Non-Americans working at the Guantanamo Naval Base
Since it was established, at the turn of the nineteenth century, the United States has relied on Non-Americans working at the Guantanamo Naval Base in order to save money by having them perform non-military tasks.[1] Prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, that brought Fidel castro to power, local Cubans performed non-military tasks, both unskilled jobs, like gardening, and skilled work, like maintaining the motor pool.
Prior to the revolution there was great competition for jobs on the base, and violence sometimes erupted between job-seekers.[1] Contractors used to ferry workers from their docks in Cantermera to the docks on the base. Over 3,000 cubans worked on the base at the time of the Revolution.
Following the Revolution the United States stopped hiring additional Cuban workers.p[1] Initially the existing workers were allowed to continue to work, on-base. But there were no buses or ferries, they had to walk to the North-East Gate. Some workers were fired, because American counter-intelligence officials suspected they might be covert Cuban agents. Some Cuban workers, like Rolando Quintero and Manuel Prieto Gomez reported being threatened and abused by American counter-intelligence officials. Other Cubans quit, in support of the new government, particularly during the Bay of Pigs Incident, when the CIA sponsored an attempted invasion by 2,000 anti-Castro Cubans in 1961, and again during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the USA and the USSR had a confrontation over the presence of nuclear armed missiles in Cuba.
Following a mass layoff in 1964 the Navy hired a large contingent of contract workers from Jamaica. The Jamaicans were housed, on base -- so long as their performance was satisfactory.
Cubans continued to commute to work on the base.[2] Some applied for, and were granted asylum, so there was a small community of Cuban exiles, living on the base. The last two Cuban commuters, 81 year old Harry Henry and 79 year old Luis LaRosa retired on December 14, 2012.[3] The USA had relied on the Cuban commuters to deliver pensions to the retirees living in Cuba.
Some of the remaining 30 or so elderly exiles continued to hold jobs, on base.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Jana K. Lipman (2009) (in English). Guantánamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution. University of California Press. pp. 160-161. ISBN 9780520255395. http://books.google.ca/books?id=xLVloXGfEPAC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=%22Manuel+Prieto+Gomez%22+guantanamo&source=bl&ots=EgqfqpYtNG&sig=j4skMHrPRsPuPDfc_KnRYvUTeL0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x9rRUM6SGoyXqAHNioCYBg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Manuel%20Prieto%20Gomez%22%20guantanamo&f=false. Retrieved 2012-12-19. "For example, base workers Manuel Prieto Gomez and Rolando Quintero were dismissed from GTMO in 1961. On January 5, 1961, the base police detained Prieto and accused him of being an agent for the Cuban government and stealing U.S. documents. Prieto later claimed that intelligence officers beat him, threatened him with death, and hooked him up to a lie detector. He insisted that he supported the revolutionary government, but was not an agent for anyone. Then the base officials tried the opposite tack, offering Prieto good work, money, and access to the United States, if he would cooperate with them."
- ↑ Robert Lamb (2007-01-26). "Two hearts, one spiriit, in friendship". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Guantanamo Bay Gazette. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnic.navy.mil%2Fnavycni%2Fgroups%2Fpublic%2F%40cnrse%2F%40gtmo%2Fdocuments%2Fdocument%2Fcnic_048689.pdf&date=2012-12-15. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
- ↑ Ben Fox, Suzette LaBoy (2012-12-14). "Last 2 Cuban 'commuters' retire from US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay: One of the world's most unusual commutes comes to an end" (in English). Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newser.com%2Farticle%2Fda35ms3g0%2Flast-2-cuban-commuters-retire-from-us-navy-base-at-guantanamo-bay.html&date=2012-12-15. Retrieved 2012-11-. "As workers aged and retired, the number of commuters dwindled from the hundreds to about 50 people by 1985, according to a base newsletter, the Guantanamo Bay Gazette. By June 2005, it was down to Henry, La Rosa and two others, all earning about $12 an hour, an eye-popping salary by Cuban standards, according to another base newsletter, The Wire."
