Self-Mutilation and Malingering among Cuban Migrants Detained at Guantanamo Bay

In the late summer of 1994, thousands of Cubans tried to flee to the United States, using crude rafts to make the trip across the Caribbean to the Florida coast.1 The reason for this exodus was their increasing frustration with deteriorating economic conditions in Cuba, brought on by a dramatic decline in Russian economic support and a tightening of economic sanctions by the United States.2,3 In contrast to previous U.S. policy, which allowed relatively free immigration, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted most of the Cubans and transported them to hastily assembled tent camps at the U.S. naval base at . . .