[Marxism] Guatemala pres. apologizes to Cuba for country's role in Bay of Pigs

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Guatemala apologizes to Cuba for Bay of Pigs

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ - 37 minutes ago

HAVANA (AP) - Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom apologized to Cuba on
Tuesday for his country's having allowed the CIA to train exiles in the
Central American country for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

"Today I want to ask Cuba's forgiveness for having offered our country, our
territory, to prepare an invasion of Cuba. It wasn't us, but it was our
territory," Colom said during a speech at the University of Havana.

He added that he wished to apologize "as president and head of state, and as
commander in chief of the Guatemalan army."

About 1,500 Cuban exiles trained under CIA guidance in Guatemala before
invading the island in April 1961 in an unsuccessful bid to overthrow Fidel
Castro's communist government. The Bay of Pigs invasion ended after three
days with about 100 invaders killed and another 1,000 captured by Cuban
forces.

During his official visit to Cuba, Colom was awarding Guatemala's highest
honor to Castro. It was unclear if the ailing 82-year-old former president
would receive the medal in person or if it would be delivered to him later.

Castro met in recent days with two other visiting Latin American presidents,
Cristina Fernandez of Argentina and Chile's Michelle Bachelet. Photographs
of him with each of the presidents were later released by their respective
governments.




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