The Havana Times reports that in 1959, not long after the Cuban Revolution drove out the pro-American Batista administration, two US Navy tugboats came to Caimanera to apply their powerful water-cannons to put out a raging fire that destroyed three city blocks.

[3] The Cuban Revolution of 1959 marked strained relations between Cuba and America, in general, and specifically between the inhabitants of Caimanera and the nearby Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

[3] Prior to the revolution, off-duty US personnel from the base were free to visit Caimanera, and the town was home to many bars and bordellos that catered to them.

Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of residents protesting in the streets, and then police and soldiers beating the protestors, including women and children.

Caimanera borders with the municipalities of Niceto Pérez, Guantánamo, Manuel Tames and San Antonio del Sur.

[4][5] Due to its proximity to the US Base, Caimanera is a forbidden town (zona militar), needing a special permission from the government to visit it.

Caimanera is within range of the T-Mobile towers at the naval base and so is the only town in Cuba with American cellphone and Internet service.