LOOK BACK: Why Guantanamo is U.S. outpost in Cuba

(COURIER-JOURNAL WASHINGTON REPORTER JAMES R. CARROLL VISITED THE GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE IN EARLY 2002 AS THE UNITED STATES BEGAN DETAINING TERRORISM SUSPECTS FROM THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN AT A FACILITY CALLED CAMP X-RAY, LATER REPLACED BY A MORE PERMANENT INSTALLATION. THERE ARE STILL 136 DETAINEES THERE. GIVEN WEDNESDAY'S AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA TO NORMALIZE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS AFTER 50 YEARS, IT SEEMS LIKE AN APPROPRIATE MOMENT TO REMIND AMERICANS THAT THEIR COUNTRY ALREADY HAS A CONTROVERSIAL PRESENCE ON CUBA. THIS STORY ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE COURIER-JOURNAL ON MARCH 10, 2002.)

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A marker near the east ferry landing commemorates the event: On April 30, 1494, Christopher Columbus, on his second tour of the New World, stepped ashore here.

He and his men were looking for gold. Apparently disappointed, they sailed off after one day.

Others, including pirates, the British and the Spanish, later saw the turquoise waters of compact Guantanamo Bay for the strategic advantage it offered.

The United States won Cuba's independence from Spain in the brief Spanish-American War of 1898. The U.S. occupying forces left Cuba in 1902 but held on to Guantanamo Bay. A lease for a fueling station for ships was signed in 1903, and a formal treaty reaffirming American rights to the station was signed in 1934. Under the treaty, both sides must agree to end the lease.

That is why, through more than 40 years of Fidel Castro and Cold War tensions, the United States has maintained this foothold on the southeast corner of Cuba. It is the oldest American base on foreign soil and the only base sharing land with a communist country.

Castro's rise isolated the base. Diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed in 1961, closing the northeast gate, the only land link between the naval base and the rest of Cuba.

During the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, base employees and relatives of soldiers and sailors temporarily were evacuated out of fear that hostilities with the Cubans and the Soviet Union were imminent.

In 1991, Guantanamo swelled with some 34,000 Haitians fleeing violence in their country, only a short distance from Cuba. From 1994 until 1996, 45,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants flooded into the base.

Camps, named for the alphabet, were established to house the migrants. One camp was set up for alleged criminals and dubbed X-ray, the same site now being used for detainees from the war in Afghanistan.

The base shrank dramatically in 1995 after key commands and ships were reassigned under Pentagon cost-saving moves.

In recent years, Guantanamo has been a Navy fueling stop and provided logistical support to Coast Guard anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.

Its new mission has pumped some life back into the base. How long that will last depends on how long the prisoners stay. U.S. officials say they have no idea when - or if - detention facilities will no longer be needed.