History of Cubana de Aviación CIA plan to execute sabotage, assassinations, and to attack and invade Cuba with the objective of overthrowing its revolutionary government. This broad strategy of aggression and sabotage culminated in the failed, CIA-planned and executed April 1961 invasion of Cuba at Playa Girón (also known as the Bay of Pigs). When an aerial bombardment of several Cuban airports by CIA-piloted and owned U.S. B-26 bombers (using fake Cuban air force livery to confound defenders) occurred on 15 April 1961, Cubana was forced to discontinue all its operations. One of Cubana's Douglas DC-3 aircraft, registered CU-T138, that was parked at Santiago de
Friends of Democratic Cuba after the FDC [Friends of Democratic Cuba] was created, it was put out of business by strong criticism from prominent Cubans. There was evidence that the FDC was organized strictly for the personal gain of the promoters." Friends of Democratic Cuba Friends of Democratic Cuba was formed on January 6, 1961 to serve as the fund-raising arm of anti-Castro activist Sergio Arcacha Smith's New Orleans' branch of the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC). According to an October 26, 1967 CIA document: "This organization was created by several New Orleans business and political figures, including the deceased former FBI agent, Guy BANISTER,