Operation 40 necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents...We were concentrating strictly in Cuba at that particular time." The group sought to incite civil war in Cuba against the government of prime minister Fidel Castro. "In October 1960, they realize that this project has failed, and that is when Brigade 2506" was created, a CIA-sponsored group made up of 1,511 Cuban exiles who fought in the April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. On 17 April 1961, Vicente Leon Leon, with other members of Operation 40, landed at the Bay of Pigs via the CIA-chartered freighter "Atlantico".
CIA activities in Nicaragua government eventually grew stronger and British influence faded. Background Information and the Precipitation of the Contra Conflict In 1961, the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) was founded in Havana, Cuba. The development of the FSLN represented the merger of "Carlos Fonseca's Nicaraguan Patriotic Youth organization ... with Tomas Borge's Cuban-supported insurgent group." The FSLN remained a largely unsuccessful and marginal political movement until 1972, when an earthquake rocked the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. The Somoza government, which had assumed control of Nicaragua shortly following the withdrawal of United States military personnel in 1933, was seen to be profiteering from international