Cuban officials said Saturday that they oppose the use of the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay for detainees from the war in Afghanistan — mostly because they believe the base should have been closed decades ago.
The comments, made during a break in a special session of the Cuban parliament, were the first public statements by Cuban officials since the U.S. military said Dec. 27 that it would house al-Qaida and Taliban detainees at the base.
Holding detainees at an American base inside a country that has long insisted that the base be closed shows ``the arrogance of the government of the empire,'' Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez told Associated Press Television News. He is one of several vice presidents on Cuba's Council of Ministers, or Cabinet.
``Actions of these kind violate the rights of others,'' said Fernandez, a retired general who led the defending ground forces against an exile invasion army at the Bay of Pigs four decades ago.
Fernandez's views were shared by several other Cuban officials Saturday night.
Not only had their been no official comments on the issue — including from Cuban leader Fidel Castro — but Cuba's state media had not even reported on the U.S. military's decision to use the base for the detainees.
Ultimately, Cuba has no say in how the base is used. Still, Havana deeply resents the continued American presence in the island's extreme southeast.
``We claim this portion of land in our country,'' Gen. Ramon Espinosa, chief of Cuba's Eastern Army, said Saturday. The Eastern Army's territory includes the area around the U.S. base in Guantanamo.
Without addressing the question of the detainees, Espinosa said: ``We think that some day we are going to recover it by
peaceful methods.''
The U.S. government first seized Guantanamo Bay in 1898, when U.S. Marines landed during the Spanish-American war, known here as the Spanish-Cuban war.
The base's first lease was signed in 1903. Under a subsequent lease negotiated in 1934, the land would revert to Cuban control only if abandoned or by mutual consent.
