HAVANA - Cuba staged a massive military parade on Saturday to honor the 50th anniversary of the victory over the invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 by CIA-backed exiles.

Cuban President Raul Castro hosted the parade, which also marked 50 years since his brother Fidel proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban revolution in the same year.

The parade was held before the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba started Saturday afternoon. The congress was expected to set new political and economic goals for the island country.

In 1961 a CIA-backed force of Cuban exiles landed at the beaches bordering the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in Las Villas Province, 150 km south-east of Havana, in an invasion to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, but was defeated by the Cuban armed forces within three days.