Severiano leans on the bar while finishing his beer. He takes a sip and declares: "they will never take it away." At 59 years old, el Colorao, as he is known in his town, in Rota, has no doubts about the future of the Naval Base that is part of the physical and sentimental landscape of this Cadiz municipality. To the point that it is unknown if Rota is part of the base or the base is part of Rota.
With its 2,400 hectares of surface area, the military facilities represent almost a third of the total municipal area. Since Uncle Sam landed on its beaches back in the 1950s, Rota has coexisted and largely lived off the American marines. To the extent that two-thirds of its economy depends, directly or indirectly, on the base, where more than a thousand locals work. The economic impact is estimated at around 200 million in Rota, which rises to 600 million throughout the Bay of Cadiz.
In Rota, more than a thousand American families live (there are 3,200 Navy military personnel stationed at the base) who have chosen to live outside the walls and in direct contact with the local population, and in their schools alone last year, 60 American children were enrolled.
It is not surprising, then, that el Colorao, a veteran sailor with weathered skin, responds without hesitation that the military base still has a long life ahead and that a Rota without Yankees is absurd.
It is almost impossible to find anyone in Rota who thinks that the stars and stripes will disappear from the nearest horizon. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to find any resident of Rota who wishes for it. Here, it is not just the American military presence that is accepted, it is cherished.
This sentiment is verbalized, with many arguments and data, by the mayor of the municipality, the socialist Javier Ruiz, who emphasizes that there is neither worry nor fear among the residents of Rota. Not even despite the fluctuations of President Donald Trump, his threats to leave Europe alone in terms of security, and his obsession with America First.
"The feeling is one of absolute normality," emphasizes Ruiz, who has been in office for ten years and
is determined to further leverage the American presence and transform what is seen as a burden for the town into benefits. Specifically, he aspires for the joint Spanish and American naval base to serve as a magnet for visitors and since passing through its control gates is an odyssey within reach of few, he is working on opening a museum, called Base Fórum, to showcase the past and present of the close relationship between Rota and the American navy. It is not yet finished, but it already has a fire truck, a helicopter, and a notable collection of household appliances or records that revolutionized the residents of Rota in the 1960s and 1970s.
"That possibility is always hovering," admits the mayor in reference to the day when the United States may decide to weigh anchor. There has even been speculation that Morocco could be chosen to host the American Navy instead of their Cadiz neighbors. "But governments change and they do not make that decision," emphasizes Ruiz. As Barack Obama said in 2016 when he landed aboard Air Force One: American military personnel can only be more comfortable in their own country.
In addition to the mayor's impression and that of his town, there are some data that support the permanence of the U.S. here. Construction within the base continues unabated to build new infrastructures, and there are plans to expand the docks where American destroyers dock, with an investment of 300 million euros and a construction period of eight years.
Furthermore, the American military capacity in the area has been increasing since last year. On October 15th, the fifth destroyer of the Arleigh Burke class, the USS Oscar Austin, joined, and this year the sixth will arrive to reinforce the deployment of the missile shield agreed upon by Obama and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The tranquility regarding the future of the base is not, however, absolute in Rota. Nobody envisions an American departure, but there is a fear that the White House may, at least in part, turn off the tap of dollars that are so well received on this side of the Atlantic.
The possibility that Trump may apply America First, even at the Rota base, is more than a mere concern. There are precedents, and the Newimar company is well aware of this, as for over three decades it was responsible for maintaining the military facilities and precisely during Trump's first term as U.S. president, he revoked their largest contract.
Its current manager, Sergio Marcos, prefers not to provide many details and insists, time and again, that he does not want to discuss the matter. But he admits, in a few words, that "it affected us."
The Rota-based company fought as much as it could, appealed the contract award (which went to the American company J&J Worldwide Services Inc.) to the Navy first, and then to the U.S. Federal Court, which ruled in their favor. The U.S., now without Trump in the White House, did not acknowledge this and awarded the contract back to the national company.
Although the maintenance of the base is no longer in the hands of local companies, the industrial and service sector of Rota still heavily depends on the base, and if Trump were to repeat what he did in his first term, the consequences would be more than evident.
There is also a certain unease among local base workers. Not about their job security, but about the working conditions they are negotiating to renew their collective agreement, as explained by the president of the works council, Diego Lucero.
The geopolitical and economic earthquake that Trump has caused in just over a month in the Oval Office has also had repercussions on the anti-militarist movement that, especially in the 1980s, mobilized thousands of people to demand the closure of American military installations on Spanish soil.
The anti-American sentiment that Trump is fueling through decrees and tweets is serving as fuel to reinvigorate the Bases Fuera OTAN No Platform, which has called for the 37th march against the Rota base on April 6th and expects to double the participation from last year when Joe Biden was still president and the United States was the usual ally.
Up to 10,000 people, recalls Juanlu González, a member of the platform and an anti-militarism activist almost since he can remember, protested at the gates of the Rota base, but the movement dwindled until it almost disappeared. In 2020, with the pandemic, the marches were suspended, and only after that, and very timidly, did that sentiment begin to revive.
"The base does not defend Spain's interests, but those of the U.S.," points out González at the gates of the military installation, where he hopes to gather more than a thousand people on April 6th amid "worldwide instability" at its peak and where "the role of the base is crucial."
The Platform, he notes, now has a presence in six of the eight provinces in Andalusia, and parties like IU and Podemos, who used to tiptoe around the 'Yankees, go home' slogan, are now publicly calling for the closure of the bases.
But not even González, in the most optimistic scenario he can dream of, believes that Trump could leave Rota without the American base. Here, there are stars and stripes for the long haul.