A Brief History
On February 23, 1903, Cuba made a deal with the United States to lease 45 square miles of land and sea for a period of time with no expiration, virtually forever!
Digging Deeper
In 1898, the US and Spain fought a war, including ground and sea combat in Cuba, then a Spanish possession. The US won the short war, and took possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, while Cuba was freed from Spain and became an independent country.
The original rent payment was to be paid in Gold, $2000 per year, but after 1934 the terms were changed to be in cash money instead, and the rent was raised in 1974 to $4,085 per year.
A thorn in Castro’s side after the communist takeover of Cuba in 1959, the US has maintained a military naval and Marine base at Guantanamo and have been using “Gitmo” as an offshore prison for suspects in the War on Terror.
Question for students (and subscribers): Should the US close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and if so, why? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Carrington, Joshua. Guantanamo Bay: A Historical Mystery. Independently published, 2022.
Hickman, Joseph. Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeant’s Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay. Simon & Schuster, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a CIA Government map of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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