Naval Station Guantanamo Bay

Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, circa 1995.

Naval Base Guantanamo Bay with the Bay in the background, circa 2007.

The United States maintains a military base the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. In 1898 Spain maintained a large overseas empire, that included what is now Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, and some smaller holdings. Almost all of Spain's overseas empire was seized by the USA during the Spanish-American War. Cuba was granted a limited independence in 1903, and the new Cuban government signed a treaty that allowed the USA to maintain a large naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

History

The United Statest seized Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain, during the Spanish-American War.

Treaty

The 1903 Treaty of Relations commits the US and Cuba to negotiate a lease for coaling and naval stations, to be used for as long as necessary. There is no explicit end date for the lease. A lease was sucessfully negotiated for two areas, Bahia Honda and Guantanamo. As long as the US occupies these areas, it is required to pay Cuba $2000 in US gold coin. The lease allows the USA to use the areas for coaling and naval stations, and for no other purpose.

The treaty allows the USA to use it as a Naval Base and Coaling Station, in return for rent of $4,000 per year.

When Fidel Castro took power, fifty years ago, to show its opposition to the treaty, the Cuban Government stopped cashing the USA's rent checks.

The internment of refugees

During the later decades of the 20th Century the USA used the base to intern human rights and economic refugees from Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Tens of thousands of migrants spent years interned at the base. The base is still, occasionally, used to intern refugees.

The internment of "enemy combatants"

On January 11th, 2002 the USA opened the Camp X-Ray, the first of several camps in the complex of Guantanamo Bay detention camps that hold captives the USA considers "enemy combatants" in the "war on terror".

Geography

The base covers 45 square miles (120 km²) on both the East and West shores of Guantanamo Bay. The North shore remains in Cuban hands. When originally seized, drinking water for those occupying the base was available via springs, which have long since dried up. Potable water is either imported or distilled in a desalinization plant.

Parts of the base consist of salt-water marshes. Other regions are extremely arrid.

Tenant commands

The commander of the base has traditionally been a Captain in the United States Navy.