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The Other Guantanamo

Travel writer Polly Evans goes to Guantanamo, Cuba, and talks to locals. How do they feel about it becoming synonymous with the prison camp that has been called "the gulag of our times"?

To many people the name Guantanamo conjures up images of detainees in orange, allegations of torture, controversy and trauma.

But to those who live there, Guantanamo means green hills and tumbling waterfalls, distinctive son and guajira music and mouth-watering Jamaican and French-influenced cuisine.

In this programme, award-winning travel writer Polly Evans goes in search of the other Guantanamo, talking to local people about their area, and how they feel about it becoming synonymous with what Amnesty International called "the gulag of our times".

She delves into the history of the open-ended American lease of this corner of the island - and asks whether the nearly 10,000 Cubans who held construction jobs on the site (and still draw a favourable US pension) have different feelings about it.

Polly examines the personal, political and cultural stories of a controversial place - from a perspective that is seldom considered.

Available now

25 minutes

Last on

Sat 30 Oct 2010 18:05GMT

Broadcasts

  • Wed 27 Oct 2010 08:05GMT
  • Wed 27 Oct 2010 11:05GMT
  • Wed 27 Oct 2010 14:05GMT
  • Wed 27 Oct 2010 19:05GMT
  • Thu 28 Oct 2010 00:05GMT
  • Sat 30 Oct 2010 01:05GMT
  • Sat 30 Oct 2010 18:05GMT