The Guantánamo Bay naval base remains a magnet for Cuban asylum seekers despite minefields and Cuban troops along the fence.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

NOELLE THEARD

HERALD STAFF

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- The al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners may dominate the news coming from this base, but the Cuban and U.S. military are not neglecting its role as a potential flash point for a migration crisis.

Minefields and a strong contingent of Cuba's Frontier Brigade troops guard the fence that separates Cuba from this tiny U.S. military enclave on the island's southeastern tip.

''There is a constant effort over there to keep people from coming over,'' said base commander Capt. Les McCoy. ``The number of forces they have on that side is substantial.''

A FEW MIGRANTS

Though the base held 45,000 Cuban migrants in tent cities after the so-called balsero crisis that began in 1994, today it has a limited migrant operation with a compound that can accommodate up to 60 people.

Between 15 and 30 Cuban asylum seekers typically are on the base -- some interdicted at sea, others who jumped over or crawled under the fence or swam in through its shark-infested waters.

One Cuban man crossed the minefield and fence seven times over several years, McCoy said, but was returned each time because he could not convince U.S. authorities that he had a credible fear of persecution if repatriated.

''He hasn't quite said the right thing,'' McCoy said. 'Sometimes, you want to tell them, `Say this!' ''

Until the early 1960s, when Washington and Havana severed relations, Cubans also accounted for a large segment of the base workforce. Only four Cubans, ages 75 to 83, now commute daily to work here.

The U.S. government has kept them on because they provide the only link to retirees still living in Cuba. Each month, the four are supplied with enough cash to deliver pensions to the retirees.

The base also is home to 63 Cuban residents, most of whom arrived many years ago and chose to stay here. Their median age is 65. The oldest is 93, the youngest 6. Forty are U.S. citizens.

''They've chosen to live and die on Cuban soil,'' McCoy said.

ONE CENTURY OLD

Established in 1903, the 45-square-mile base is the oldest U.S. military base overseas and the only one operating on communist soil. McCoy, who took over as base commander last year, described his relations with Cuba as ''surreal.'' Every month, he travels to a gate in the fence for a one-hour meeting with Cuban Brig. Gen. José Solar Hernández, a bespectacled 65-year-old.

The military-to-military talks, launched in 1995 to discuss issues such as repatriations and Cuban access to the bay's waters, are ''well-scripted'' and shy away from politics, McCoy said.

Little is said about the base's use as a prison for some 600 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, or the $4,085 check for rent of the base that Washington still sends every year to Cuba -- even though President Fidel Castro refuses to cash the checks.

Much of what McCoy tells Solar about base activities the Cuban general already knows.

About 85 percent of the base can be viewed from a Cuban observation facility on a nearby hill. McCoy's predecessor once visited the site and was surprised to learn that the Cubans had a clear view of his home.

''After that, he said he was going to be sure never to answer the door in his boxer shorts,'' McCoy said.

Asked if the base had a plan for any significant changes in Cuba, McCoy indicated it would depend on whether Cuba's military remained in control of the area.

``If and when Fidel Castro should die, the transition over there, it could be violent. We don't know. As long as the Cuban military remains functional, we won't have a problem.

''It's going to be interesting to see what happens,'' he said.