1808 Thomas Jefferson sends General James Wilkinson to Cuba to find out if the Spanish would consider ceding Cuba to the United States. Spain is not interested. 1809-1810 Former President Jefferson writes to his successor, James Madison, in 1809, “I candidly confess that I have ever looked upon Cuba as the most interesting addition that can be made to our system of States.” With Cuba and Canada, he says, “we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation.” But Madison settles on a policy of leaving Cuba to the domination of Spain, a relatively weak country, while guarding against its seizure by any mightier power. In 1810, Madison instructs his minister to Great Britain to tell the British that the United States will not sit idly by if Britain were to try to gain possession of Cuba. 1818 Spain allows Cuban ports to open for international trade. Within two years, over half of Cuba’s trade is with the United States. April 28, 1823 Having acquired East and West Florida from Spain a few years earlier, the United States has expanded to within 90 miles of Cuba. In a letter to Minister to Spain Hugh Nelson, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams describes the likelihood of US “annexation of Cuba” within half a century despite obstacles: “But there are laws of political as well as of physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by the tempest from its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly Guántanamo disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union, which by the same law of nature cannot cast her off from its bosom.” Cubans call this policy la fruta madura (ripe fruit); Washington would wait until the fruit is considered ripe for the picking. December 2, 1823 In what becomes known as the Monroe Doctrine, President James Monroe stakes out the Western Hemisphere as a US sphere of influence by warning Europe not to interfere in the affairs of any of the American nations that have recently become independent while stating concomitantly that the United States will not interfere in European affairs. 1830s-1870s Cuba’s sugar industry becomes the most mechanized in the world. By 1850, sugar provides 83 percent of exports, with 40 percent of that going to the United States, part of the Triangular Trade: sugar to the United States, rum to Africa, slaves to Cuba. 1847 As the Mexican War moves closer toward victory for the United States, proponents of “Manifest Destiny” step up efforts to annex Cuba. Some US citizens conspire with a new secret organization of pro-annexation Cubans, the Club de La Habana. 1848 In May, Democrats in the United States nominate for president Senator Lewis Cass, who has publicly advocated the purchase of Cuba. Later in the month, Democratic President James Polk secretly decides to try to buy Cuba, in accordance with official policy of annexation only with the consent of Spain. In July, Secretary of State James Buchanan instructs US Minister to Cuba Romulus Saunders to negotiate the deal, but negotiations fall apart amidst conspiracy and betrayal. 1854 Franklin Pierce wins the 1852 election by a landslide as pro-expansionist candidate. In October, Pierce’s ministers to Spain (Pierre Soulé), France (J.Y. Mason) and England (James Buchanan) draw up the Ostend Manifesto recommending that the United States purchase Cuba. This manifesto warns against permitting “Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo [referring to the Black republic created by the slave insurrection led by Toussaint], with all its attendant horrors to the white race.” If Spain refuses to sell, the ministers claim that “we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain... upon the very same principle that would justify an individual in tearing down the burning house of his neighbor if there were no other means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home.” 1857-1861 President James Buchanan tries repeatedly to interest Congress in buying Cuba, but Congress is too bitterly divided over slavery. October 10, 1868 The Ten Years’ War (Cuba’s first War of Independence) begins when plantation owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, accompanied by 37 other planters, proclaims the independence of Cuba in the Grito de Yara issued from his plantation. Céspedes frees and arms his slaves. Two days later the brothers Antonio and José Maceo—free blacks—join the rebel ranks. Some Dominican exiles, including Máximo Gómez, help to train the rebels, using their experience from fighting against Spain on nearby Hispaniola. Ignacio Agramonte leads the revolt in Camagüey until he is killed in battle in 1873. April 10, 1869 A constituent assembly in Guáimaro prepares the first Constitution of the Republic of Cuba and elects Carlos Manuel de Céspedes as the first president. September 26, 1872 Colombian Foreign Minister Don Gil Colunje proposes a joint action to all Latin American republics and the United States to achieve Cuban independence and the abolition of slavery. The plan, which would be carried out under the leadership of the United States, would offer to reimburse Spain for the loss of the colony with money raised from all the republics. The Latin American governments agree, but US President Ulysses S. Grant rejects the idea. Guántanamo 1880s The US government prepares for overseas expansion, wiping out Native American resistance in the West and build- ing an offensive navy. Investment by the United States in Cuba increases rapidly. Of Cuban exports, 83 percent go to the United States, only 6 percent to Spain. November 1897 Spain’s queen regent offers autonomy to Cuba, but both the rebels and Cuban loyalists reject the offer. Meanwhile, in Washington, Navy Assistant Secretary Theodore Roosevelt is urging President William McKinley to intervene. December 24, 1897 US Undersecretary of War J.C. Breckenridge sends instructions to Lt. General Nelson A. Miles concerning US plans for Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands (see Document 1). January 1898 The United States uses rumors of danger to US citizens in Cuba as the reason for dispatching the USS Maine to Havana. February 15, 1898 The battleship Maine blows up in Havana’s harbor, killing 260 officers and crew. The United States blames Spain. “Remember the Maine” becomes a battle cry as the US “yellow press,” spearheaded by William Randolph Hearst’s chain, shapes public opinion. April 10, 1898 Spain, having ordered a unilateral suspension of hostilities, sends a message to Washington offering a deal: the United States would indicate terms of an armistice; Cuba would be granted autonomy; the matter of the Maine would be submitted to arbitration. April 11, 1898 President McKinley sends a message to US Congress asking for authority to intervene militarily in Cuba. The message says, “The only hope of relief and repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba.” April 20, 1898 The US Congress declares that Cuba has the right to be free and independent and authorizes the president to use military force to oust Spain. The Teller Amendment adds that the United States has no “intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof.” McKinley signs this declaration and sends it to Spain with the message that he will carry it out unless Spain responds satisfactorily by April 23. April 22, 1898 President McKinley declares a blockade of the northern coast of Cuba and its port at Santiago, an act of war according to international law. April 24, 1898 Responding to the US act of war, Spain declares war. April 25, 1898 The US Congress formally declares war. In the United States, this is known as the Spanish-American War. In Cuba, it is known as the US intervention in Cuba’s War of Independence. August 12, 1898 Spain and the United States sign a bilateral armistice. Cuba is not represented at the negotiations. December 10, 1898 Spain and the United States sign the Treaty of Paris [see Document 2]. The United States emerges with control of four new territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. Although the treaty officially grants Cuba independence, the US flag—not the Cuban flag—is raised over Havana. The United States installs a military government to pacify Cuba. January 1, 1899 Spain formally surrenders its jurisdiction in Cuba to US military forces commanded by General John R. Brooke, the first US military governor. December 23, 1899 General Leonard Wood, veteran of US cam- paigns against Native Americans, replaces Brooke as military governor. 1900 General Wood calls an election for a Cuban constitutional convention, which meets in November and draws up a constitution modeled upon the US Constitution without Guántanamo specifying the nature of future relations with the United States. March 2, 1901 To codify control of Cuba, the US Congress adds the Platt Amendment to an Army Appropriations bill [see Document 3]. The amendment provides that Cuba has only a limited right to conduct its own foreign policy and debt policy; the United States may intervene militarily at any time; the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the boundaries of Cuba until the title to it is adjusted by future treaty; Cuba will sell or lease to the United States “lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon.” Since the US government makes it clear that its military occupation will not end until this amendment becomes part of Cuban law, Cuba incorporates the Platt Amendment into its 1901 Constitution. 1901 General Wood supervises what the United States calls a democratic election for national offices, but the franchise excludes Afro-Cubans, women and those with less than $250. Tomás Estrada Palma is elected president. May 20, 1902 The US military occupation ends as Estrada becomes president. March 1903 Cuba and the United States ratify a treaty on commercial reciprocity, ensuring US control of Cuban markets. May 22, 1903 Cuba and the United States sign the “Permanent Treaty” which incorporates the Platt Amendment. July 2, 1903 To follow up the Platt Amendment provision for selling or leasing coaling and naval bases to the United States, Cuba signs a treaty with the United States agreeing to lease Bahía Honda and Guantánamo. This prepares the way for the construction of a US naval base at Guantánamo, a deep-water port in eastern Cuba. The price of the lease for Guantánamo is set at $2,000 a year in gold. The same year, the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt engineers the separation of Panama from Colombia and arranges to build the Panama Canal. On this same day the United States signs a treaty with Cuba agreeing to relinquish all claim to the Isle of Pines, but the US Senate refuses to ratify within the stipulated seven months. March 2, 1904 Cuba and the United States sign a new treaty about the Isle of Pines, this time with no deadline for ratification [see Document 6]. 1904-1905 President Roosevelt formulates his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: since the United States does not allow European nations to intervene in Latin America, then the United States has responsibility for preserving order and protecting life and property in those countries. August 1906 President Estrada requests US intervention to put down an insurrection. President Roosevelt sends Secretary of War William Howard Taft as mediator. Estrada objects to Taft’s proposals and resigns in September. The United States exercises its Platt Amendment authorization to intervene and sends in US Marines for a second military occupation. September 29, 1906 The US Secretary of War heads a provisional government of Cuba. October 13, 1906 US citizen Charles Magoon replaces Secretary of War Taft as head of the provisional government of Cuba. The United States openly rules “independent” Cuba for more than two years. January 28, 1909 US Military Governor Magoon turns the Cuban government over to President José Miguel Gómez, an army general elected in November 1908. 1912 The Agrupación Independiente de Color [Independent Colored Party], led by Evaristo Estenoz who fought in the War of Independence, rebels against the Gómez government, which crushes the uprising with the slaughter of some 3,000 rebels. During the uprising, US Marines land and two US battleships anchor in Havana harbor but the Taft administration maintains Guántanamo this does not constitute intervention. February-March 1917 President Woodrow Wilson lands US Marines to shore up the government of President Mario García Menocal against an uprising led by Liberal Party forces because of what they consider the fraudulent victory of the Conservative Party in the 1916 election. April 7, 1917 President Mario García Menocal enters World War I the day after the United States declares war and soon opens up the island as a training base for US Marines, some of whom remain until 1922. 1919-1933 During Prohibition in the United States, Cuba becomes the playground of the Caribbean. In 1920, sugar prices plunge and US investors buy up property at bargain rates. March 13, 1925 After a delay of more than two decades, the US Senate ratifies the 1904 treaty relinquishing US claims to the Isle of Pines. May 29, 1934 Cuba and the United States sign the “Treaty on Relations between Cuba and the United States” abrogating the “Permanent Treaty” of 1903 and the Platt Amendment with the exception that the United States continues to occupy the naval base at Guantánamo [see Document 7]. March 10, 1952 Batista comes to power as a result of a military coup. January 1, 1959 Rebel forces led by Fidel Castro overthrow the Batista dictatorship. March 5, 1959 Cuba demands that the US government give up its naval base at Guantánamo. This occupation of Cuban territory continues as a source of tension between the two countries. Cuba adopts a policy of not cashing the yearly checks for lease of the territory. The original annual rent of $2,000 in gold later becomes $4,085 (not in gold). April 4, 1960 A plane flying out of the US naval base at Guantánamo drops incendiary material in Oriente province. October 14, 1960 The US government presents a 10,000-word document to the United Nations in response to Prime Minister Castro’s UN speech in September. The document blames Cuba for worsening relations. For example, the United States claims the right to occupy territory at Guantánamo because of the 1934 treaty, and states that there have been “only” five unauthorized flights over Cuba of which the US government possesses any “substantial” evidence. January 12, 1961 Cuba reports the torture by US soldiers of Manuel Prieto, a worker at the Guantánamo Naval Base. April 17, 1961 The United States finances and organizes a military invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs which is rapidly defeated. July 26, 1961 This is one of the dates earmarked for assassination of Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Che Guevara, according to a CIA plan, “Operation Patty,” discovered by Cuban security forces. Seventeen years later at an International Tribunal in Havana, Humberto Rosales Torres, who had been arrested for his part in the plot and given a nine-year prison term, testifies that the plan also included a fake attack on the Guantánamo Naval Base that would have provided an excuse for sending in the US Marines. October 15, 1961 Rubén López Sabariego, a Cuban worker at the US naval base at Guantánamo who was arrested on September 30, dies. Cuba says the cause is torture. In 1963, US columnist Jack Anderson reports that US Marine Captain Arthur J. Jackson was secretly dismissed because of the killing. The United States maintains that Jackson acted in self-defense and that his dismissal was kept secret to avoid international repercussions. January 3, 1962 In a diplomatic note to the US government, Cuba protests 119 violations of its territory, 76 by planes from Guantánamo Naval Base. March 20, 1962 By diplomatic note, Cuba protests to the US Guántanamo government about repeated provocations by soldiers at the US naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba. April 9, 1962 Cuba sends another diplomatic note to protest provocations by US soldiers at Guantánamo Naval Base. These incidents are in addition to continual aerial and naval bombardment, sabotage of crops and industry, occasional landings along the coast, and assassinations. June 1962 In daily radio broadcasts, Cuba maintains that the US government is using Guantánamo Naval Base for espionage and violation of Cuban territory. July-October 1962 Aggression against Cuba is an everyday occurrence, including the killing of peasants in the Escambray; the killing of fisherman Rodolfo Rosell Salas by US soldiers from the Guantánamo Naval Base; the killing of a soldier and a militiaman by infiltrators; shots fired, sometimes for several hours, from Guantánamo Naval Base into the surrounding area; hit-and-run attacks by boats along the coast and other constant violations of Cuban territory by boats and planes that carry out espionage, sabotage, hijackings of boats, kidnappings, and infiltration of CIA operatives. Cubans capture many of the infiltrators. October 2, 1962 In a memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara describes situations that might require US military force against Cuba, including placement of offensive weapons from the Soviet bloc in Cuba, a Cuban attack against Guantánamo Naval Base or US planes or vessels outside Cuban territory, assistance by Cuba to “subversion” in other countries of the Western Hemisphere, a request for assistance by leaders of a “substantial popular uprising” in Cuba or a “decision by the president that the affairs in Cuba have reached a point inconsistent with continuing US national security.” The memo requests that contingency plans emphasize removal from power of Prime Minister Castro. October 16-22, 1962 President Kennedy and his closest advisers deliberate on what to do about Cuban sites for nuclear weapons that could be used against the United States. On October 16, Attorney General Robert Kennedy discusses the idea of using the US naval base at Guantánamo in some way that would justify an invasion: “We should also think of, uh, whether there is some other way we can get involved in this through, uh, Guantánamo Bay, or something, or whether there’s some ship that, you know, sink the Maine again or something.” October 28, 1962 After days at the nuclear brink, the worst of the Missile Crisis ends when Moscow Radio broadcasts Premier Khrushchev’s letter to President Kennedy accepting the October 27 proposal. Concerning US aggression against Cuba, Khrushchev’s letter says, “I regard with respect and trust the statement you made in your message of 27 October 1962 that there would be no attack, no invasion of Cuba, and not only on the part of the United States, but also on the part of other nations of the Western Hemisphere, as you said in your same message. Then the motives which induced us to render assistance of such a kind to Cuba disappear.” Without consultation with Cuba, the Soviet Union begins dismantling the missile sites and withdrawing its missiles. At this point Prime Minister Castro asserts Cuba’s position with a demand that the US government end five practices: the embargo, subversive activities inside Cuba, armed attacks against Cuba, violation of Cuban air and naval space, and occupation of Cuban territory at Guantánamo. November 16, 1962 Responding in the UN General Assembly to a Brazilian initiative, supported by the US government, for the denuclearization of Latin America, Carlos Lechuga, who became Cuba’s UN ambassador on October 31, says the nuclear powers should guarantee no use of nuclear weapons in Latin America and close their military bases there. He points Guántanamo out the illogic of allowing the US government to have a base at Guantánamo on Cuban territory while Cuba is not allowed to have a base belonging to a friendly country for its defense. February 6, 1964 In reprisal for the US seizure of Cuban fishing boats, Cuba shuts off the normal water supply to the US naval base at Guantánamo, stating the suspension will continue until the United States releases the 38 Cubans. February 7, 1964 President Johnson orders the Defense Department to discharge any of the 2,500 Cuban civilian employees at Guantánamo Naval Base who do not choose to live there or spend their earned dollars there. Water shuttles operate between Jamaica and the base. Four days later 700 Cuban workers are dismissed. A desalinization plant that can process more than a million gallons of water a day is built on the base. June 12, 1964 Amid continuing attempts at undermining the Cuban government, Armed Forces Minister Raúl Castro reports that US troops at the Guantánamo Naval Base alone have been responsible for 1,651 acts of provocation since November 1962. July 19, 1964 Cuban Frontier Guard Ramón López Peña is killed by US soldiers at the Guantánamo Naval Base. October 5-11, 1964 The second summit of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries meets in Cairo and issues a final com- muniqué that includes a demand that the United States cease its occupation of Cuban territory at Guantánamo. December 11, 1964 Che Guevara addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Guevara demands an end to the US military occupation of Cuban territory at Guantánamo. May 21, 1966 Luis Ramírez López, a Cuban frontier guard at Guantánamo, is shot dead, and Cuba’s Armed Forces Ministry charges that the gunfire came from the US naval base at Guantánamo. The Cuban ministry says there was sporadic rifle fire from the base for about two hours. The US Defense Department at first flatly denies the shooting but later says it is investigating. November 19, 1968 Two US Marines based at Guantánamo Naval Base are captured on Cuban territory outside the base. October 22, 1974 “CBS Reports” hosted by Dan Rather presents to a US television audience an interview with Prime Minister Castro. Regarding negotiations between Cuba and the United States, Castro says: “Guantánamo is a piece of Cuba’s national territory. It is occupied by the United States. But we do not say that in order to start discussions they must withdraw from Guantánamo. Rather we have posed a single condition: that the economic embargo be ended.” May 30, 1977 Cuba and the United States agree to establish “interests sections” in each other’s countries beginning September 1. These will deal primarily with trade and consular matters and will serve as channels of communication. As obstacles in the way of normalization of relations, the Carter administration cites Cuba’s insistence that US troops stop occupying Cuban territory at the Guantánamo Naval Base. December 24, 1977 Noting some improvement in relations with the United States during the Carter administration, President Castro responds to US criticism of Cuban troops in Angola, and asks, “What moral basis can the United States have to speak about our troops in Africa when their own troops are stationed right here on our own national territory at the Guantánamo Naval Base?” October 1, 1979 In a television address, President Carter states his “reaffirmation” of President Kennedy’s 1963 declaration “that we would not permit any troops from Cuba to move off the island of Cuba in an offensive action against any neighboring country.” He lists five things his administration will do: increase surveillance; aid any country in the Western Hemisphere against “any threat from Soviet or Cuban forces”; Guántanamo establish a Caribbean Joint Task Force Headquarters at Key West; stage more military maneuvers and maintain US forces in Guantánamo; and increase economic aid to the Caribbean. On the same day, 16 US Navy ships arrive off Cuba for maneuvers and the Pentagon announces that it will stage an amphibious assault at Guantánamo. Mid-April, 1980 International news agencies report that the Carter administration plans massive military maneuvers, “Operation Solid Shield 80,” in the Caribbean starting May 8. Civilian personnel would be evacuated while US Marines land at Guantánamo as 1,200 US soldiers are transported there. Protesters in many countries, including the United States, demonstrate against such maneuvers. May 1, 1980 At the May Day celebration, President Castro calls the cancellation of US maneuvers at Guantánamo a victory and suspends the “Girón 19” maneuvers that Cuba had planned for May 7. May 19, 1980 Cuban officials say they are willing to discuss the US proposal for an airlift if negotiations include the embargo, the US occupation at Guantánamo, and spy flights. July 31-August 3, 1980 Mexican President José López Portillo makes a state visit to Cuba and issues a joint communiqué with President Castro demanding that the US government end the embargo, violations of Cuban air space, and the military occupation at Guantánamo. April 29, 1982 The US Defense Department begins military maneuvers in the Caribbean, one of eight such exercises since last October. “Operation Ocean Venture 82” will last until mid- May with participation from 45,000 troops, 350 planes and 60 ships, including a mock invasion of Puerto Rico and a “non- combatant evacuation operation” at Guantánamo Naval Base. November 1, 1983 The US Defense Department says a nine- ship task force headed by the aircraft carrier America is not headed for the Caribbean but for the “Central Atlantic.” But on November 3, the navy says the task force will arrive in the Caribbean within 24 hours for military maneuvers off Guantánamo Naval Base. March 22, 1984 The US Defense Department announces that it will hold the largest military exercise of 1984 in the Caribbean April 20–May 6, including reinforcement of the Guantánamo Naval Base and a simulated evacuation of dependents. On the following day, Moscow announces that a squadron of Soviet warships will arrive in Cuba on March 25. May 14, 1984 A Pentagon report, presented to Congress in early May and made public today, describes plans to spend $43.4 million to improve Guantánamo Naval Base during the next four years. The plans are part of an overall design for upgrading and constructing military installations in Central America and the Caribbean through 1988 while conducting constant military maneuvers in and around Honduras. October 31, 1985 Asked during an interview by Soviet journalists if the United States would leave Guantánamo Naval Base if the Cuban people were to vote in a referendum that it should leave, President Reagan answers, “No, because the lease for that was made many years ago, and it still has many years to run, and we’re perfectly legal in our right to be there. It is fenced off. There is no contact with the people or the main island of Cuba at all.” March 21, 1987 US officials announce plans for the largest military maneuvers yet in the Caribbean and Central America, including a simulated evacuation of Guantánamo Naval Base. The main goal of “Solid Shield ‘87” is to practice response to a Honduran call for assistance against an invasion by Nicaragua. The exercise at Guantánamo is to practice response to Cuba’s projected reaction to the invasion of Nicaragua. After this announcement, the Soviet Union sends five submarines to hold Guántanamo an exercise in April in the western Atlantic near Bermuda, the largest deployment in that area since 1985. NATO officials say that four or five long-range Soviet bombers arrive in Cuba for this exercise. January 18, 1988 US Secretary of the Navy James H. Webb, Jr., writes in a Wall Street Journal article that “it is reasonable to assume that we will lose our lease on Guantánamo Bay in 1999.” April 1-22, 1988 The US Defense Department stages military maneuvers, “Ocean Venture ‘88,” in the Caribbean with 40,000 troops, 28 warships and dozens of aircraft. Evacuation of US residents is rehearsed at the Guantánamo Naval Base. “Ocean Venture” maneuvers take place every other year, alternating with “Solid Shield.” January 23, 1990 The US battleship Wisconsin arrives at Guantánamo Naval Base. Along with the earlier arrival of the amphibious assault ship Wasp, this constitutes a considerable buildup of US military force on Cuban territory. April 29, 1990 Cuba’s Defense Ministry announces that the US Defense Department will conjoin three threatening military maneuvers in early May. In previous years there have been large consecutive maneuvers in April, May and June, but this year “Ocean Venture,” which began April 20, will coincide with “Global Shield” while Guantánamo Naval Base practices evacuation of civilian personnel. September 11, 1991 Soviet President Gorbachev announces he intends to withdraw the Soviet training brigade from Cuba. The Cuban Foreign Ministry states that Gorbachev’s remarks “were not preceded by consultations or any prior notice, which constitutes inappropriate behavior from the point of view of international standards as well as the agreements existing between the two states.” Bush administration officials say they hope this will lead to the downfall of President Castro. On the following day, Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankjin says the Soviet Union wants the United States to match the Soviet military withdrawal from Cuba by removing US troops from Guantánamo Bay and halting military maneuvers in the region. September 22, 1991 Responding to the Soviet plan to remove troops from Cuba, in a long editorial Granma reports the history of the Soviet brigade in Cuba and its relationship to the US military occupation of Cuban territory at Guantánamo. The editorial states that “we could be moving toward a world order in which small Third World countries like Cuba, whose social system is not to the liking of the United States, have no alternative except to risk disappearing; and in which there is no room for ideological loyalties or even the most elemental ethical principles, without which our civilization will be threatened with the possible emergence of a new barbarism based on US technological might and hegemonic delirium.” November 1991 The Pentagon builds housing for the flood of refugees arriving at the Guantánamo base from Haiti. In 1994, thousands of would-be Cuban emigrants join them. Eventually, more than 45,000 Cubans and Haitians are held in tent cities covering much of the base. Most Cubans are admitted into the United States, but most Haitians are sent back home. The last of the Cubans depart in 1996. September 7, 1992 The final declaration of the 10th summit meeting of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries demands an end to the US military occupation of Guantánamo. Forty heads of state and 95 delegations are present. August 30, 1994 In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Elliott Abrams suggests creating at Guantánamo Naval Base “a West Berlin, a small free city within the communist nation,” the Guántanamo “embryo of a Guantánamo Bay Free Trade Zone.” Then, in an interview with editors and reporters at the Record, a newspaper in his New Jersey district, Representative Torricelli urges Cuban Americans to turn the base into the site of a government in exile. January 6, 1995 As US authorities begin the forced repatriation of Haitian refugees held at Guantánamo, Arthur Helton, professor of immigration law at New York University’s Law School, tells the New York Times that although the US lease of the base remains in force, the land is part of Cuba under international law. He says, “The United States is trying to compel foreign nationals to return to their home country from a third country, which is an unprecedented assertion of sovereign power.” March 25, 1995 Cuba signs the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco. As a condition for Cuba’s remaining within the treaty, it maintains that the US government should cease sending ships carrying nuclear weapons to Guantánamo Naval Base on Cuban territory. Cuba favors the destruction of all nuclear weapons as the only guarantee against their use and argues “the ones who should respect this principle first are the so-called nuclear powers.” May 2, 1995 At the press conference to announce the migration agreement between Cuba and the United States, the commander-in-chief of the US Atlantic Command, General John Sheehan, says, “We’re going to move the fleet training center out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, because we can do the same thing in the continental limits of the United States at lower cost.” But he says the base remains “essential for strategic reach reasons.” April 1999 President Clinton considers plans to house thousands of Kosovo refugees at the Guantánamo base, but abandons the idea. January 11, 2002 First group of 20 prisoners captured in the so- called war against terrorism arrives at Guantánamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray, where they are housed in open-air cages with concrete floors. The International Committee of the Red Cross makes its first visit six days later. January 18, 2002 President George W. Bush decides detainees’ standing as terrorists disqualifies them from prisoner-of-war protection under the Geneva conventions. January 22, 2002 After a Navy photo is released showing detainees in goggles and masks, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defends the detention and treatment of “committed terrorists.” January 27, 2002 Vice-President Cheney calls the detainees “the worst of a very bad lot. They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans.” February 12, 2002 US officials say they envision a long-term prison camp at the Guantánamo base. February 27, 2002 Almost two-thirds of detainees go on a hunger strike to protest a rule against turbans in the first organized act of defiance. US officials decide to allow the turbans. March 21, 2002 The Bush administration announces new military tribunal regulations. April 25, 2002 Construction of the new 410-bed Camp Delta is completed. April 28, 2002 Detainees are moved from Camp X-Ray to Camp Delta, a more permanent detention center. March 11, 2003 The Federal Appeals Court rules that the detainees have no legal rights in the United States. May 9, 2003 Guantánamo hits its peak population of 680. (All told, the camp has processed 773 detainees, but 680 is the largest number of detainees there at one time.) October 9, 2003 The Red Cross issues a public statement noting “deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of detainees.” Guántanamo February 15, 2006 A UN Report recommends closure of the Guantánamo prison. October 17, 2006 President Bush signs the military commissions into law. November 17, 2006 US military announces a plan to build a new compound on the base to hold the military commission proceedings. December 7, 2006 The first detainees are transferred to the newly- constructed Camp Six. June 28, 2008 “We’re not going anywhere anytime soon,” declares Navy Commander Jeffrey M. Johnston in newspaper reports. He states that he “gets upset” when people equate the closing of the detention center with a shutdown of this 45-square- mile base. The United States maintained this base long before the first detainees arrived in January 2002, he says. Johnston, Guantánamo’s public works officer who requisitions the $4,085 annual payments to Cuba to “lease” the base, describes the military as a perfect tenant. “We don’t bother the landlord. We don’t (complain) when things go wrong. We pay our rent on time,” Johnston says. “It’s like an Eisenhower-era town: You can leave your door unlocked, no one uses bike locks, and you even have the Communist enemy to stare down,” Johnston says. In the past year, a Taco Bell and an Irish pub have opened. There is also a Subway. The US military has considered “in a very, very preliminary way” basing Marines at Guantánamo for rapid deployment elsewhere, says Navy Captain Mark Leary, Guantánamo’s commanding officer. Even if “democratic change” comes to Cuba, the navy would probably still want to stay here, he says. “I think there’s a good reason we’ve been here for 110 years. I don’t think we would abandon this place.” January 22, 2009 President Obama issues three executive orders— one ordering the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay in one year, another banning the use of controversial CIA interrogation techniques, and one ordering the review of detention policy options. May 15, 2009 President Obama announces he will revamp, rather than reject, the system of military tribunals that President Bush created to try terrorism suspects. July 21, 2009 The White House grants its Guantánamo closing commission an extra six months to study the situation. Dec. 16, 2009 President Obama signs a presidential memorandum ordering Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to acquire the state prison in Thompson, Illinois, as the $350 million replacement for Guantánamo. Administration officials are forced to acknowledge that closing the facility in Cuba will not occur in 2009 but will spill over into 2010, possibly even late 2010. June 7, 2010 The Washington Post reports that the US military has spent at least $500 million in recent years on renovations to the Guantánamo base, including $296,000 for a go-kart track, records show. Add in spending for top-secret items and the total cost easily soars toward $2 billion, in the first public accounting of spending at the base since the first detainees arrived in January 2002. The costs do not include the $150 million a year that it takes to run the 45-square-mile base. Since January 2002, the Pentagon built the go-kart track, which sits unused, and spent $249,000 for a volleyball court that now is abandoned and $3.5 million for 27 playgrounds that often are vacant, the Post reported. A cafe renovation cost $683,000 and another $773,000 was spent to renovate a building to house a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant. Millions more were spent on first- rate sports facilities, including football and baseball fields. Captain Steven Blaisdell, the base commander, defends the spending as necessary for a remote base that must provide a range of services. Guántanamo June 25, 2010 The New York Times announces that the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.