Guantánamo Province

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Guantánamo
Cayman Islands Bahamas Isla de la Juventud Provinz Artemisa Provinz Pinar del Río Havanna Provinz Mayabeque Provinz Matanzas Provinz Villa Clara Provinz Cienfuegos Provinz Sancti Spíritus Provinz Ciego de Ávila Provinz Camagüey Provinz Las Tunas Provinz Granma Provinz Holguín Provinz Santiago de Cuba Provinz Guantánamomap
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Capital Guantánamo
surface 6,167.97 km²
Residents 515,428 (2012)
Population density 83.6 inhabitants / km²
ISO code CU-14

Guantánamo is the easternmost province in Cuba . The capital is the city of the same name, Guantánamo .

geography

The province of Guantánamo has a total area of ​​6167.97 km². It is located on the easternmost tip of Cuba. In the northeast the Atlantic Ocean forms the natural border, in the south the Caribbean . The provinces of Holguín and Santiago de Cuba join to the north and west.

With the UNESCO biosphere reserves “ Cuchillas del Toa ” and Baconao , large areas are designated as nature reserves. In the former is the UNESCO World Heritage Site Parque nacional Alejandro de Humboldt .

The province is rich in rivers, including Río Toa, Río Guantánamo, Río Yumurí, Río Miel, Río Jaibo. The Río Guaso flows through the capital Guantánamo .

history

In the War of Jenkins' Ear , the colonial war between Great Britain and Spain, the Bahía de Guantánamo was the scene of a British landing company under General Thomas Wentworth on July 23, 1741. The aim of the operation was to capture the impregnable port of Santiago de Cuba by land. The troops quickly realized that an attack on the Spanish port was impossible due to the impassability of the only way. Instead, they decided to set up a permanent British base north of the landing site. The city was named "Georgetown" in honor of the English king. The anchorage was named after the second son of the king "Cumberland Harbor". As a result of rampant tropical diseases, the number of soldiers decimated more and more. So it was decided in December 1741 to abandon the project. The city was destroyed and the remaining units withdrawn to Jamaica .

In 1791 the first slave revolts took place in the neighboring country of Saint-Domingue (today: Haiti ) . Before the bloody clashes, numerous French settlers fled to the east of Cuba and founded the city of Guantánamo there in 1796. The Haitians also brought coffee and cocoa cultivation to the island at this time and cultivated it in the surrounding mountains.

After the Spanish-American War , the United States forced Cuba to sign the Platt Amendment in 1903 . The contract provided for the United States to have the right to intervene and to buy or lease land stretches from Cuba and use them as naval bases. In 1934 the contract was largely canceled by the USA, only the section on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base remained. The Cuban government disputes the legality of the treaty.

From 1905 until the administrative reform in 1976, the province was part of the much larger province of Oriente .

As part of the war on terror proclaimed by the former US President George W. Bush , the base was expanded in 2002 to include the concentration camp , which is contrary to international law .

Administrative division

The province of Guantánamo is divided into ten municipalities . With the exception of Maisí , Manuel Tames , Niceto Pérez and Yateras , the administrative offices are located in the cities of the same name.

Municipio (administrative seat) Area in km² (2010) Population (2012) Inhabitants per km² (2012)
Baracoa (Baracoa) 974.36 81,986 84.1
Caimanera (Caimanera) 360.58 11.091 30.8
El Salvador (El Salvador) 630.38 43.094 68.4
Guantánamo (Guantánamo) 257.39 228.436 887.5
Imías (Imías) 527.48 21.309 40.4
Maisí ( La Máquina ) 523.31 28,333 54.1
Manuel Tames ( Jamaica ) 1,051.55 39,365 37.4
Niceto Pérez (La Yaya) 632.64 16,949 26.8
San Antonio del Sur (San Antonio del Sur) 584.94 25,804 44.1
Yateras ( Palenque ) 625.34 19,079 30.5
total 6,167.97 515,428 83.6

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas: Extensión Superficial, Población y Densidad, año 2010. Archived from the original on March 17, 2012 ; Retrieved September 15, 2017 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ a b c d Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas: Población total por zona de residencia, grado de urbanización, densidad de población y variación intercensal según provincias y municipios 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2017 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ a b bedincuba.com: Municipio Guantánamo. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016 ; Retrieved September 15, 2017 (Spanish).