Guantánamo Bay Naval Base
The US Naval base of Guantánamo Bay was first established in 1903; Spain ceded Cuba to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War in the Treaty of Paris. Cuba never became a formal territory of the United States, unlike Puerto Rico, however there remained a strong military presence on the island after the war (Britannica). In the subsequent years, the US government passed several pieces of legislation such as the Platt Amendment which asserted the US’s right to intervene in Cuban politics and establish bases there (National Archives, 1903). This right of the US was incorporated into the constitution of the new Cuban Republic, thus leading to the construction of Guantánamo Bay.
The establishment of Guantánamo Bay as a naval base, along with the passage of the Platt Amendment in 1901, was indicative of the US’s increasing power internationally. The United States is not considered to have truly come into its own as a hegemonic state until after World War II, when it emerged as a military power, occupying much of Western Europe and parts of East Asia. The establishment of Guantánamo Bay and the passage of the Platt Amendment - both of which were historic assertions of the Monroe Doctrine - were early indicators of the US’s growing power as an imperialist state and the coming shift in the world order wherein the US would overtake Western Europe as the global hegemon as the old empires of England, France, and Spain began to crumble (Flint and Taylor, 2018).
Northeast gate of Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Packard, 2013)
Throughout the Cold War, Guantánamo Bay was used as an outpost of the US policy of containment, especially after 1953, the year the Cuban revolution began, and after the establishment of the communist government in 1959 (Britannica).
The practice of the US government utilizing military bases to assert its hegemony in the face of a declining empire is perfectly exemplified by Guantánamo Bay, as it has in modern times been used almost exclusively to “neutralize” threats to US hegemony.
Besides being used during the Cold War as a way to occupy communist Cuba, in contemporary times, Guantánamo Bay has been used as a detention camps for immigrants and accused terrorists/enemies of the US. In the nineties, the US utilized Guantánamo Bay to reinforce its borders by detaining Haitian immigrants fleeing the military junta that overthrew the democratically elected, liberation-theology (Christianity influenced by Marxism/socialism) influenced president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Gitmo Memory Project). Later, during the War on Terror, Guantánamo Bay was used as a “detainment center” by the CIA to imprison supposed terrorists and Al-Qaeda/Taliban combatants. It was here that the CIA and military committed heinous human rights abuses, torturing their prisoners and holding them indefinitely, without trial (Rosenberg, 2021).
References
Flint, C., & Taylor, P.J. (2018). Political geography: World-economy, nation-state and locality (7th ed.). Routledge.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Cuba. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Guantanamo-Bay-detention-camp
Guantánamo Public Memory Project. Guantánamo Public Memory Project – Haitians and GTMO. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://gitmomemory.org/timeline/haitians-and-gtmo/
Lindsay, C. (2018, August 23). Why captured terrorists can be detained indefinitely. Christopher John Lindsay. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://christopherjohnlindsay.com/2017/10/29/indefinite-detention/
National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Platt Amendment (1903) & Commentary. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/platt-amendment?_ga=2.18896766.753015807.1648681485-1412616934.1648681485
Packard, S. (2013, September 4). How Guantanamo Bay became the place the U.S. keeps detainees. The Atlantic. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/how-guantanamo-bay-became-the-place-the-us-keeps-detainees/279308/
Rosenberg, C. (2021, October 29). For first time in public, a detainee describes torture at C.I.A. black sites. The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/us/politics/guantanamo-detainee-torture.html
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