By Paola Iuspa-Abbott
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 26 2007
Each year in mid-April, a group of former Cold War warriors gathers for
a somber anniversary at the Cuban American Club west of West Palm Beach.
There, veterans of the 1961 Bay of Pigs observe a minute of silence in
memory of their fallen comrades in the failed attempt to topple Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
Members of the Association of Veterans Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 then
sing the national anthem, followed by the anthems of Cuba and the
brigade. Wives and daughters of the brigadistas, as they are known,
place a floral arrangement next to the bust of Cuban patriot Jos– Mart–
in the club's parking lot. Someone leads the group in prayer.
Afterward, they share combat stories, most likely told many times
before. But the ceremony doesn't ease the longing for a Cuba free of
Fidel Castro. Each anniversary, the remaining brigade members in Palm
Beach County drive home still waiting for the day democracy will return
to their motherland.
"We have a bottle of Dom P–rignon that we will uncork the day Castro,
the master of deceit, dies," said Francisco Montiel, 72, who took part
in the invasion on April 17 almost 46 years ago.
"I've been waiting 47 years," he said, referring to his years in exile.
In the late 1950s, Montiel fought with Castro's brother, Raul, to oust
Fulgencio Batista, who led the country from 1952 to 1959 after staging a
coup d'etat. He thought Castro would restore democracy in 1959, but
instead, Castro installed a communist government. Montiel, who lives in
Lake Worth, fled Cuba a year later. In the United States he joined the
CIA-backed effort to overthrow Castro.
Of almost 1,500 brigade members who landed in Playa Giron almost 50
years ago, half have died, said Juan Torre Mena, the keeper of the
brigade's headquarters in Miami. The celebration in Palm Beach County is
scheduled for April 15 this year, with a larger ceremony on April 17 at
the brigade's headquarters -- an old house in Miami that serves as a Bay
of Pigs museum, the brigade's office and a temporary mausoleum for the
ashes of veterans. Eighteen brigadistas remain in Palm Beach County.
Montiel is the brigade's Palm Beach County delegate.
Castro's illness and the temporary transfer of power to Raul Castro came
as a ray of hope to this group.
The aged brigade members are still fighting against Castro's government,
but less aggressively, said Emilio Herrero, 64, of Boca Raton.
They buy prepaid phone cards and send them to people in the resistance
on the island, Herrero said.
"Sometimes, it is useless because Castro's people infiltrated the
resistance and the phone cards never make it to the right hands," he
said. "But we do what we can."
Some of the oldest brigade members wished they could do more.
"If somebody hands me a rifle, I am going to fight," said Gualdo
Carmona, 83, of West Palm Beach.
Brigade 2506 was part of an operation the Central Intelligence Agency
sponsored to bring down Castro. The CIA recruited Cubans exiled in the
United States in 1960 and created a paramilitary force to penetrate
Cuba, and organize and train resistance groups. The clandestine
operation ended with the invasion on April 17 and the brigade's defeat
and capture by Castro's forces two days later.
The CIA years ago declassified documents unveiling its involvement but
never considered the Cuban recruits as CIA officers.
Miguel Reyes, 69, of Lake Worth, helps keep the spirit of the brigade
alive in Palm Beach County, Bay of Pigs veterans said. In the late
1970s, he bought a property on Pike Road and turned it into the Club
Cubano Americano, or the Cuban American Club. Many veterans here
gravitate to the remodeled, post-World War II ranch-style house tucked
in an industrial neighborhood west of Florida's Turnpike. Club members
are mostly Cubans, but people from other nationalities are welcome to
join, Reyes said. Black-and-white pictures of Mart– and the founders of
the Republic of Cuba decorate the walls of a tired-looking lobby. A
dining room with a bar sits across a hall from a small ballroom.
Time may have blurred the veterans' memories of places they visited in
Cuba as young men, but it hasn't dimmed their hopes.
At the club on a recent Sunday afternoon, Montiel, Reyes and brigade
member Armando Basulto couldn't agree on the name of a monument featured
in a picture hanging on a wall in the dining room.
"That's the [former Cuban president] Maximo Gomez Monument in La
Havana," Reyes said.
"No, chico," Basulto, 65, said. "That's not it."
After a brief back and forth the debate dissipated without resolution.
Basulto, who lives in Port St. Lucie and Miami, already planned what he
would do when Castro dies. He hopes to move to Cuba and offer advice if
a transitional government would be established to help prepare for the
first democratic elections in more than 50 years, he said. The Communist
Party is now the only political party.
"About 80 percent of the population grew up with Castro," he said. "The
people will need to learn what democracy and elections are."
Montiel can't wait to go back.
"I have no hatred," he said. "I want to see our royal palms again, feel
the wind, walk on our beaches ... hear the beats of our marimbas."
For Herrero, moving back to Cuba is almost impossible. He resents the
damage done to his country and the friends he saw killed in the Bay of Pigs.
"But I would like to visit and help with its reconstruction," he said.
Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at piuspa@sun-sentinel.com or
561-243-6631.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-pbrigademar26,0,6683790.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba
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