28, 1960 of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the State Security bodies had an essential collaboration that in a few days dismantled the entire internal support system for the invasion.
The units of the militias and the Rebel Army that were fighting the enemies, mainly in the Escambray, received orders from the country's leadership to increase the encirclement and combat maneuvers against the bandits, a mission that was successfully accomplished.
While Kennedy proclaimed an atmosphere of peace and respect, the mercenaries trained in Guatemala were transported in trucks and planes to Puerto Cabezas, in Nicaragua, where the ships waited for transfer to Cuba.