Museo Comandancia de las FAR

Matanzas Province


During the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro had his headquarters in the former office of this sugar mill, but since 2001 the building has been devoted to a small revolutionary museum. You can see the desk and phone from where Fidel commanded his forces, along with other associated memorabilia. Outside is the wreck of an invading aircraft shot down by Fidel's troops.

The sugar mill, founded in 1862, was considered revolutionary long before 1961. In 1869 it became the first mill in Western Cuba to join the independence cause, four months after Céspedes' Grito de Yara. It ultimately freed its own slaves in 1883, three years before slavery was abolished in Cuba.

The museum and its monuments act as a twin to the much better Museo de Playa Girón.


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