Guantanamo Bay. It has different meanings to different people. To some, it is the the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the only military installation in a communist country. To others, it represents the prison which, since 2002, has housed enemy combatants captured by our military in the so-called war on terror. For still others, it reminds them of a day gone by when Cuba and the USA maintained diplomatic relations. And finally, to Fidel Castro, it is a sore spot because the treaty that leased the area to the US, is still in force because someone cashed a $4,065 check after Castro came to power.
In fact, the US has continually mailed a check to Cuba every month for that amount since 1934, when the new treaty went into affect, superseding the original treaty signed in 1903. During the 70s, Castro opened his desk and showed all the uncashed American checks stuffed in a drawer, all in the amount of $4,065.
The lease has no expiration. In fact, the only way the lease can be voided, ended or otherwise abrogated, is by mutual consent. While Castro would do it, the United States has no plans to surrender the property and leave.
President Obama keeps talking about "closing Gitmo" (the generic term for the base), but in actuality he is talking about the detention center. Presently, there are no plans to close the center, since there is no feasible place to put the prisoners in the United States. He campaigned in 2008 on a promise to close the facility, and when he was inaugurated, one of his first executive orders was to close the detention center by January, 2010. To date, it is still opened.
The base is a strategic location in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. To the south is Jamaica, to the east is Puerto Rico, to the northeast is Haiti and Dominican Republic, to the north are the Bahamas, and to the south is South America. It has a special history involving the US since 1898.
As part of war reparations from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States received Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippine Islands and Cuba. In 1903, as part of the US-Cuba treaty, when the US granted independence to the Republic of Cuba, it was agreed that the US would maintain a naval base and coal station at Guantanamo and pay $3,000 a month on an open ended lease. As as discussed above, this lease was upgraded both in terms and payment.
During WWII, the base was utilized extensively to maintain protection of the Caribbean region from Nazi submarines. Later, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the base was the focal point in setting up the quarantine, preventing Soviet ships from gaining access to other Cuban ports to offload additional military hardware for MRBMs already on the island.
Technically, Gitmo is US soil, similar to what the Canal Zone was in Panama. Babies born at the naval hospital are US citizens, as were the children born in the Canal Zone from 1914 to 1979, when President Carter ceded the property back to Panama long before the 99 year lease expired. The Congress would never let that happen again.
To sum up, once the Castros pass on, the next Cuban government will in all likelihood cash the checks that are already deducted from our balance sheet and will cash future checks, as well. Guantanamo will play an important part on our future relationship with Cuba, as well it should. There is no good reason for our two countries to be adversaries.
As I wrote in "Cuba... Why?" on March 18, 2013, both countries would benefit from normalization of relations and recognition of each other's government. After all, we are not separated by 90 miles of water, but rather, 3 feet of fence line. And we share Bahia de Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay.
President Obama, for all his current troubles, would do well to look at Cuba and the normalization as a legacy issue. Recently, all his policies have been thwarted, either by the Congress or the misdeeds of members of his administration. He needs something good to which he can latch on.
Guantanamo, and Cuba, could just do it for him. It's worth the try; there is nothing to lose here.
And the legacy of Guantanamo continues.
Good ol' Gitmo, you know I've had some friends who were stationed there, and I had a couple who were not fans of George Bush, BUT they told me that the prisoners on the base were treated quite well, and that the stories of torture normally came as a result of camera crews and various news organizations that would come to the base to do stories. They didn't torture anyone of course, but what would happen was that when the camera crews for these various organizations would come onto the base, the prisoners would intentionally starve themselves and behave in a manner that would insinuate that they were being treated poorly. My friends were very passionate about the fact that they knew darn well that most of these stories about horrible suffering were either highly exaggerated or fabricated. As for President Obama, I shake my head at all those who actually thought this guy would be able to close the base down...
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