As international prisoners in the United States ”war on terror” languish at its naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cubans living nearby are completely unaware of what goes on inside the base.
Some younger Cubans in the town of Guantánamo yearn for the music, clothes and gadgets of the United States, but the older generation are staunch supporters of ailing President Fidel Castro, and life goes on as if the base didn’t exist.
”Things are so quiet in Guantánamo that we didn’t even realise the Americans had brought Talibans to the base,” said Gines, a 40-year-old physical training instructor, who gave only his last name.
The first prisoners arrived in January 2002, after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan for harbouring al-Qaeda, the group behind the attacks on the United States of September 11 2001.
US military prosecutors filed charges against three of the prisoners on February 2, after the US Supreme Court in June struck down a military tribunal system used to try 10 prisoners.
The legal status of the prisoners and the concern about their conditions has drawn criticism of the United States from around the world, and strained relations with Australia over David Hicks, an Australian being held at the base.
But the international furore has largely passed by the baking-hot streets of Guantánamo, a town of 200 000 people at the eastern tip of the island and 25km north of the base.
”I’ve lived here for 65 years and I’ve never seen the base. It’s as if it didn’t exist,” said Carmen, who asked that her last name not be used.
The 117 square kilometre base is home to the only McDonald’s restaurant on the island of Cuba, but eating there is out of the question for Cubans.
A 28km security perimeter around the facility is mined and some Cubans have lost legs trying to defect.
On the streets of Guantánamo, cars are few and far between, bicycles plentiful and US influence scant.
The local hero is Cuba’s only cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo, who ventured into space in 1980 aboard the Soviet Union’s Soyuz 38. His reentry capsule is on show in a local square.
Perhaps the only US presence is the radio station that broadcasts from inside the base.
”Let it roll, baby, roll,” blares a radio to the driving beat of Roadhouse Blues by the The Doors.
”The music the Americans play is fantastic. You can’t hear that on our radio stations,” said Carlos (28) sipping rum with friends in a square. Like many younger Cubans, he sees the US as a land of opportunity where he would go if he could.
Older Cubans avoid listening to Radio Gitmo. ”I simply ignore it,” said Heriberto (73).
The US seized the entrance to Guantánamo Bay in the Spanish-American War, which brought Cuban independence from Spain in 1898. The US navy built a base there in 1903 to supply coal to its ships protecting the approaches to the Panama Canal.
The US military has been eyeball-to-eyeball with Cuba at Guantánamo Bay since Castro came to power in a revolution in 1959, and it is one of the last frontiers of the Cold War.
Over the years, the Cuban armed forces have sought to avoid confrontation with their superpower enemy, and tensions even eased a little over US efforts to round up al-Qaeda suspects.
”The United States and Cuba have long sparred over Guantánamo Bay, but a fragile peace has existed on this issue since the US launched the war on terror,” said Dan Erikson, of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
When the first Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects were taken to the base five years ago — shackled and blindfolded in bright orange jumpsuits — Cuba did not object.
In early 2002, General Raul Castro, Cuba’s Defence Minister and now acting president for his ailing brother, told reporters Cuba and the US had no differences in the war on terrorism, as he looked at the base through binoculars.
”If a prisoner manages to escape … he will be captured and returned to the Americans,” Raul Castro said.
That stance changed in 2003 after accusations of torture employed at the base and in prisons in Iraq. Fidel Castro denounced it as a ”concentration camp”.
On January 11, Cuba allowed US ”peace mom” Cindy Sheehan and relatives of detainees to march to the fence to demand its closure. But demonstrators were not allowed closer than a Cuban checkpoint 7km from the base.
Nevertheless, cooperation on security around the base — there are almost daily telephone calls — is one of the only channels of communication between Cuba and the US.
The base’s commander, Captain Mark Leary, has breakfast once a month with the Cuban general in charge of guarding Cuba’s side.
”While Cuba rejects the US claim to the base, on a practical level the Cuban government has used its presence to forge ties with the US military,” Erikson said. – Reuters