Miss Universe visits ‘relaxing, beautiful’ Guantanamo

A “RELAXING, calm, beautiful place” may not be everyone’s description of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds about 240 prisoners in a detention centre that has drawn condemnation from around the world.

But this was the opinion of reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, who visited the US naval facility in eastern Cuba this month on a trip organised by the United Service Organisations (USO), which supports US troops.

The Guantanamo Bay base, whose presence Cuba’s government has contested as illegal for years, is used by US authorities as a prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects. Critics have condemned it as a symbol of abuses in Washington’s war on terrorism.

Caracas-born Mendoza, 22, who visited the facility in March along with Miss USA Crystle Stewart, 27, enthused about her Guantanamo trip as an “incredible experience” in a blog entry posted on the Miss Universe website dated March 27, 2009.

“It was a loooot of fun!,” Mendoza wrote, describing how she and Stewart met US military personnel and took rides around the camp, which is encircled by a barbed-wire fence, minefields and watchtowers. She said they also visited a bar on the base and the “unbelievable” beach there.

“We visited the detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the[y] recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting,” she wrote.

“I didn’t want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.”

Mendoza, who was crowned Miss Universe 2008 in Vietnam, said: “We also met the military dogs, and they did a very nice demonstration of their skills. All the guys from the army were amazing with us.”