[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E854-E855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       TRIBUTE TO THE 2506 BRIGADE

                                 ______


                          HON. ROBERT MENENDEZ

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, April 7, 1995
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of a group of 
courageous men that 34 years ago fought and died for the cause of 
freedom. Much has been written about this battle, but most historical 
accounts only record the event in the context of the cold war. We must 
not forget the men that landed on that April morning at a remote beach 
called Giron at the Bay of Pigs.
  On that 17th day of April, the battle began. The members of the 2506 
Brigade, who sought to liberate their country from the brutal Castro 
dictatorship, were not military men. They were not professional 
soldiers of fortune. Rather, these men came from a cross section of 
Cuban society. They were young, middle-aged, seniors, professionals, 
farmers, students and factory workers. They were from the ranks of the 
middle class, the poor, and the upper class. Among them, one could find 
people who fought alongside Fidel Castro. Some had belonged to the 
Cuban military. They were representative of all political persuasions, 
from left to right. But they were united in one quest: Democracy, 
freedom, and true equality for their homeland, Cuba.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to recount a few passages from ``The Bay of 
Pigs: The Untold Story,'' by Peter Wyden, of the events that took place 
on this remote and lonely bay.

       At the traffic circle on the northern outskirts of Playa 
     Larga, the members of the Brigade had dug in for the major 
     engagement of the Bay of Pigs, the Battle of the Rotunda as 
     is now known. Reinforcement had arrived from the main landing 
     at the beach of Giron: Most of the Fourth Heavy Weapons 
     Battalion ammunition, and two more tanks. At 7:45 p.m., four 
     batteries of Soviet-made 122 millimeters howitzers had opened 
     fire on the positions. They kept pounding more than 2000 
     shells in 4 hours. The concussions were terrible. Many went 
     into shock. They were too dazed to hear orders. But, they did 
     not break. The first three Stalin tanks rumbled into the 
     rotunda about midnight. They were the vanguard of 20 tanks, 
     but these freedom fighters had set a superb trap. With the 
     roads bordered by swamps, Castro's troops were forced to try 
     breaking through the Rotunda.
       Tank was pitted against tank. They were firing point blank, 
     twenty yards apart. The first two Stalin tanks were knocked 
     out, one of them by a tiny fighter who used to cut the men's 
     hair in the Guatemalan camps and was known as ``Barberito.'' 
     He ran around the tank and peppered it with shells for his 
     recoilless rifle. They made no dent in the tank but the sound 
     scared the crew into surrendering. The commander of the 
     Brigade later wanted to meet the man who accomplished this 
     feat. By then, ``Barberito'' has been killed by a machinegun 
     burst.
       One Brigade tank ran out of ammunition quickly. The driver, 
     Jorge Alvarez, known as ``little egg'' blew up an energy tank 
     with his last shell. Another tank roared up Alvarez hurled 
     his tank at it. The Stalin tank tried to position his gun 
     against the Brigade's tank. Alvarez kept bumping the enemy so 
     furiously that the Stalin gun barrel split. The fighting was 
     so confused and confined that the threads of Castro's tanks 
     ran over their own wounded.
       Hour after hour, men fought and fell and died. More Castro 
     tanks rumbled into the Rotunda. The freedom fighters were out 
     of food and water and almost out of ammunition, they began to 
     run. Their commander seized a cannon and a shell and faced 
     the oncoming tank from the center of the road. The fleeing 
     men saw him and stopped. So, amazingly, did the tank. The 
     driver got out and surrendered. The Castro forces had 
     numbered 2100 men. Those who were not dead or wounded were 
     retreating on the run.
       [[Page E855]] Another account that should be told to 
     emphasize the bravery and dedication of these men was the one 
     of Armando Lopez Estrada, a dark-haired, communications 
     officer of the paratrooper battalion. He was one of the last 
     in the group to retreat to the beach. He wanted to ``hold 
     until we die.'' Only when they ran out of ammunition for a 
     second time and it was clear that no more was coming did 
     Lopez Estrada, who was 20, let himself be convinced by his 
     comrades that there was no point in waiting to be captured.
       About a mile offshore, Lopez Estrada saw an empty sailboat. 
     On the entire Giron beach, he counted 27 men. Stalin's tanks 
     were machine-gunning them. Castro's artillery pounded in from 
     overhead. In the distance, two American destroyers were 
     moving away.
       He swam toward the sailboat that was a 22 foot craft, 20 
     men reached the boat, followed by Castro's jets and their 
     bullets. Frantically, they tried to move the boat by paddling 
     with their hands. After 15 days at sea, 12 survivors were 
     rescued by an American oiler, the rest of the men died of 
     thirst and starvation.

  The above account is but one of many which emphasize the bravery and 
patriotism of those men in Playa Giron on April 17, 1961. As a Member 
of Congress of Cuban descent I want to honor the memory of these men. 
On this April 17th, I join with the freedom-loving Americans in 
commemorating the death of these men who fought so that Cuba could be 
free and democratic and independent. May they not have died in vain.


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