The arrival of hundreds of terror suspects at this remote US naval outpost in the Caribbean not only lifted it from obscurity but produced a population boom and a flood of things to keep its new residents happy -- a miniature golf course, Starbucks coffee, a go-kart track and music concerts.
The non-detainee population at Guantanamo has surged from about 2,600 to about 9,500 since the military brought the first prisoners captured in the US-led war against Afghanistan here three years ago. Overnight, a base that had been little more than a sleepy refueling stop for ships gained worldwide fame.
The base's administrators shifted gears quickly from tearing down structures to renovating and building new ones in a rush to provide an adequate working and living quarters for 2,200 troops involved in the detention operation, as well as their family members, contract workers, interrogators and other supporting officials.
Uncertainty shrouds the future of the prison camp, amid court rulings that have undermined the government's argument that 545 detainees from 40 countries are beyond the reach of US courts and are not entitled to the same protections prisoners of war get under the Geneva Conventions. But construction continues under the assumption that most detainees aren't leaving soon.
"As long as there is a global war on terror [the detention mission] is here for the long run," said base commander Navy Captain Les McCoy, who doesn't oversee the prison operation but must take its future into account while running the rest of the base. "The Navy realized it hadn't paid attention to Guantanamo. Now they are looking at us."
Two permanent prison camps that can hold 320 people are meant to replace four temporary prisons, suggesting the military hopes gradually to release or transfer many prisoners through parole hearings or negotiations with their home governments. One prison was completed last year, while work has started on US$35 million facility.
With nearly every building on the base in use, finding adequate housing for soldiers and other support staff has been a headache. Many officers live in housing that was boarded up, overrun with rodents called "banana rats" and on the brink of demolition before the detainees arrived.
Enlisted soldiers are less comfortable, crowded into windowless trailers where each barely has a corner to himself. "Camp America," as the trailer park is known, is closer to the prison camp than the social center of the base, which famously has the only McDonald's in Cuba.
The military hopes eventually to move those soldiers to more permanent housing "downtown," said Commander Anne Marie Reese, an engineer overseeing construction for the detention mission.
"Everyone wants to feel like they are going home after work," Reese said. "Whether we can achieve that 100 percent remains to be seen."
Stuck between the Caribbean sea and a 27km fence that separates it from the rest of communist Cuba, Guantanamo is one of the most isolated US naval stations in the world. The parched land and blistering heat reinforces a sleepy atmosphere.
The population surge has meant more parties, sold-out country and rock concerts and -- the latest excitement -- Starbucks coffee.
A stone's throw away from the barbed wire prison camp, soldiers crowd around one of the four kiosks offering mochas, creamices and iced lattes.
Some 1,400 cups a day have been sold since Starbucks arrived earlier this month.
"Oddly enough, it did lift my morale," said petty officer Barry Tate, arriving for his first cup of the day at another kiosk near the movie theater. "I didn't expect to see it and here it was. It reminds me of home."
Mini-golf hasn't been much of a hit, probably because the course is covered in brown grass and has no obstacles.
But not for long, promises Craig Basel, the official in charge of recreation at the base. By summer, obstacles will include replicas of guard towers and banana rats, he said.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS