The US Naval Base at Guantanamo on the island of Cuba, in a file photo. LYNNE SLADKY (AP)
Cuba this Tuesday condemned the presence of a US nuclear submarine, which was anchored at the Guantánamo military base for three days between July 5 and 8, calling it a provocation.
Washington responded to the accusation by arguing that the submersible stopped for logistical reasons on a trip south, where Washington said it was scheduled to participate in naval exercises. The incident came weeks after the White House broke news of the existence of a Chinese spy base on the island, which the Wall Street Journal revealed first denied and eventually admitted. It has been installed since at least 2019.
The complaint came in a statement from Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. “It represents a provocative escalation by the United States whose political or strategic motives are unknown,” it said. “The presence of a nuclear submarine at this moment makes it imperative to ask what the military rationale is for such an action in this peaceful region of the world.” Havana gave no further details about the route taken by the ship covered, nor whether it was armed.
Speaking to the AP and Portal news agencies, Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, declined to give details of the submarine’s movements. “The Cuban government’s attempts to distract the world from the importance of this day are transparent and ridiculous,” Miller said.
What Havana was trying to cover up, according to Washington’s lawsuit, is the second anniversary of the July 11, 2021 protests in Cuba, when thousands of people took to the streets to protest shortages of basic necessities and ongoing power outages amid a severe economic crisis. They were harshly repressed and around 700 demonstrators were prosecuted.
A US Department of Defense official told the AP, which did not name this source, that the submarine’s presence at Guantánamo Bay was due to a logistical standstill before continuing south to participate in UNITAS exercises, which are held annually and jointly held the navies of the United States and several Latin American countries. It’s an old tradition, dating back to 1959, and part of the obligations of the Inter-American Treaty on Mutual Assistance (TIAR).
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For its part, the White House declined to comment on the Guantánamo incident, where the United States maintains a naval base occupying 117 square kilometers in the southeastern part of the island and established in 1898 after Spain’s defeat in the Guantánamo War of Independence. . In 1903, Washington was granted a lease that has been considered “perpetual” ever since. Cuba regards this presence as an occupation.
There is also the prison that the United States opened 21 years ago after the September 11 attacks to house terrorist “enemy combatants” without the guarantees they were entitled to as prisoners on US soil. 779 prisoners were housed on this piece of land. Today there are only about thirty left.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recalling on Tuesday that the 33 Latin American countries have signed an agreement in which they undertake to become a “zone of peace”, warned “of the danger posed by the presence and movement of nuclear submarines.” -Boats of US forces in Cuba runs out.” nearby Caribbean region.
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