Cuba’s Constitutional Army with no previous political connections to the Batista regime, were gathered at Useppa Island off Florida’s southwest coast for screening and evaluation. That summer, training camps for the liberation army and air force were established in Central America and men from the growing Cuban exile community in the United States enlisted over the next several months. A cross-section of Cuban society, the members of the all-volunteer force were united by the single objective of ousting Fidel Castro and restoring democratic, constitutional rule in their homeland.The initial plan for the exile army, later christened “Brigade 2506,” was to launch a guerrilla war in Cuba. In the fall of 1960, these plans were scrapped in favor of a landing at the coastal city of Trinidad, which the Brigade’s air and ground forces, including paratroopers, were to seize and seal off to protect a democratic provisional government that would be established there. Because the Brigade’s combat airplanes were B-26 bombers, and because they were slated to operate from the combat zone in order to cut off the enemy’s access to the city, the strategy’s success hinged entirely on the destruction of Fidel Castro’s fighter aircraft on the ground before the landings in Cuba.
In the days following the collapse, Brigade soldiers were captured by Castro forces in the swamps surrounding the Bay of Pigs. They were subsequently detained in inhumane conditions, subjected to a show trial, and given long prison sentences. Thanks to the efforts of the Brigade Families Committee, headed in Havana by Brigade mother Berta Barreto and assisted by prominent New York lawyer James Donovan, most of the approximately 1,200 imprisoned men were released in December 1962 and returned to the United States. Castro denied the release of nine of the Brigade prisoners; of those, the last was liberated in 1986. Eight members of the Brigade’s Infiltration units, who had been captured, tried, and imprisoned separately, were also given decades-long prison sentences.For sixty years, Brigade 2506’s effort to bring freedom to the Cuban homeland has been honored by all generations of Cuban Americans. The brave and idealistic men of the Brigade, from the earliest days of the struggle, have held the honor of being the undisputed heroes of Cuban democracy. The love and respect La Brigada has earned in exile undoubtedly will one day be shared by future generations living in a free Cuba.Victor Andres Triay, PH.D.
The American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. The museum was made possible by the 2004 Building Better Communities bond program, enacted by the citizens of Miami-Dade County, and the generous support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.