GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba (AP) — If Cubans flee in droves when Fidel Castro dies, those intercepted at sea will likely wind up at this base, creating ”an incredible challenge” for U.S. forces, the base commander said.

The military has begun planning for a possible mass exodus, scouting potential sites to detain migrants in tents far from a detention center for prisoners suspected of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Most of the current captives, brought from Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, have been held here in southeast Cuba without charges since 2002.

A sudden migrant surge would return Guantánamo to an earlier role. More than 40,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants were held at the base in the 1990s when political and economic turmoil in their countries prompted a mass movement toward U.S. shores.

”We continue to plan for the possibility of that happening again,” said Navy Capt. Mark Leary, who is in charge of the 45’square-mile outpost.

Source: Miami Herald

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