Alex Portée

My abuelo, Marcos Mesa, passed away last week. Here is a story printed by El Mundo In 1961 that mentions his heroism in Brigade 2506, a CIA-sponsored group created in an effort to overthrow Fidel Casto and fight for freedom.

Translation:
A HORROR STORY
by Felipe Gomez Martinez

The fourth man in the military hierarchy of the government of Fidel Castro, Osmani Cienfuegos Gorriarán, has on his hands the death by asphyxiation of 10 Cuban exiles who were captured after the invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961, says a former combatant of the failed coup.

After reading a list of the figures most influential in the revolution, Hiram Morales Pelegrín told EI Mundo that Cienfuegos Goriarán was the architect of the "disastrous voyage of the Van of the Death" where 149 captured Cuban exiles were locked up in a vehicle that would transport them to Havana to be prosecuted. As previously reported, Cienfuegos Gorriarán had commanded a Cuban army detachment who managed to capture more than 150 combatants. He ordered his men to lock the prisoners in a van, but several of his subordinates warned Cienfuegos Gorriarán that the prisoners could die from asphyxiation, as Havana was eight hours away.

"He went so far as to say that that was what he wanted. He wanted them to die so that we wouldn't have to shoot them" added Morales Pelegrin, who said he heard about the event from several of the survivors.

Most of the captured survived thanks to the fact that one of them, Marcos Mesa, managed to expand a bullet hole and through it ,the prisoners were able to breathe a little air. ‘When they opened the doors, there were 10 dead and as many others had to receive emergency medical treatment," explained an exiled Cuban who participated in the invasion as a member of the first parachute battalion 2056.

Even though he demands justice, Morales Pelegrín emphasized that the Cuban exiles will not take revenge on revolutionaries today. "Ironies of fate, years ago I met a former revolutionary who, during the invasion, shot down most of our planes. Although he was scared to see me, I told him that it didn't matter and that time has proven us right because even he had to leave Cuba eventually..."