US won military base as spoil of war after helping defeat Spain

A member of the US military mans the guard post before sunrise at Camp Delta, part of the US Detention Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [Photo: AFP]

The naval base at Guantanamo Bay is quietly commemorating its 115th anniversary. On December 10, 1903, the United States established its first overseas military base on 45 square miles of Cuban territory.

Today, the base at Guantanamo Bay is infamously associated with images of Muslim detainees wearing orange jumpsuits – alleged terrorists detained after the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.

But there’s much more to this naval base than its use as an offshore prison, as I documented in my book, “Guantánamo: A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution.”

Here are five things you probably don’t know about Guantanamo Bay.

The US won it as a spoil of war

The United States intervened in Cuba’s decades-long battle for independence from Spain in 1898, waging a six-week military campaign that Secretary of State John Hay memorably described as a “splendid little war.”

The Spanish quickly surrendered, signing the Treaty of Paris and then handing over Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the United States.

To achieve full independence, the U.S. required the Cuban government to amend its new Constitution to allow the US to “sell or lease” territory for a naval base. The Cubans did so grudgingly.

Unlike most leases, this one has no end date. The US military may use the site indefinitely.

The base in Guantanamo Bay has been a reminder of American imperialism in the Caribbean ever since.

Cuba wants the land returned. In his historic meeting with Barack Obama in 2016, President Raúl Castro cited the base as a key obstacle in improving US-Cuban relations.

The Cuban revolution took place nearby

Guantánamo, home to about 200,000 people, is an 18-hour bus ride from Havana in an eastern Cuban region called Oriente – a stronghold of the Cuban Revolution.

Starting in December 1956, brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro and a small group of guerrillas began a military campaign in Oriente that would ultimately overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Cuban base workers at Guantanamo Bay aided the Castros’ insurgency by raising money on the base and pilfering supplies like gasoline.

Evidence suggests that some US military personnel secretly funneled arms to the guerrillas. The sons of three American servicemen even ran off to join the uprising in 1957.

The Cuban base workers generally escaped punishment, but at least one US sailor faced a court martial for supporting the revolution.

Jamaicans, Filipinos are main workforce

Approximately 6,000 people live on the Guantanamo Bay naval base today, including American military personnel, their families and civilian staff. Historically, most of the staff at Guantanamo Bay were Cubans from the city of Guantánamo. The base offered steady jobs at wages far higher than those on local sugar plantations.

But in 1964 Fidel Castro cut off the base’s Cuban water supply in a diplomatic conflict with the United States. President Lyndon Johnson ordered most Cuban workers fired to make the base more self-sufficient.

Jamaican and later Filipino guest laborers were brought in to take their place. Today, these guest workers live in trailers and old barracks on the base and do everything from construction and food services to laundry. Many are paid less than the U.S. minimum wage.