SOUTH CIRCUIT PRESENTS
THE EIGHTEEN-WHEELER OF DEATH

This was a crime in which members of the 2506 Brigade were asphyxiated in a locked-up eighteen-wheeler

The Brigade 2506 is the unit that was trained in Guatemala and invaded Cuba through Bay of Pigs on April 17,1961.

These are the antecedents.

On the early morning of April 17,1961, 1,200 Cuban exiles landed on Bay of Pigs in the southern coast of Cuba. The supposed purpose of the invasion was to claim a portion of the territory and after three days name a Cuban government-in-arms. Supposedly they would have had the support of the government of the United States of America since President J F Kennedy had financed and organized the plan.

After the three days of intense combats, where over one hundred invaders died and many were wounded they ran out of munitions. The Russians had sent enough tanks before the invasion to guarantee a Communist victory. The Cuban government forces lost over 800 combatants killed and many more wounded. The administration had promised the Brigade air support that never was authorized by the President of the United States of America. The Brigade through the radio repeatedly asked the aircraft carrier nearby for air support. Finally they were obliged to order withdrawal towards the beach for lack of ammunition.

From that moment on hundreds of invaders began to be captured. Others were able to penetrate the swamps around the place of landing. A few took rafts and place their fate on the currents of the sea.

On April 22 the Communist forces gather a large number of prisoners on the theater of operations. These prisoners were under the supervision of the Marxist commander Osmany Cienfuegos. They began to load the prisoners in eighteen-wheelers, one hundred prisoners to a truck. Some of the prisoners were wounded.

The moment they went to close one of the trucks the prisoners complained that there was not going to be enough ventilation. Osmany Cienfuegos replied: ”if they die, the better that way we would not have to place them in front of the shooting squad.”

The eighteen-wheeler truck took off for Havana with a temperature inside the truck of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When they went through Colon city the atmosphere inside the truck was terrifying. Some of the wounded began to die. Those who were alive were loosing their mine. Some began to scratch the walls of the trailer with the buckle of their belt and their bare hands. The truck became a giant coffin. The prisoner began to move the wounded near the small cracks they had opened so they would breath. The events could fill with shame and embarrassment all those who ever fought for human rights or the Geneva Conventions.

The sense of time was completely lost for those inside the truck. The only thing they were concern was if the truck was moving and the air was coming through the small cracks they had opened. More prisoners were dying. Then a burst of gunfire was heard. Everyone on the floor someone ordered. There was a voice from outside that said: “here in Matanzas we are going to kill you all before we get to Havana.” The gunfire had opened more holes in the sides and the roof. Thanks to this, air was beginning to flow in and not everyone died in a holocaust.

When they opened the doors of the eighteen-wheeler in front of the Sports Palace in Havana some of the militiamen looked embarrassed by what they saw. One by one they had to remove the corpses from the truck. This are the martyrs of Democracy who died in the eighteen wheeler of death:
Alfredo José Cervantes Lago - José Daniel Vilarello Tabares - José Santos Millán Velasco - Hermilio Benjamín Quintana Pereda - José Ignacio Macía del Monte - Santos Ramos Alvarez - Pedro Rojas Mir - René Silva Soublete - Moisés Santana González --- May these men enjoy eternal glory and may they rest in peace.

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