65 years after Bay of Pigs, Miami exiles call for military intervention in Cuba

Miami recently commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba in a climate of tension reminiscent of 1961. Today, however, that tension is being fueled both by the rhetoric of the Donald Trump Administration, which declares that the collapse of the Cuban regime is nigh, and by a renewed call from the Cuban diaspora for another U.S. military operation.

The anniversary of the failed attempt to overthrow the Cuban revolution comes amid the biggest escalation of hostilities between the two countries in decades. Since the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela at the beginning of the year, Trump has declared a national emergency with respect to Cuba, cutting the supply of oil to a country already mired in a deep socioeconomic crisis, and repeatedly declaring that the regime is close to collapse.

Trump has suggested the possibility of a “friendly takeover” amid reports of negotiations with relatives of Raúl Castro led by Miami-born Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has Cuban heritage. But the prospect of dialogue with the regime has been strongly rejected by exiles. A Miami Herald poll released this week shows that the majority of exiles support a U.S. intervention on the island and reject negotiations with Havana. The sentiment was evident last month at a rally for Cuba’s freedom in Hialeah, a Cuban-majority city north of Miami, where thousands called for regime change.

On the other hand, in a recent interview with the U.S. network NBC, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned that Cuba is willing to defend itself with arms against any aggression.

The tension has seen the resurgence of Cold War rhetoric in South Florida, while hopes of change on the island have become evident among sectors of the diaspora, who are fine-tuning plans for an eventual transition.

The museum of Brigade 2506 Veterans Association, consisting of Cuban exiles who carried out the Bay of Pigs operation in 1961, is located in Miami’s Little Havana and serves as the headquarters of the Veterans Association. It reopened on April 20 after an extensive refurbishment, with a tribute to the survivors. Founded in the 1980s, the museum exhibits photographs of those who died along with documents and other paraphernalia relating to the invasion; it has been a political reference for those living in exile with an influence that extends to the electoral sphere.

Trump visited here during his 2016 presidential campaign, after former President Barack Obama worked to thaw relations with the island and back when the county was a Democratic stronghold. Trump sought to connect with Cuban exiles by promising to maintain Social Security and Medicare benefits for veterans and tighten the sanctions on the island that Obama had relaxed. The strategy worked, and Trump received the backing of the Association, which traditionally did not endorse candidates. Miami-Dade shifted right politically with Trump’s victory in 2024, driven in large part by the Cuban-American vote. But in recent months, the administration’s aggressive immigration agenda has eroded support, according to polls.

Rafael Montalvo, president of the Veterans Association, told the Associated Press that a U.S. invasion of Cuba is not something he supports because he does not want to see U.S. soldiers die for the island’s freedom. Members of the Association are confident that Rubio will prove effective in guiding U.S. strategy, Montalvo told AP, but added that “if they’re not going to get rid of the mafia that is in power right now, don’t do anything. Because to make change in Cuba that is just for the photographs, like they did in Venezuela, in Cuba it’s not going to work.”

The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government on April 17, 1961. Some 1,500 Cuban exiles from the 2506 Brigade trained by the CIA disembarked in the area of Playa Girón, south of Matanzas, in the west of the island. The operation failed in less than 72 hours. More than 100 people were killed and about 1,100 were arrested. The invasion precipitated an openly hostile relationship between the two countries and pushed Castro closer to the Soviets, turning the island into one of the main theaters of the Cold War.

Subsequently, Miami became the epicenter of covert operations against Fidel Castro’s government. The CIA deployed secret sabotage and intelligence programs, and exile groups continued actions against the regime, while the Soviet presence on the island increased, reaching its peak in 1962 during the Missile Crisis.

A little over a month ago, a group of armed Cubans living in South Florida set sail for the island in a fishing boat seeking to provoke a popular uprising, but they were intercepted by the Coast Guard. Several died and the rest were captured. One of the leaders of the group that allegedly carried out the operation, Michel Naranjo Riverón, justified it to EL PAÍS, saying, “These patriots are the only ones who have tried to liberate Cuba after Playa Girón.”

Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at Florida International University (FIU), says that “we are in a very different moment from 1961, when the Cuban regime was just starting out. Then, it had great support from the Soviet Union and it didn’t really have economic problems… Now it’s in total collapse, but there’s no force like there was with the Bay of Pigs willing to venture out. Basically, the community is waiting for Washington to take over the island. But the one thing that probably hasn’t been dismantled in Cuba is the repressive apparatus. That is perhaps the only force that is preventing the total collapse of the island,” he adds.

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