Playa de Los Galeones (Rota, Cádiz), from where the Rota Naval Base can be seen in the background. Román Ríos (EFE)
Clara Fonseca is in a hurry because the day looks intense.
It's not even noon and the paradisiacal Azúcar de Cuba beach bar, which she has managed together with two other partners in Rota (29,326 inhabitants, Cádiz) for 20 years, has already hung up the “full” sign for lunch.
At half past four they have an event for 80 Americans from the base.
Summer is a time of departures and arrivals for many of the military who are stationed in the area.
Fonseca stops the hustle and bustle of coordinating its 28 workers and values the echoes that come from Madrid about the possible new extension of the anti-missile shield: "Except for the issue of rent, which is triggered by the Americans, we are all happy, more destroyers to come" .
This Cuban is not the only one in Rota who likes —each one, with their buts— the presence of Americans in a base that —although it may not seem like it— is Spanish.
All appeal to an economic manna that, only in direct contracts between the town of Cadiz and Morón de la Frontera (Seville), leaves about "254 million euros per year in Andalusia", according to a spokesman for the Embassy of the United States in Spain, based on a 2019 report. There is not even the expense made by the 4,000 troops deployed in both bases ―90% in Rota―, and their families.
Nor the contract in force until January 2028 by which Navantia is responsible for the maintenance of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that make up the current anti-missile shield and other US Navy ships for a maximum amount of 822.4 million euros.
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The number of destroyer ships will go from four to six if the intention expressed on Tuesday by the US president, Joe Biden, and the head of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, materializes (for now it is only a start of negotiations that will imply a change in the agreement of cooperation for defense between the two countries in 1988, as recalled by the United States Embassy).
Each destroyer has a complement of about 350 soldiers who come with their families for a period of approximately two years.
The deputy mayor of the City Council of Rota, Encarnación Niño (PSOE), still does not dare to give figures, but she is clear that, if the agreement materializes, "it will be important news not only for the municipality, but for the province" .
“It will be important in larger contracts, a greater number of people who can live in our town or the generation that is produced in the hospitality industry.
Anyone who comes to live with her family for two years generates activity and that money stays here, ”says the councilor.
The residents of Rota dedicated themselves to collecting clothing and food for the Afghan families who arrived at the base last August. Alejandro Ruesga
Niño assures that, according to economic studies carried out by the City Council, the Rota base "accounts for 60% of the GDP" of the municipality and that, only in rents, Americans who choose to live outside the military installations —inside they have from supermarkets to restaurants or cinema—spend at least “three million a year”.
This means that more than one roteño does not hesitate to rent their own home to soldiers from the base and move to smaller houses.
"The Rota naval base is the largest factory in our city," says Juan Alberto Izquierdo, manager of the Urbanrota real estate company.
This businessman already has the nose to locate homes that meet the standard that Americans are looking for: "Single-family homes, that have enough space for a patio, garage, and even swimming pools."
They get to pay for them from 1,800 to 2,500 euros per month in contracts of one to three years.
Although Fonseca believes that this incentive is what inflates the stable rental bubble in the town, Niño refutes it: “Tourism-wise, Rota is a very attractive destination, many want to have their second residence in our town.
The US market is not always stable, you can't always have demand.
I think the rental price is more affected by tourism”.
With so much consensus on the economic argument, it's hard to find dissent in the form of complaints about the base.
Although they also appear.
The City Council —with the consensus of all the political groups— has been involved in a particular crusade for years so that economic compensation is recognized for the 25% of the municipal term that has the base occupied and that is not rewarded in terms of taxes such as IBI or floating population.
"In these last two years, the Government has allowed Rota to receive one million euros for easement, from the General Budgets: it was justice," says Niño.
Now our goal is for it to be stable over time, there should be a stabilized agreement”.
In February, there were those who recalled one more inconvenience, hidden until now by a context of relative peace in Europe.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and with the growing hostilities towards NATO member countries, many in Rota suddenly considered that, a few meters from their homes, one of the essential military legs of the United States in Europe remained.
“We have been living with the base since the 1950s, but we perceive that this is very safe territory.
That, in part, is related to the base”, concludes the deputy mayor.
“We have never suffered a very negative security consequence from this presence.”
For now, Rota seems to be doing the math.
And that the possible increase in the military has not yet materialized.
Let them tell Fonseca, busy as usual with so many Americans in her beach bar.
"They are fantastic clients, although sometimes they get a little out of hand with alcohol," she says with a laugh before going back to work.
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