Return Guantanamo to the people of Cuba

[IndianaGreen]

Return Guantanamo to the people of Cuba

Chandra Muzaffar

President Barack Obama should take immediate steps to return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo to the people of Cuba without preconditions.

Cubans have on numerous occasions demanded that the U.S. dismantle its military base on their homeland, which has been there for 106 years. It was established following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and is a direct consequence of colonialism. The terms of the treaty governing the base and its usage are so lopsided that the Cuban people have no choice but to put up with the base ad infinitum -- unless the U.S. government decides to relinquish its control over Guantanamo.

If Obama is sincere about dealing with other states on the basis of mutual respect, he should begin by changing the U.S. attitude towards its little neighbor, which since the Cuban Revolution of 1959 has been characterized by insufferable arrogance and insolence that has no parallel in the modern world. Apart from perpetuating an edifice of colonial occupation in Guantanamo, successive U.S. presidents over the past 50 years have subjected Cuba to every conceivable injustice. A suffocating trade embargo against the island has been in place for 46 years. Cuba has been invaded with the active collaboration of the U.S.; terrorist attacks have been conducted on Cuban soil by groups and individuals affiliated to the CIA; a Cuban civilian aircraft carrying children among other passengers was destroyed with the connivance of the U.S.; Cubans languish in U.S. jails on trumped up charges; and numerous attempts have been made by agents linked to U.S.-buttressed networks to assassinate Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban Revolution.

http://www.alarabiya.net//views/2009/02/11/66269.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I agree. It is their land. nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. They never really had a chance. The President who allowed the US to grab Guantanamo

just happened to be an American:

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base

[Demeter]

3. Exactly! Remove the Temptation, as well as the Unfairness and Provocation

[Canuckistanian]

4. Castro: Cuba not cashing US Guantanamo rent checks

17 Aug 2007 20:12:53 GMT
By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The United States pays Cuba $4,085 a month in rent for the controversial Guantanamo naval base, but Cuba has only once cashed a check in almost half a century and then only by mistake, Fidel Castro wrote in an essay published on Friday.

The ailing Cuban leader, who has not appeared in public for more than a year, said he had refused to cash the checks to protest the "illegal" U.S. occupation of the land which he said was now used for "dirty work".

~snip

Castro's refusal to cash the checks to protest the "illegal" occupation has been long known. In a television interview years ago, he showed the checks stuffed into a desk drawer in his office.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17200921.htm