[DR1] Luperon, 57 years on

[NewsWhore]

On 19 June 1949, a small group of men left Guatemala in a PBY Catalina aircraft in the first foreign-based attempt to liberate the Dominican Republic from the Trujillo dictatorship. Two more aircraft were scheduled to assist in the rebellion, one to land in La Vega and the other in San Juan de la Maguana. However, a storm forced one to return to Costa Rica and when the other one landed in Cozumel, Mexico to refuel, the men on board were arrested. The eleven-man group that landed in Luperon Bay were headed by Horacio Ornes Coiscou and and one Costa Rican and two Nicaraguan comrades. When they failed to make contact with fellow conspirators in Puerto Plata the group tried to lift off from the bay but failed and the men were captured. Most were then killed by Trujillo's henchmen. Today, none of these men survive. The Luperon attempt was the result of a failure by a much larger contingent that had gathered in Cayo Confites in Cuba. The training camp was not well equipped and literally had all support denied by the Cuban government. The revolutionaries saved what they could of the equipment and thus was born the attempt at Luperon.

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