Playa Girón and the uprising in Guatemala
The CIA has admitted that pilots recruited to bomb Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion also provided air support to defeat an insurrection in Guatemala
Author: Gabriel Molina Franchossi | informacion@granma.cu
may 5, 2016 10:05:06
During the dawn hours of November 13, a group of Guatemalan militay officers rebelled against the regime of General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, accusing him of ignoring rampant corruption in his administration, and inviting foreign intervention in the country.
Photo: http://www.prensalibre.com
Five months before the invasion at Playa Girón, November 13, 1960, Cuban pilots being trained in Guatemala by the CIA to attack the island, bombed Guatemalan military forces leading an uprising against the government of General Miguel Idígoras.
The political and military support provided by the Eisenhower administration and the CIA to Idígoras, saved the dictatorial regime which had approved the use of an estate – the Helvetia owned by Roberto Alejos, brother of the country’s ambassador in the U.S. – for the purpose of training troops to invade Cuba. This attack did eventually take place at the Bay of Pigs, in April of 1961.
The arrogance of CIA officials and their Cuban agents provoked the uprising in Guatemala by a group of officers who were able to take the Matamoros Garrison with the goal of assuming government power. The insurgents demanded the closing of the Retalhuleu base, in the country’s southwestern region, and the removal of corrupt officers collaborating with Idígoras, who had taken the place of puppet Carlos Castillo de Armas, installed as head of state in 1954 by the CIA, after the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz, the elected President of Guatemala. Castillo was dealt justice by a soldier within the government’s own headquarters.