During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. fleet attacking Santiago retreated to Guantánamo's excellent harbor to ride out the summer hurricane season of 1898. The Marines landed with naval support, but required Cuban scouts to push off Spanish resistance that increased as they moved inland. This area became the location of U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, which covers about 45 square miles (116 km²) and is sometimes abbreviated as GTMO or "Gitmo".

By the war's end, the U.S. government had obtained control of all of Cuba from Spain. A perpetual lease for the area around Guantánamo Bay was offered February 23, 1903, from Tomás Estrada Palma, an American citizen, who became the first President of Cuba. The Cuban-American Treaty gave, among other things, the Republic of Cuba ultimate sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay while granting the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" of the area for coaling and naval stations.

A 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in U.S. gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 in U.S. dollars, and made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it or the U.S. abandoned the base property. Since the Cuban Revolution the government under Fidel Castro has cashed only one of the rent checks from the US government, and only because of "confusion" in the heady early days of the leftist revolution. The remaining uncashed checks made out to "Treasurer General of the Republic" (A position that has ceased to exist after the revolution) are kept in Castro's office stuffed into a desk drawer. [2]

...


The long-term lease of this territory by the United States has been unpopular with the current Cuban government since 1959. The present sovereign's of the territory covering Guantanamo Bay, the Republic of Cuba, led by the Communist Party of Cuba, claim that as sovereign land owners they may evict the people who live and work there, pointing to article 52[14] of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force — in this case by the inclusion, in 1901, of the Platt Amendment in the first Cuban Constitution.

The United States warned the Cuban Constitutional Convention not to remove the Amendment, and stated U.S. troops would not leave Cuba until its terms had been adopted as a condition for the U.S. to grant independence. However, the United States argues that Article 4 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties prohibits retroactive (after the fact) application of said Convention to already existing treaties [15] such as the ones concluded between the US and Cuba in 1903 and 1934.

The Platt Amendment was dissolved in 1934, and the treaty re-affirming the lease to the base was signed after Franklin D. Roosevelt dispatched 29 US warships to Cuba and Key West to protect U.S. interests following a military coup.[16]

Since coming to power in 1959, Cuban President Fidel Castro has refused to cash all but the very first rent check in protest. [17] But the United States argues that its cashing signifies Havana's ratification of the lease — and that ratification by the new government renders moot any questions about violations of sovereignty and illegal military occupation.

1. TREATY SERIES No. 418: LEASE OF COALING OR NAVAL STATIONS AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA
Signed by the President of Cuba, February 16, 1903. Signed by the President of the United States, February 23, 1903.

2. TREATY SERIES No. 866: RELATIONS TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CUBA
Signed at Washington, May 29, 1934
Ratification advised by the Senate of the United States, May 31, 1934 (legislative day of May 28, 1934)
Ratified by the President of the United States, June 5, 1934.
Ratified by Cuba, June 4, 1934. Ratifications exchanged at Washington, June 9, 1934.
Proclaimed by the President of the United States, June 9, 1934.

The History of Guantanamo Bay 1494-1964
by M.E. Murphy, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy
originally published Jan. 5, 1953

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rushemery

"The Truth! You cant handle the Truth!"  Jack Nicholson

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

Speaking as a Brit who posts as a rule from a pro USA perspective I think you make yourselves a laughing stock over your attitudes to Cuba.