http://themilitant.com/2018/8211/821152.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 11 March 19, 2018
Cubans help put out fire at US-occupied
Guantánamo base
BY SETH GALINSKY
Cuban and U.S. firefighters worked closely together in February to put
out a fire that raged on the perimeter of the U.S. military base in
Guantánamo, Cuba.
“The illegally occupied territory of Guantánamo constitutes an open
wound to Cuban sovereignty, a situation the country has endured for 115
years,” Granma reported Feb. 28. But acting on the moral values and
principles that have always guided Cuba’s revolution, Cuban officials
informed U.S. officers when they discovered the fire on the Cuban side
of the fence around the base Feb. 21.
Pentagon-employed Jamaican and U.S. firefighters tried to contain the
blaze. But after the fire burned for more than a day, whipped by high
winds in dry conditions, Navy Capt. Dave Culpepper asked the Cubans for
help.
The Cubans promptly sent three fire trucks, a command vehicle, about a
dozen military firefighters and a helicopter with a 500 gallon water
bucket dangling beneath. A U.S. Marine opened the base’s Northeast Gate
to let the Cubans inside.
“It worked great. I was pleasantly surprised both at their response time
and our ability to put it all together exactly as we trained,” Culpepper
told the Miami Herald.
By Feb. 23 the fire was contained. During the two days the fire and heat
it generated set off some 1,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines in
the Cuban minefield that separates the two sides.
For about two decades U.S. Navy and Cuban Frontier Brigade members have
conducted an annual “team-building exercise” on how to provide mutual
assistance in case of a fire, earthquake or hurricane, but “this was the
first time we used it for real,” Culpepper said.
Against the will of the Cuban people, the U.S. military has occupied the
28,000 acres that surround Guantánamo Bay since 1903. Washington has
used the base to intervene in the internal affairs of Cuba, Haiti and
other nations to protect U.S. imperialist interests.
Many Cuban workers are especially offended that Washington maintains a
prison there where the U.S. rulers have incarcerated hundreds on charges
of terrorism and today that still holds 41 prisoners. They have all been
held more than 10 years and more than half have never been charged or
convicted of anything.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the end of January
to keep the prison open indefinitely.
The Miami Herald reports the Pentagon has a $69 million line item in its
2019 budget released Feb. 12 to build a new Camp 7 on the base with
updated facilities intended to last 40 years. The military classifies
Camp 7 “Top Secret,” and reporters are barred from even looking at it.
All 15 current prisoners there were previously held in CIA “black sites”
overseas and tortured for three to four years, the Herald said.
The same day the fire was contained, students in Cuba joined a protest
calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of Guantánamo, part of an
international day of actions. Feb. 23 marks the 115th anniversary of the
U.S. military’s seizure of the land.
Related articles:
See Cuba’s revolution on May Day Brigade!
‘Cuban Revolution opened road for people to think for themselves’
Cuban Revolution involves all, with sight or not
Cinema clubs with audio descriptions expand access to culture for
visually impaired
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
