Inside Gitmo, no signs of shutting down

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — The man – bearded, dressed in white – approaches the fenced-off, glassed-off door to his cell block.

“Solve our problems,” reads the sign he holds up above his head, black block letters on white background. “Respond to our requests.”

He’s silent, or at least appears so behind the layers separating him from the cluster of journalists he’s approaching.

Nevertheless, the carefully orchestrated calm of the tour teeters for a moment. It’s the closest the choreographed walk through two Guantanamo Bay prison camps comes to veering off course into the unscripted.

“All right, that’s it, we should go,” say several guards gathered around the half-dozen reporters.

And the tour moves along, through the rotunda inside Guantanamo Bay’s Camp VI.

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Cuba and the United States: An officially icy relationship that’s surprisingly warm

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – Cuba and the United States aren’t the best of friends, to put it mildly.

In fact, the United States is still holding off on diplomatic relations with its island neighbour, whose feisty if aging President Fidel Castro gave a surprise television address this week after years of seclusion due to poor health.

But that officially icy relationship doesn’t quite apply to the partnership that has formed around the heavily guarded border separating Cuba from the controversial U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

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