If Cuba is not a friend, what are we doing there with Gitmo?

[Deja Q]

And why isn't Castro throwing a tantrum over our presence there?

Obviously I failed history...

[htuttle]

1. We say we have a 'permanent lease' we signed in 1903 for $4,085 per year

Castro has never cashed the checks, however.

In reality, we have Guantanamo because we have more guns.

BTW, Castro has been demanding the return of Guantanamo to Cuba since the Revolution in 1959, and has submitted a resolution to that effect every year to the Non-Aligned Movement.

[babylonsister]

2. Gitmo has been controlled by the US for many years:

my touch w/it is a spouse who retired from the Coast Guard close to 20 years ago, and it wasn't the same place.

Edit to tell the truth.

[Tom Joad]

3. What, you got something against military occupation????!!!

The US took gitmo years ago, when cuba was run by crooks loved by Washington.

[RagingInMiami]

4. We don't attack Castro

And he doesn't bitch about Gitmo.

And meanwhile we'll keep the embargo up because he is a communist, but don't dare question why we are selling out our country to China.

[Solon]

6. Actually, that aggreement is due to the Cuban Missle Crisis...

When the Cubans and Soviets decided to dismantle the missles on the Island, it was under an aggreement with the US government that we promise to never invade the Island again.

[RagingInMiami]

9. I am very aware of that

having been born and raised in Miami in a Cuban neighborhood.

[Solon]

5. Gitmo is a lease aggreement that our government hatched with...

The government before Castro, but after we let them be independent(Cuba was technically our colony after the Spanish-American War). This lease aggreement has no expiration date, unlike the one for Hong Kong. When Castro and his allies overthrew the dictator Bastista, the United States basically kept the place armed, and Castro is pissed at the agreement. However, its a lease, and since the Embargo, the United States pays the Cuban Government for the property, however, I don't think Castro has cashed the checks yet.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. they've been bitching about us being there since 1959...

bitching with good reason..

from Wikipedia...

The U.S. presence in Guantanamo is against the will of the Cuban government and they consider it as an illegal occupation of the area by the United States. The U.S. government believes it is in compliance with a treaty signed by both governments, however the Cuban government strongly denounces the treaty on grounds that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force (see below).

snip>

U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, which covers 116 km² (approx. 45 sq miles), is sometimes abbreviated as GTMO or "Gitmo". It was established in 1898, when the United States obtained control of Cuba from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, following the 1898 invasion of Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. government obtained a perpetual lease that began on February 23, 1903, from Tomás Estrada Palma, an American citizen, who became the first President of Cuba. The newly formed American protectorate incorporated the Platt Amendment in the Cuban Constitution. The Cuban-American Treaty held, among other things, that the United States, for the purposes of operating coaling and naval stations, has "complete jurisdiction and control" of the Guantánamo Bay, while the Republic of Cuba is recognized to retain ultimate sovereignty.

In 1905, in part because of the Platt Amendment, there was an uprising to which the United States responded by occupying Cuba for three years. 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. Treasury Dollars, and added a requirement that termination of the lease requires the consent of both governments, or the abandonment of the base property by the United States.

With over 9,500 U.S. troops, <4> Guantánamo Bay is the only U.S. base in operation on Communist soil, as of 2006.

Since coming to power, Fidel Castro has only cashed one rent check, while steadfastly refusing to cash any others, because he views the lease as illegitimate. Although diplomatic relations do not exist between the two countries, the United States has agreed to return fugitives from Cuban law to Cuban authorities, and Cuba agreed to return fugitives from U.S. law, for offenses committed in Guantánamo Bay, to U.S. authorities.

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

something else they never taught us in school.

[GrumpyGreg]

10. When and why did he cash the one check? It's a puzzlement.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. You did fail history

Gitmo is held by a lease agreement, and the relations between the Cuban military and our own in the vicinity of Gitmo is far from friendly. Castro cut off power and water to the base years ago, and it is totally self-sufficient:

http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/htmpgs/gtmohistory.htm

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 gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 U.S. Treasury dollars, and added a requirement that termination of the lease requires the consent of both the U.S. and Cuba governments, or the abandonment of the base property by the U.S.

Base relations with Cuba remained stable through two world wars and the periods between and did not significantly change until the Cuban revolution of the late 1950's. That revolution led by Fidel Castro, began in the hills of Oriente province, not far from the base.

On June 27, 1958, 29 Sailors and Marines returning from liberty outside the base gates were kidnapped by Cuban rebel forces headed by Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, and detained in the hills as hostages until they were finally released 22 days later.

United States and Cuban relations steadily declined as Fidel Castro openly declared himself in favor of the Marxist line, and began mass jailing and executions of the Cuban people. Cuban territory outside the confines of the base limits was declared off limits to U. S. servicemen and civilians on Jan. 1, 1959.

Official diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed in January 1961 by President Dwight Eisenhower just prior to the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. At this time, many Cubans sought refuge on the base and many still live and work here today.

In October 1962, family members of service people stationed here and many base employees were evacuated to the United States as President Kennedy announced the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This was the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis which resulted in a naval quarantine of the island until the Soviet Union removed the missiles. The evacuees were allowed to return to the base by that Christmas.

Another crisis arose just 14 months later on Feb. 6, 1964, when Castro cut off water and supply avenues to the base in retaliation for several incidents in which Cuban fishermen were being fined by the U.S. government for fishing in Florida waters.

For the past 40 years, Guantanamo Bay has been totally self-sufficient with its own power and water sources.