Guantánamo (redirected from Guantánamo, Cuba)

Guantánamo (gwäntä`nämō), city (1994 est. pop. 200,000), capital of Guantánamo prov., SE Cuba, on the Guaso River. It is the processing center for a rich sugar- and coffee-producing region and has road and rail connections with Santiago de Cuba. Founded in the early 19th cent. by French colonists fleeing the slave rebellion in Haiti, Guantánamo retains many vestiges of French architecture. The city is c.20 mi (30 km) inland from its port, Caimanera, on landlocked

Guantánamo Bay, where the United States maintains an important naval station. Often called the Pearl Harbor of the Atlantic, the base has naval installations covering c.45 sq mi (116 sq km). Its site was leased to the United States in 1903 by a treaty that was renewed in 1934; consent of both governments is needed to revoke the agreement. Since 1960 the Cuban government has refused to accept the token annual rent ($5,000) from the United States and has pressured for the surrender of the base. In the mid-1990s thousands of refugees fleeing Cuba and Haiti were temporarily housed at the base. A prison camp for persons accused of having Taliban or Al Qaeda ties is now there. There have been accusations, some based on FBI e-mail, that prisoners there have been abused. Guantánamo was chosen because the Bush administration believed that federal constitutional protections should not apply to the base, which is legally is not part of the United States; that argument was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2004.

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Guantánamo

City (pop., 1994 est.: 207,796), capital of Guantánamo province, eastern Cuba. Lying in the mountains 21 mi (34 km) north of strategic Guantánamo Bay, it was founded in 1819. French refugees from Haiti aided in colonizing the area, and many cultural characteristics, including the architecture, show their influence. Catalans were also among the early settlers. It is the centre of an agricultural region producing sugarcane and coffee.