John F. Kennedy canceled promised mili-
tary support at the last minute. About 120
invaders were killed and 1,200 taken pris-
oner, later to be ransomed for food and
medicine. The debacle embarrassed the
United States, boosted Castro’s popularity
at home, and left many Cuban Americans
with a hatred of Kennedy’s Democratic
Party: most have voted Republican ever
since. The incident also convinced Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev of Kennedy’s
weakness, encouraging him to take strate-
gic action.
In October 1962, U.S. spy planes
revealed that the Soviet Union was
assembling nuclear missile launching sites
in Cuba. Kennedy ordered a naval block-
ade of Cuba to prevent further military
supplies from entering the country and
prepared to invade unless the Soviet
Union dismantled the missile sites. For
two weeks, the world hovered on the
brink of thermonuclear war. Finally,
Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the sites,
and the United States agreed not to spon-
sor further invasions of Cuba.
With the end of the Cuban missile
crisis, the United States effectively accept-
ed that Castro was in power indefinitely.
Cuban exiles recognized that they had no
realistic hope of overthrowing Castro any
time soon, and settled in for a long, per-
haps permanent stay. Even so, Cuban
exiles remained active in influencing U.S.
policy toward Cuba, brooking no relax-ation of economic sanctions against
Castro’s regime. A few have even resorted
to terrorism to press their cause.
One of the most militant anti-Castro
exiles was Orlando Bosch Avila, who
through two militant groups claimed
responsibility for more than 30 violent
acts between 1961 and 1968. Leader of the
Revolutionary Recovery Insurrection
Movement (MIRR), Bosch and four others
were arrested in June, 1965 near Orlando,
Florida, with 18 aerial bombs, small arms,
and ammunition which the group planned
to use to bomb targets in Cuba.
By 1968, Bosch had organized a sec-
ond group, known as Cuban Power. In
January of that year, Cuban Power
claimed responsibility for blowing up a B-
25 cargo plane at Miami International
Airport. Four months later, Bosch ordered
the bombing of a British freighter in Key
West, Florida, and a Japanese freighter in
Tampa, Florida. Using the name
“Ernesto, General Delegate of Cuban
Power,” he cabled the heads of state of
Great Britain, Mexico, and Spain warning
that ships and planes from their countries
would be attacked unless they halted trade
with Cuba. Later that summer, 36 pounds
of explosives were found chained to the
hull of a British freighter. Bosch took
responsibility, and some have claimed that
explosives were part of a 300-pound
supply given to Bosch by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation as part of a clan-182 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Cuban and Cuban-American Employment, 1953–1963
As these graphs illustrate, a high proportion of the refugees who fled Cuba following Fidel Castro’s takeover in 1959 were educated
professionals and managers—a far higher proportion than was the case in the general Cuban population under Batista.“The revolution has
no time for elections.
There is no more
democratic government
in Latin America
than revolutionary
government....
If Mr. Kennedy does not
like Socialism, we do
not like imperialism. We
do not like capitalism.”
—Fidel Castro, May 1, 1961,
in response to the failed
Bay of Pigs invasion
supported by the
United States