Guantanamo as bargaining chip

NATHANIEL Wheelwright's suggestion that part of Guantanamo Bay naval base be converted into an international biological research station operated by US and Cuban scientists has merit ("Putting Guantanamo to good use," op-ed, March 23).

But the better site is the botanical garden outside Cienfuegos, Cuba, which was established in the early 20th century by Boston's Edward F. Atkins, the heir to one of Cuba's largest sugar plantations (Soledad). Originally called the Atkins Institute for Tropical Research in Economic Botany, and administered from the early 1920s until the early '60s by Harvard University, the Cienfuegos Garden has more than 2,000 tropical plant species.

The better use for the naval base is a bargaining chip. The United States should offer to turn Guantanamo over to Cuba in exchange for the release of all political prisoners in Cuba and as an opening gambit on the road to normalizing relations.

DAVID TEBALDI
Northampton
The writer is executive director of Mass Humanities.