Mayabeque, Cuba: On a day like today, 60 years ago, Cuba decided to remove the imperial eagle, a symbol of the United States, from the monument to the victims of Maine, after Washington broke off relations and faced with an imminent military invasion.
In 1925 the government of Alfredo Zayas inaugurated the monument dedicated to the victims of the Maine, in front of the capital’s Malecón, in remembrance of the 266 sailors who lost their lives.
At the top of the structure, a bald eagle stood with outstretched wings as a symbol of the presence of the United States.
A year later a cyclone in Havana collapsed the bronze bird and part of the enclave, so a new eagle was built with a different design of the wings to better cope with the force of the winds.
Relations between the two governments changed after the 1959 revolutionary victory due to threats, coercive measures, and aggressions by the United States against the main economic-social objectives of the Cuban people.
The Dwight Eisenhower administration (1953-1961) suspended the Cuban sugar quota for the US market, while northern firms stopped the supply and processing of oil, examples of actions that deteriorated ties.
Within days of handing over the presidential mandate, the Republican broke relations with Havana on January 3, 1961, and later restricted the travel of its citizens to Cuba.
According to historical accounts, it was a tense moment because the revolutionary government also knew about the preparations for an imminent invasion of the national territory by mercenary forces organized and financed by the United States.
In this context, on January 18 it was agreed to remove the imperial eagle and the busts of three American politicians that accompanied the structure from the Maine monument.
The figures represented President William McKinley, who declared war on Spain, Leonard Wood, governor of Cuba during the first US occupation, and Theodore Roosevelt, architect of the Big Stick policy against Latin America.
However, the symbols were not removed until May 1 of that same year, a few days after the Cuban victory against the invasion of Playa Girón, a fact known as the first great defeat of US imperialism in America.