The Girón workshop, marking 65 years since the great victory against imperialism, an event framed within the activities commemorating the anniversary of the epic feat and the Centenary of the Commander-in-Chief, began this Tuesday at the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre.

The opening was attended by Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, head of the Ideological Department of the Party Central Committee, as well as other officials and leaders of this political organisation, the State, the Government, the Young Communist League, the Ministry of the Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

From the first minutes of the gathering, there was unanimous agreement that holding this workshop, 65 years after that great feat, «is to reaffirm that conquered freedom is defended day by day» and that its example «continues to illuminate Cuba’s path».

The inaugural lecture, «The United States Armed Forces and the Mercenary Invasion of Playa Girón. The Guantánamo Naval Base», was delivered by Doctor of Sciences René González Barrios, director of the institution, who highlighted that in that battle, lasting approximately 66 hours, «two things operated: the tactics employed and a combination of the experience we brought from irregular warfare with elements of conventional warfare.»

«We live today in a universal geopolitical context of realignment of hegemonic powers and decline of Yankee imperialism. The results of the military aggression against Venezuela, with the kidnapping of the legitimate president of that sister nation, have awakened in the United States presidency the idea that any adventure in its backyard, including Cuba, will have the same results. The 32 Cubans who fell gloriously in the line of internationalist duty showed the world how the sons of this land fight: with determination, without fear, confident in final victory and the invincible strength of ideas,» he added.

Following the screening of the ICAIC Latin American Newsreel «Death to the Invader», a panel took place in the La Plata multi-purpose room, which included the lectures: «Background to Operation Pluto» by Andrés Zaldívar Diéguez, president of the Provincial Executive Committee of the Union of Historians of Cuba (UNHIC); «The Mercenary Brigade and the Invasion Plan», delivered by Colonel Raidel Vargas Ortega, on behalf of the FAR Centre for Military Studies; and «The Fight Against Bandits in April 1961» by Pedro Etcheverry Vázquez, director of the State Security Centre for Historical Research.

Subsequently, the book «Playa Girón. 65 years after that socialist April», a compilation by Elier Ramírez Cañedo, vice-head of the Ideological Department of the Party Central Committee, was presented under the Ocean Sur imprint. The author stated that it is a work conceived «mainly for young people, but which will serve for the enjoyment of the public» as a whole. With an integration of speeches by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, images and a detailed chronology of the event, the aim is for this volume to serve «as motivation to continue researching and delving deeper, because there are still many lines to work on. It is important to bear in mind this history not as a talisman from the past, but as a force to mobilise and transform the present,» concluded Ramírez Cañedo.