Guantanamo Bay as the next Hong Kong: Pirate Wires floats a Caribbean special economic zone
Feb 17, 2025
Key Points
- Pirate Wires published a proposal to convert Guantanamo Bay into a special economic zone modeled on Hong Kong and Singapore, leveraging its deep-water port, airstrips, and military security.
- The idea bypasses the title problem that sinks competing territorial expansions by using land the US already holds under existing lease.
- Feasibility hinges on whether the actual footprint supports a major trading hub or remains limited to prison and military facilities.
Summary
Pirate Wires published a proposal by Thomas Pueyo arguing that the US should convert Guantanamo Bay into a special economic zone modeled on Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, or Shenzhen. The pitch is that Guantanamo has the core infrastructure to work: a deep-water port situated in busy sea trade routes, two landing strips, and existing military security that could anchor the local economy. Pueyo frames it as far more feasible than competing territorial ideas that have circulated recently—annexing Canada, taking over the Panama Canal, or appropriating Greenland.
The template Pueyo points to is clear. Hong Kong and Shenzhen showed China what capitalism could do by reducing taxes, minimizing business friction, and urbanizing around a protected port. Singapore followed the same formula after being expelled from Malaysia. Dubai applied the recipe more recently. All three became global trading hubs and financial centers by sitting on valuable maritime geography and making it easy to do business there.
The practical advantages are stacked. A Cuban labor pool would provide cheap, educated workers—better for the individuals than sailing to Florida and economically damaging to Cuba through brain drain. The Jones Act already restricts inter-US shipping to US-flagged vessels, which would create natural demand for port services. The US military presence would seed initial service demand and provide security infrastructure, exactly as military outposts have done for successful cities elsewhere.
Pueyo closes by framing the move as ideological theater as much as economics: a visible demonstration to Cuba that capitalism works, observable from Cuban soil. The pitch doubles as a reputational play—transforming Guantanamo from a Cold War relic and torture site into a beacon of trade and innovation.
The hosts note the proposal lands in a crowded field of expansionist ideas but stands out because the US already holds the lease and has title to the land. One host flagged uncertainty about the actual footprint of the lease—whether Guantanamo is large enough to support a Dubai or Singapore-scale city or remains limited to "a prison and a landing strip." That physical constraint would determine whether the idea scales beyond meme status.