The Night of the Three Ps (Spanish: La Noche de las Tres Pes) was a massive police raid on October 11, 1961 in Havana targeting prostitutes, pimps, and "pájaros" (a term coined in Cuba to refer to homosexuals).
The raid took place at a time of heightened moral campaigns in Cuba demonizing homosexuality and other qualities considered uncompatible with the Cuban revolutionary "new man".
Carlos Franqui noted in his memoir that the real targets of the raid included homosexuals, intellectuals, artists, vagrants, voodoo practitioners, and anyone deemed suspicious.
This new man was motivated by social duty rather than monetary gain, he would ignore personal indulgences for the good of greater society.
[6] On the night of October 11, 1961, a police unit known as the "Social Scum Squad" embarked on a massive raid in Havana, the goal to arrest anyone believed to be a pimp, prostitute, or pederast.
Police cars surrounded red light districts like the Colón neighborhood while officers arrested anyone who couldn't produce state issued IDs.