| Guantanamo | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Country |  Cuba |
|---|---|
| Area | 741,4 km² |
| Population | 228 436 hab. () |
| Density | 308,11 inhab./km² |
| Postal code | 95100 |
| Location | |
 20 ° 8 ′ 18 ″ N 75 ° 12 ′ 22 ″ W | |
Guantanamo is a city cuban, part of whose territory is controlled by the United States.
Understand
A sleepy town of no great interest, described by Carlo Gebler in Driving through Cuba (Simon & Schuster, 1990): “depressing with miserable low houses”.
For others, the appeal of a population the majority of which descends from Jamaican (many of whom still speak English) and Haitian (called Franceses here) cultures make it a Cuban city truly apart. The rest of the "economy" found there does not depend on the American military base, which employs only three Cubans (yes, 3!) But which "leases" some 30,000 Cuban acres (121 km2) territory. This highly military and prison space (7,000 soldiers think about it and keep some 600 prisoners without any rights whatsoever, resulting from the Iraqi conflict) depriving the city of all the opening towards the sea that it previously enjoyed.
The seizure of foreign territory does not date from yesterday because this sad situation "legally" endorsed by President Roosevelt dates from - and is not transferable without the consent of both parties - and provides for a rent of barely US $ 4,085 payable annually by check. Payments that Fidel Castro has always refused to cash (except that of the first year of the revolution in 1959), so unreal does this takeover of foreign territory by the USA seem to him: a twisted maneuver, highly unfair to be honest. Cuban.
It is from this base (GTMO in code, "Gitmo" for the Yankees) that in 1898, the USA (which at the time - at the height of the Spanish-American war - had 17,000 men at its base). Santiago) had conquered Puerto Rico with 500 men, thus appropriating the sovereignty of this other Caribbean island.
DISTANCESBaracoa, 116American Naval Base 25Bayamo, 177Camaguey, 378Ciego de Avila, 488Guardalavaca, 232Holguin, 182La Habana, 910Las Tunas, 253Pinar del Rio, 1,074Sancti Spiritus, 563Santa Clara, 648Santiago, 845Varadero, 845
POPULATION 215,000
See
Parque Marti where the Iglesia Santa Catalina is located; Plaza del Mercado and its pink neoclassical market; the Parque Zoologico would be poorly maintained; Museo Municipal and its artefacts from pre-Columbian times to the present day.
PLAYA They are, of course, US based.
Eat
Café Sol and Cafe Americana, Parque Marti; Caribe Restaurant; the restaurant at the Guantanamo hotel, if you are really hungry.
Have a drink / Go out
Influences: West Indies at the British West Indian Welfare Center, calle Serafin Sanchez; Haitians at Tumba Francesa; Cuban: Casa de la Cultura on Parque Marti. Also, a club for the tough guys, the Nevada Club. A movie on Parque Marti. Radios: Rebelde AM550, Progreso AM810, Reloj AM960
To go
Mariana Grajales Airport, 32-47-82 (4 weekly flights from / to La Habana); by bus (daily), count 9 h from La Habana; by train (daily) from Santiago, a journey of 4 h.
