Caimanera

Guantánamo - Guantánamo City

Caimanera is a fishing village and port of 10,600 people and is built on the west shore of the sheltered Guantanamo Bay, just north of the US Naval Base. Residents of this remote, southeastern community of steaming, narrow streets and weathered wooden houses are the closest Cuban neighbours to the US military camp now filling up with prisoners from the war on Afghanistan. The arrival of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners added a new chapter to what Caimanera residents say is a long story of the town and a 116 square km piece of land seized by US troops in 1898.

The Americans have remained, despite opposition from the Cuban government. Cuba, however, has not opposed holding the prisoners on its soil.

"Thanks to the base, Caimanera grew,’’ said Ofelia Garcia, the community’s historian. "But it has also suffered much because of its presence. We have not been able to develop a normal life here.’’

The community of fishermen and salt mine workers flourished at the beginning of the 20th century precisely because of the base’s construction.
It was a magnet for Cuban workers and a popular spot for visitors, including Cubans from across the island and people from nearby countries such as Jamaica.
The base, Garcia said, eventually had thousands of Cuban employees. Many American military officers and their families lived off base in Caimanera. That all changed in 1959 when Fidel Castro came to power through a revolution.
In a little less than 3 years, Cuban defense forces formed a military zone along the 27 km perimeter of the American base, seen on this side as enemy territory.

During that period, thousands of Cuban employees were fired or quit their jobs at the base, Garcia said. Today, less than a dozen Cubans work there.

Many former workers left, but those who stayed - and successive generations - learned to live with the watchtowers, the fences, and the proximity of mine fields around the US installation. 2 army posts on the road leading to Caimanera open only to the town’s residents and their relatives.

The community grew so poor that in 1985 Castro’s socialist government ordered salaries here and in the nearby town of Boqueron raised by 30% to encourage workers to stay.

In 1991, the government decided to use the base to promote tourism, opening a 19-room hotel here. Still, few visit: just 300 foreigners in 2001, manager Angel Barreda said.

Most who stay at the Hotel Caimanera are Cuban-Americans visiting relatives in town. Those family members living in the US are an important source of income for Caimanera.

Living so close to the base, Caimanera residents have access to the US military’s television programming, providing glimpses about the arriving prisoners that few Cubans have had.