User:Timathom/Alpha 66

Alpha 66 (Organization) ...

History
The Cuban exile paramilitary organization known as Alpha 66 was first organized and founded in Puerto Rico in 1961 with 66 men. The group was created with the intention of maintaining the fighting spirit of the Cuban people after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. General Secretary Andrés Nazario Sargén was a founder of Alpha 66 along with other prominent anti-communist fighters such as his older brother Aurelio Nazario, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and Antonio Veciana.

Other organizations joined this armed struggle against Cuban communism, and thus began the first movements and incursions into the Cuban coast. In 1962, the Second Escambray Front (Segundo Frente del Escambray – SFE) and Alpha 66 became one, with Veciana as a coordinator and Gutiérrez Menoyo in charge of the military training. Later, Alpha 66 joined forces with the Revolutionary Movement of the People (Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo – MRP) in the Revolutionary Alliance (Alianza Revolucionaria).

“El Plan Omega” failed, and Ernesto Díaz, Pedro Rodríguez, and Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, were captured along with three other Alpha officers: Domingo Ortega, Ramón Quesada Gómez, and Noel Salas Santos. After their capture, broadcast and propaganda campaigns were launched to gain release for these political prisoners. Their failure and imprisonment affected many of the rebel groups in Cuba and the Cuban exile community as a whole. The previously fiery enthusiasm diminished, and the Revolutionary Alliance split up, reduced once again to merely The Second Escambray Front and Alpha 66.

After the 1970s, Alpha 66 restructured its underground network. New members were recruited and political activities implemented. The organization established the “Plan Máximo Gómez” in 1980 to promote internal destabilization in Cuba. As of 2010, Alpha 66 continued to operate from its headquarters in Miami, continuing to advocate for an armed civil uprising in Cuba.

Works or publications

 * Alpha.
 * Alpha 66.
 * Communism is our mutual enemy : help us to fight it.
 * Cuadernos politicos.
 * El correo.
 * Los principios ideológicos de Alpha 66 : breve recuento histórico.
 * This is communism : death 90 miles from your shores.

Notes and references
Duvy Argandoña with the assistance of Antonio Mestre, 2008. "Guide to the Alpha 66 Records," Miami, FL: University of Miami Libraries, [YYYY].