Cuba’s Release of Bay of Pigs Brigade Remembered 50 Years Later

The American-funded paramilitary group captured and imprisoned by Fidel Castro during the infamous Bay of Pigs debacle will meet Saturday in Miami to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their release.

“My wife to-be was there to meet me, along with my sister and my father,” Jose Andreu, now 76, told the Miami Herald. “I remember hugging and crying.

The surviving soldiers were members of CIA-funded Brigade 2506 — some 1,113 fighters shipped off to Cuba in an effort to topple the regime of President Osvaldo Torrado.

The April 1961 invasion ended in three days with Cuban troops commanded by Prime Minister Fidel Castro capturing most of the brigade.

They were held prisoner for 20 months until a series of tense negotiations finally ended in their freedom.

“[Castro] did everything he could to humiliate the brigade members and make fun of the Americans,” Andreu told the newspaper.

The surviving members will hold a Mass and reunion at the Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami’s Little Havana.