Cuba denounced on Tuesday the presence last week of a nuclear-powered submarine at the US military base in Guantánamo Bay, an unusual event that it described as a “provocative escalation” amid tensions with Washington and a China’s alleged spy base in the country.
The United States has located a military base since 1903 in Guantánamo, on the eastern end of the island, which occupies 117 square kilometers and remains there after the military occupation of the country in 1898 after the intervention in the Cuban war of independence against the Spanish colonialism.
“The presence there of a nuclear submarine at this moment forces us to question what is the military reason for the act in this peaceful region of the world, against what objective is it directed and what strategic purpose is it pursuing,” the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations said in a declaration.
The Foreign Ministry has “categorically” refused entry into Guantanamo Bay on July 5 and said the submarine remained until July 8, “constituting a provocative escalation by the United States.”
The ministry did not specify whether or not the submarine was armed. Havana said that the base is a military enclave that for many years has lacked strategic or military importance for Washington and “its permanence only responds to the political objective of trying to violate Cuba’s sovereign rights.”
The White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did they confirm the presence of the submarine at Guantanamo.
Cuba’s denunciation comes weeks after the Wall Street Journal will report that China is using Cuba as an electronic listening stationinformation that Havana has rejected, describing it as “mendacious and unfounded.”
Washington has provided no evidence of the existence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba or of Beijing’s military presence on the island.
“It’s hard to know what the motivation was,” said William LeoGrande, a professor at the American University of Washington, pointing to possible technical issues about the submarine’s presence or is it a response to concerns about China.
“Overall, this is an incident that is really symptomatic of the fact that Cuba has once again been caught between superpowers in what appears to be the rise of a new cold war,” he told Reuters.
Havana has warned about the danger posed by the circulation of nuclear submarines of the United States armed forces in the Caribbean and added that a history of US military bases in the region threatens the sovereignty of the peoples.
The military base in Guantanamo has served “as a center for the detention, torture and systematic violation of the human rights of dozens of citizens from various countries,” according to the text.
Since January 11, 2002, the first prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at the base in Guantanamo, where they have been incarcerated to this day, accused mostly of charges associated with international terrorism.
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