The refugee population is soaring to new records at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forcing the military to bolster security while it braces for a possible overland influx of Cubans.
"We're assuming by week's end we should have between 6,000 and 7,000 Cubans there" as more Coast Guard cutters and Navy ships arrive from the Florida Straits, says Air Force Col. Doug Kennett, a Pentagon spokesman.
That would push the refugee total past 20,000, pressing the limits of the isolated base in the southeast corner of Cuba. "We're looking at how many we can do," Kennett says.
The 14,000 Haitians still there, only about 2,000 less than the peak, have become increasingly restless after weeks of captivity. Already, the Cuban immigration has caused agitation.
More than 700 Haitians marched on a hangar near their camp Monday to protest a lack of orange juice, in the belief the Cubans were getting it and they were not.
"They have a long-standing belief that the Cubans would be treated better than they were," Kennett says.
The need to keep the two groups separate, and the swelling population, has the military designing new campsites between the hills of this cactus-studded installation.
Additional water purification and sewage-handling equipment is en route. Commanders also are expanding by several hundred the 3,251 Army, Air Force, Marine and Navy troops who feed, guard and supply the refugees.
Guantanamo, 800 miles from Havana, is surrounded on three sides by hostile Cuba. Both sides maintain vast mine fields, except for a narrow path at the Northeast Gate.
This is where, in an odd daily reminder of the Cold War, Marines unlock the gate and two dozen Cuban workers commute on foot to their day jobs on the base. The workers were allowed to keep their jobs when the United States and Fidel Castro severed relations.
There were unconfirmed reports this week Castro told Cubans on radio he'd let them go directly to Guantanamo. Army Lt. Col. Stephanie Hoehne, a Pentagon spokeswoman, says there are contingency plans that she cannot discuss.
Although it's not publicized, Cubans over the years have periodically attempted to cross through the mine fields, often at loss of limbs.
It is also possible to reach the base by water, if people can elude security. About 60 Cubans on the base have recently arrived that way.
