In the United States leased 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay, from the newly-independent Cuban government, to be used for fleet sustainment by the growing US Navy. Base relations with Cuba remained stable and did not significantly change until the Cuban Revolution in the late s, with United States and Cuban relations steadily declining as Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro aligned with the Soviet Union.
The United States severed diplomatic ties with Cuba in , and in Castro cut off water and supply avenues to the base: since then, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay has been self-sufficient, with its own power and water sources. West stayed on the base, working in the same clerical job until he retired in He worked for 55 years straight, he said, nine before moving to the base full-time and retiring with 4, hours of unused sick leave.
An avid lover of baseball, West used to umpire baseball games on the base outside of work. Now, he spends time on his computer, watches baseball and news on TV and is visited by two home health nurses who take him to do things around the island daily. Keeping a culture alive. Dana Lane, the Cuban Community Manager on the Naval base, helps take care of the 19 aging residents, all between the ages of 78 and She organizes cultural activities at the community center, like Cuban food cooking nights, dominoes and bingo games, and helps coordinate care for the residents.
Lane has been the Cuban Community Manager since She is Panamanian. They're relatives," Lane said of the residents. What Cuba wants from Joe Biden. At one point, there were nearly Cuban Special Category Residents living on the base.
Over time, people have moved away or passed on. West chose to stay on the base because he had a stable job, he said, and he liked that the base was the size of a small town like the one he'd grown up in, but with more infrastructure. The Platt Amendment was repealed in , which is why Cuba currently considers the U. It was reopened after the United States suffered from the terrorist attack on September 11, as a response to increase international anti-terrorist initiatives.
However, it has come under international condemnation due to the human rights violations that have occurred, including the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial. Throughout the existence of the detention camp, there have been several cases of suicide and hunger strikes among the population is common.
At one point, detainees were on a hunger strike, with 41 of those being forced fed CNN Library It is important to note that torture is illegal internationally as well as in the United States. The US military has used enhanced interrogation practices that are not acceptable practices in other detention centers. The United States was able to justify the harsh detainment policies because the center was not located in the U.
This argument was highly contended in the international community. It also begs the question, would the United States treat its own terrorist-citizens like this? The mistreatment of detainees caused the international community to call upon the United States to change its methods and abide by the Geneva Conventions. In , the Supreme Court ruled granted detainees the right to challenge their detention in a federal court. When Barack Obama came into office, he swore on his second day to close the detention center that his predecessor created.
However, his goal was hard to attain due to a strong opposition in Congress. Without a place to relocate the prisoners, Obama had a hard time closing the detention center. Obama was still able to make progress, moving 70 to detainees to a prison in Illinois CNN Library Since Obama's time in office, the United States government position has changed on the detention center. Of the 39 detainees remaining, 17 are being held indefinitely with no recommendation for transfer, 10 are eligible for transfer if security conditions are met, 10 have been charged by the US military, and two have been convicted.
Several international human rights groups, including HRW, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross have repeatedly condemned the alleged human rights violations, including harsh interrogation methods that critics say amounted to torture.
During his presidency, George W Bush said he would like to see Guantanamo Bay closed but that it would not be easy. That never happened. In July , Moroccan prisoner Abdul Latif Nasser became the first detainee transferred under the Biden administration.
He had been held by the US since without being charged. The Pakistani prisoner has been held there since on suspected ties to al-Qaeda, although he has never been charged. New book by Washington Post reporters claims Trump asked if detainment camp could be used to house infected.
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