STORY: On April 17, 1961, a brigade of armed, U.S.-trained Cuban exiles landed here at the Bay of Pigs, where they were defeated by forces loyal to the country's revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro.
Orestes Chamizo is a veteran of that battle.
He recalled Castro ordering him and his forces into the woods to hunt down the rebels, where he said more than 1,000 of them sought cover.
He says he found eight of them hiding in a cave.
The victory marked one of the Cuban Revolution's proudest moments.
Billboards here proclaim the site where the invaders landed, and claim the ruling Communist party was forged in this fight.
But on this 65th anniversary, the country faces a crippling economic crisis.
Young people are leaving the island in droves.
Cuba's ONEI statistics agency registered a population decline of more than 1.4 million people between 2020 and 2024 -- more than 10% of its total population.
That was driven by an exodus of people between the ages of 18 and 30.
The situation has been exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump's blockade on fuel.
Today, residents in the Bay of Pigs face power cuts for 22 hours a day.
Electricity comes on for just a couple of hours in which residents scramble to call loved ones in Miami, or Havana, or to prepare food before it rots in refrigerators.
Madelin Guerra is a teacher who has to use a headlamp when the power cuts out.
She says people are facing the adversity, cooking with firewood and lighting their way with flashlights.
If Cubans feel Cuban, she adds, they will continue fighting however they can.
