West was also critical of the Castro regime and noticed that it was hard for people to get jobs that paid well in Cuba. Lane said most of the residents who stayed on the US Naval base were "against the regime," referring to the Cuban government. A tense history. Cuba and the US have had fractured political relations since the early s. Former President John F. Kennedy later imposed an embargo on trade with Cuba that remains in place to this day.
After the border between the base and the rest of Cuba closed, residents had to decide if they were going to give up their jobs on the base or stay and live on the base forever.
After Cuba gained independence in , they leased 45 square miles on the bay to the US for construction of a naval station. In , Castro cut off water to the base, claiming the Americans were taking Cuban water. On the US side of the border, a dug-up hole shows where US military members cut off the water line to Cuba.
A red marker near the North East Gate commemorates the spot where the water line was cut. Bulkeley, Commander Naval Base ordered the water lines be cut and section removed to disprove the assumption that the United States was stealing water from Cuba" in black all-capital letters. The Cuban government continues to demand the return of the area occupied by the Naval base and says it does not cash the checks the US sends every year to pay for the base.
Many Cuban historians argue the US, an occupying force at the time, strong-armed Cuba to hand over the land for the base which was originally a coaling station for ships. Now, US military members meet with Cuban military officers once a month in what is known as "fence line" meetings to discuss upcoming maneuvers and other issues.
They switch off who hosts the meeting each month. While there is little communication outside of these meetings, there is occasional coordination. In February , Cuban military and firefighters helped the base put out a wildfire that exploded land mines on the Cuban side and threatened houses on the base.
US officials say they removed thousands of the land mines placed around the base years ago and replaced them with lights and motion sensors. It is a spoil of the Spanish-American War, when Cuban and American forces wrestled the strategically located bay from Spanish control, helping pave the way for crucial victories later in the conflict. Since , the US has leased the land from Cuba. In the early s, following the Cuban Revolution in which Castro clawed his way to power and established a communist government, some Cubans escaped to the US base at the south-eastern tip of the island.
Some of the Cuban exiles moved to the US, but a small cohort, including Mr West, stayed at the base and made a life for themselves on their native soil under the protection of the US government.
Today, there are only 19 Cuban exiles, known as Special Category Residents, left on the base. The base provides health care to the ageing community, whose youngest member is now 78 and the oldest is The US government has even built a home health facility for those unable to live alone.
Mr West lives in a low-slung, mid-century home across the street from the Cuban Community Centre in one of several residential compounds on the base. His house is filled with Christmas ornaments - an ode to his first name, Noel - which can be seen alongside pictures and other memorabilia of a life spent in service to the base. For five and half decades, he worked as a clerk on the base, primarily in charge of ordering fuel for private vehicles.
He retired in 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. Today it remains the forward, ready, and irreplaceable U. Commander, Navy Installations Command.
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