The reopening arrives as the veterans’ long-standing hope for a liberated Cuba has gained renewed political currency under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though members of Brigade 2506 remain divided over whether U.S. military force would serve that goal.
MIAMI — Survivors of the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion are marking the 65th anniversary of the CIA-backed assault on Cuba with the grand reopening of a new museum in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, as about 200 aging veterans of Brigade 2506 gather to preserve their legacy for future generations.
The new Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 Museum and Library — a two-story, 11,000-square-foot facility built on the same spot as the original 1988 museum — opens Friday, April 17, the date of the invasion’s anniversary, with a ceremony for brigade members and their families. The museum was funded by Miami-Dade County, the state of Florida, and private donors.
“The museum’s purpose is not only to cement the legacy of what thousands of men did on that day, but also, from a historic perspective, to tell the new generations that freedom has a price,” said Manuel Portuondo, a Brigade 2506 veteran.
The invasion
About 1,500 Cuban exiles, with CIA backing, attempted to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, seeking to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. More than 100 of the fighters were killed in action or drowned. About 1,200 were taken prisoner and spent approximately 20 months in captivity before their release was negotiated.
Portuondo was 18 when he joined the brigade after his family fled Cuba in 1960. He said he enrolled after learning of the U.S.-organized force while attending school in Miami.
“As an 18-year-old with a lot of ideals and a big heart, I wanted to be back in my country and be free and be able to do what I wanted,” Portuondo said. “I enrolled in the invasion and shipped to Guatemala for training.”
Rafael Montalvo, president of the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association, said the invasion’s failure carries consequences that extend to the present.
“The Bay of Pigs is a historical moment that defined the future of Cuba, of the United States, of Miami, and of many Latin American countries, because the failure of that intervention made communism stay in Cuba forever and change the country completely,” Montalvo said.
Political hopes and divisions
Most Brigade members have historically leaned conservative. The association broke with a half-century tradition of not endorsing individual candidates by officially supporting Donald Trump in 2016 and reaffirming that endorsement for his subsequent campaign.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have called for a change in Cuba’s leadership. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said that talks between the U.S. and Cuba are in their early stages. A U.S. blockade has led to increased blackouts in Cuba, with just a single fuel delivery in the past three months, according to the Associated Press.
Montalvo said the brigade trusts Rubio, a Miami-born Cuban American, to guide Trump’s Cuba policy. He said the ideal outcome would be a revolt by Cuban citizens backed by the U.S., rather than direct American military intervention.
“I don’t want to see American boots on the ground in Cuba,” Montalvo said. “I would hate to see an American soldier die because of Cuba’s freedom. I mean, we have to die ourselves before that happens.”
Not all brigade members share that view. Carlos Leon, a Brigade 2506 member, said he questions whether military force could achieve lasting change in Cuba, and said that Trump’s ongoing military campaign in Iran had made the question harder to answer.
“How many Cubans are you going to kill? How many more enemies in Cuba are you going to create by killing all those Cubans?” Leon said.
Trump directed the U.S. military to enter Venezuela in January to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro’s party remains in power, with Maduro’s former vice president now leading the country.
A legacy preserved
Ernesto Freyre, a Brigade 2506 member, said joining the organization was the most important action of his life.
“It was the biggest purpose and commitment that I took upon myself,” Freyre said.
Freyre said he has dreamed of a liberated Cuba since shortly after Castro took power, and is uncertain whether he will live to see it.
“But at least I’m hoping that my descendants do see it,” Freyre said.