Bay of Pigs

This is a geographical article about the Bay of Pigs;

For the article about the invasion at the bay in 1961, see Bay of Pigs Invasion.

For the 2009 musical composition by "Destroyer", see Bay of Pigs (EP).

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Map showing the location of the Bay of Pigs.

The Bay of Pigs (Spanish: Bahía de Cochinos) is an inlet of the Gulf of Cazones on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910, it was located in Santa Clara Province, then by 1961 in Las Villas Province, but in 1976 it was re-assigned to Cienfuegos Province, when the original six provinces were re-organized into fourteen new Provinces of Cuba.

The bay is about 30km south of Jagüey Grande, 70km west of the city of Cienfuegos, and 150km southeast from the capital city Havana. On the western side of the bay are coral reefs bordering the main Zapata Swamp, part of the Zapata peninsula. On the eastern side are beaches bordering margins of firm ground with mangroves and extensive swamplands to the north and east. At the north end of the bay is the village of Buena Ventura adjacent to Playa Larga (Long beach), and 35km south east of that is Playa Girón (Giron beach) at the small town of Girón, named after the notorious French pirate Gilberto Giron (c.1604).

Playa Girón and Playa Larga were the landing sites for seaborne armed forces in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a CIA-sponsored attempt to overthrow the government of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro in April 1961.

The English translation of cochinos as "pigs" might be erroneous, as in all probability here it refers to a species of triggerfish (Balistes vetula), rather than pigs (Sus scrofa).

See also

Geography of Cuba

References

• Rodriguez, Juan Carlos. 1999. Bay of Pigs and the CIA. Ocean Press. Melbourne. ISBN 1875284982