BAY OF PIGS
LA CABANA
Operation Water Buffalo: Concealed in water
holding tanks, Smith supplied Fidel Castro with arms while Castro
was hiding in the Escombray Mountains. Castro overthrows Ferdinand
Batista in 1959.
In 1961 Smith was assigned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, United
States military outpost, where he was under the control of Howard
Hunt, code name Edwardo, and Frank Sturgis and Roland Martinez, all
of Watergate fame. Smith ran armed speedboats called moppies along
the coast of Cuba, creating so called dog and pony shows allowing
refugees to enter and leave Cuba.
This same year Smith was assigned to the ill-fated
operation known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, Blue Beach and
Brigade 2506. The operation failed, Smith was captured and held at
“La Cabana,” Cuba’s prison famed for its firing wall. Smith was
later released in exchange for medical supplies. Operation was
called “THE FISH IS RED” because on a map Cuba looks like a fish.
Playa Giron, Bay of Pigs: Fourteen hundred
CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba on April 17, 1961 to overthrow
Castro. The force surrendered within 72 hours, overwhelmed by
Castro's army.
La Cabana: The Castle of San Carlos de la
Cabana, well known as La Cabaña, was a stone fortress used to defend
the entrance channel to the bay of Havana against English pirates in
the eighteenth century. Later it became military barracks and after
that Cuba's prison famed for its firing wall. It was there where they
held the Bay of Pigs prisoners until they were bailed out with trading
medical supplies for men.
pictures of La Cabana
excerpt of Striped Moons
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