Portal:Cuba

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Spanish: Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo /ˈɡɪtmoʊ/ GIT-moh as jargon by the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (117 km²) of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It has been leased from Cuba to the U.S., without expiry, since 1903 as a coaling station and naval base. It is the oldest overseas American naval base. Since 1974, the U.S. has paid the Cuban government $4,085 per year to lease the bay. The lease was previously $2,000 per year (paid in gold) until 1934, when it was set to match the value of gold in dollars.

Since taking power in 1959, the Cuban government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil, arguing that the base was imposed on Cuba by force and is illegal under international law. The lease requires either bilateral consent or full U.S. military withdrawal in order to terminate lease. Since 2002, the naval base has maintained the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, for alleged unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places during the War on Terror. Cases of alleged torture of prisoners by the U.S. military, and their denial of protection under the Geneva Conventions, have been criticized. The base has been a focal point for debates over civil liberties, notably influenced by the landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush. This ruling affirmed the constitutional right of detainees to challenge their detention via habeas corpus, highlighting the ongoing tensions between national security and civil liberties. (Full article...)

• ... that José Ramón Balaguer fought as a soldier-medic for Fidel Castro's rebel army before becoming Cuba's minister of public health?
• ... that after his movement's victory in the Cuban Revolution, television broadcasts showed Camilo Cienfuegos freeing parrots from birdcages, declaring that the birds had "a right to liberty"?
• ... that the 1919 foxtrot song "I'll See You in C-U-B-A" was an example of Cuba being perceived as "America's playground"?
• ... that after his release from a hospital for the criminally insane, Richard Dixon burgled $16 from a credit union and hijacked a jet to Cuba?
• ... that a hypothesized land bridge may have allowed some fish species to migrate from South America to Cuba?

Yoani María Sánchez Cordero (born September 4, 1975) is a Cuban blogger who has achieved international fame and multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government.

Sánchez attended primary school during the affluent time when the Soviet Union was providing considerable aid to Cuba. However, her high school and university education coincided with the loss of financial aid to Cuba following the Soviet Union's collapse, creating a highly public educational system and style of living that subsequently left Sánchez with a strong need for personal privacy. Sánchez's university education left her with two understandings; first, that she had acquired a disgust for "high culture", and second that she no longer had an interest in philology, her chosen field of university study. (Full article...)

Juan Gualberto Gómez Ferrer (July 12, 1854 – March 5, 1933) was a Cuban revolutionary leader in the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a "close collaborator of [José] Martí's," and alongside him helped plan the uprising and unite the island's black population behind the rebellion. He was an activist for independence and a journalist who worked on and later founded several pivotal anti-royalist and pro-racial equality newspapers. He authored numerous works on liberty and racial justice in Latin America as well.

In his later years, he was a "journalist-politician." He defended the revolution against racism and U.S. imperialism and upheld Martí's legacy in print (often under the pseudonym "G") as he served the Cuban state; he was a part of the Committee of Consultations that drafted and amended the Constitution of 1901, and was a representative and senator in the Cuban legislature. He is best remembered as "the most conspicuous" Cuban activist leader of the 1890s independence struggle and "one of the revolution's great ideologues." (Full article...)

• ... that Baracoa in eastern Cuba (pictured) is located on the spot where Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba on his first voyage, and is not only the oldest Spanish settlement in Cuba but also its first capital?

• ...that Raúl Martínez was a Cuban painter, designer and graphic artist best known for colorful pop-art portraits of leading Cuban political figures including José Martí and Camilo Cienfuegos?

• ...that Perucho Figueredo was a Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter who wrote the Cuban national anthem, La Bayamesa, in 1867?

• ...that Narciso López fled Cuba for New York City in 1848 after a failed attempt to create a revolt among Cuban planters, and attempted three times to raise filibuster expeditions to invade Cuba from the U.S.?

• ...that Philip Bonsal was the last United States Ambassador to Cuba, having been withdrawn in 1960 after serving barely a year in office, amidst worsening relations between Cuba and the United States?