Caimanera

Caimanera
Coordinates: 20 ° 0 ′  N , 75 ° 10 ′  W Caimanera​ Caimanera is a city and a municipality in southeastern Cuba.
Basic data
Country	Cuba
province	Guantánamo
Residents	8790  (2010)
- in the metropolitan area	11,170
Detailed data
surface	360.58 km²
Population density	31.0 inhabitants / km 2
Waters	Atlantic Ocean , Caribbean
Post Code	97800
prefix	(0053) -21
Time zone	UTC -5
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Caimanera is a city and a municipality in southeastern Cuba and belongs to the Guantánamo province .

history

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors under Christopher Columbus , who reached the Bahía de Guantánamo in 1494 and gave it the name Puerto Grande ("big port"), indigenous people who lived mainly from fishing had already settled in the area of ​​today's Municipios . During the colonial period, the area remained sparsely populated, only after the construction of various military posts and the expansion of the rail network in the second half of the 19th century, today's capital Caimanera emerged. Since the occupation of the bay by the American Navy in 1898 during the Spanish-American War and the subsequent permanent establishment of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , it has had a decisive impact on life in Caimanera.

After the Cuban Revolution of 1959 , led by Fidel Castro's movement of July 26, and the subsequent establishment of a real socialist system of rule under the control of the Communist Party , Caimanera became the only place where Cuban and US Americans still live along the border of the US base Soldiers face directly. The highest level of alert was here during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Cuba stationed a border protection regiment in the municipality, which had been gradually enlarged since 1959, when many Cubans chose the US base as a target for attempts to escape. The residents of Boquerón, which is closest to the border line, were resettled in 1973 by the Cuban authorities in the newly created town of Mártires de la Frontera ("Martyrs of the Border"), which is two kilometers north of the port of Boquerón, which is still in operation.

geography

The municipality of Caimanera has a total area of ​​360.58 km². It is bounded in the south by the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean . Imías is surrounded by the Municipios Niceto Pérez in the west, Guantánamo in the north, Manuel Tames in the northeast and San Antonio del Sur in the east.

The municipality encloses the entire bay of Guantánamo with the US military base including the prison camp operated there . The only regular access point to the base by land is the northeast gate near the port of Boquerón, used as a border crossing.

traffic

The municipality of Caimanera is crossed in the east by the Carretera Central , which connects it to both the provincial capital Guantánamo and the city of Baracoa . At the port of Puerto Boquerón is the kilometer point 0 and thus the southeasternmost station of the Cuban long-distance railway network. However, due to a lack of maintenance measures on the route section, it could no longer be used for freight traffic for more than 15 years from the end of the 1990s, before extensive renovation work began in 2013.

Caimanera City is directly connected to Guantánamo via a separate road, but as a border area it is subject to special access restrictions by the Cuban authorities: Non-residents are only allowed to pass a checkpoint on the access road to the town with a special permit that has to be applied for in advance. The same applies to the village of Boquerón (officially: Mártires de la Frontera) on the opposite bank of the bay.

economy

The largest economic factor of the municipality is the port of Boquerón, the most important port in the province of Guantánamo. It is located on the east bank of the bay, immediately north of the US naval base. In 1975 a loading terminal for sugar built with German technology was inaugurated here, which was set up for the mechanized shipping of all production destined for export from the sugar factories in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. Mainly rice, cement and fertilizers are imported through the port. Between 2006 and 2010, the port was shut down due to necessary renovation work on the pier , which led to high additional costs due to the overland freight traffic.

In the area of ​​the localities of Glorieta and Boquerón there are important salt mining sites, whose products are processed in the Joa salt factory, which is also located in Glorieta. Salt from two mining sites in the neighboring municipality of San Antonio is also processed there. All of the country's salt mines were nationalized in 1961.

The invasive unwood of the marabú shrub (Dichrostachys cinerea) , which is widespread in and around Caimanera and in large parts of Cuba and thrives on formerly cultivated agricultural areas, is successfully processed in Caimanera into high-quality charcoal suitable for export, with the marabú being freed Soils can be planted at the same time to protect against new infestation.

Since 1996 the municipality has had its own radio station, Radio Bahía , which can be received via ultra-short wave and which broadcasts a mixed program every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In 2007 the offer was supplemented by a website on which news from Caimanera can now also be accessed worldwide. The state-run station has 43 employees.

As compensation for the difficult living conditions in the high-security zone, the residents of Caimanera receive special financial grants from the Cuban state.

Web links

• Caimanera in the Cuban state online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)
• Mártires de la Frontera in the Cuban state online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)
• Puerto de Boquerón in the Cuban state online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Caimanera in: EcuRed (Spanish)
4. ↑ Puerto de Boquerón, in: EcuRed (Spanish)
5. ↑ Puerto de Boquerón, in: EcuRed (Spanish)
6. ↑ ^{a b} Singh Castillo: Reparación de importante vía ferroviaria en Guantánamo en su fase final, ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Radio Guantánamo from August 19, 2013, accessed on January 15, 2015 (Spanish)  
7. ↑ Yoani Sánchez : Un nombre en la lista, in: 14ymedio of January 14, 2015 (Spanish)
8. ↑ Puerto de Boquerón, in: EcuRed (Spanish)
9. ↑ Puerto de Boquerón, in: EcuRed (Spanish)
10. ↑ Reinicia operaciones puerto guantanamero de Boquerón, in: Juventud Rebelde of July 12, 2010, accessed on January 15, 2015 (Spanish)
11. ↑ Salina Joa in: EcuRed (Spanish)
12. ↑ Neuris Orlando Blanco Gómez: Forestal Caimanera reforestando suelo y exportando carbón. ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Radio Bahía of December 31, 2014, accessed on January 16, 2015 (Spanish)  
13. ↑ Radio Bahía, ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Self-presentation on the official website, accessed January 16, 2015 (Spanish)  
14. ^ William Neuman: Despite Thaw, American Base at Guantánamo Still Stings for Cubans, in: New York Times, January 1, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015