The Libertarian Tech Bros’ Weird, Dystopian Plan for Guantánamo Bay

Guantánamo is still largely remembered for the abuses of the Bush administration during the so-called “global war on terror.” During Bush’s presidency, the military prison played host to as many as 780 detainees, frequently in conditions that violated both their human rights and their rights to anything resembling due process.

Due to a legal arrangement ratified in the aftermath of the 1898 Spanish-American War, Cuba retains sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay, but the U.S. exercises complete jurisdiction. However, Supreme Court rulings in the 2000s on the rights of Guantánamo detainees upheld the right of U.S. courts to intervene there.

Calling the CCI proposal “zany,” Jonathan Hansen, senior lecturer on social studies at Harvard University and author of Guantánamo: An American History, suggested logistics would also present an issue for the plan. The layout of the site, he says, requires supplies to be delivered to the area housing residents by boat, which means that “it’s just always … going to be costly and inconvenient just to move things.”