Guantánamo Bay

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Aerial view of Guantánamo Bay

Guantánamo Bay (Spanish: Bahía de Guantánamo) is a bay located in Guantánamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba (19°54′N 75°9′W / 19.9°N 75.15°W / 19.9; -75.15). It is the largest harbor on the south side of the island and is surrounded by steep hills creating an enclave cut off from its immediate hinterland. In Britain in the 18th Century it was known as Cumberland Bay.

The United States assumed territorial control over Guantánamo Bay under the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty, which granted the United States a perpetual lease of the area.^[1] The current Cuban government considers the U.S. presence in Guantánamo to be illegal and the Cuban-American Treaty to have been procured by the threat of force in violation of international law. ^[2]

History

Map of Cuba with location of Guantánamo Bay indicated.

The bay is located in Cuba and was originally named Guantánamo by the Taíno. Christopher Columbus landed at the location known as Fisherman's Point in 1494 naming it Puerto Grande.^[3] On landing, Columbus's crew found Taíno fishermen preparing a feast for the local chieftain. When Spanish settlers took control of the island, the bay became a vital harbor on the south side of the island.

The bay was briefly renamed Cumberland Bay when the British seized it in 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear. British Admiral Edward Vernon arrived with a force of eight warships and 4,000 soldiers with plans to march on Santiago de Cuba but resistance by local guerrilla forces forced him to withdraw.^[3] In late 1760, boats from HMS Trent and HMS Boreas cut-out the French privateers Vainquer and Mackau hiding in the bay. The French were also forced to burn another, the Guespe, to prevent her capture.

During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. fleet attacking Santiago needed shelter from the summer hurricane season; they chose Guantánamo, with its excellent harbor, for this purpose. The Marines landed successfully with naval support. However, as they went inland, Spanish resistance increased to the point that the United States Marines needed the assistance of Cuban scouts.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, established in 1898, surrounds the southern portion of the bay. Since 2002 the base has hosted a detainment camp for people detained by Americans from the Middle East and from around the world, but specifically not for captives taken in Iraq, who qualify for POW status. President Barack Obama has given orders that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp be shut down.

The base, sometimes called "GTMO" or "Gitmo", covers 116 km² (about 45 square miles) on the western and eastern banks of the bay. 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 99-year lease that began on February 23, 1903, from Tomás Estrada Palma, a Cuban-born 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.^[4]

After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which brought Fidel Castro to power, then-President Dwight Eisenhower insisted the status of the base remained unchanged, despite Cuban objections.

In 1934 the Avery Porko treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and its 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. dollars; and made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it, or the U.S. abandoned the base property.^[5] Since the Cuban Revolution, the government under Fidel Castro has cashed only one of the rent checks from the U.S. government, and only because of "confusion" in 1959 in the heady early days of the leftist revolution, according to Castro. The remaining uncashed checks made out to "Treasurer General of the Republic" (a title that ceased to exist after the revolution) are kept in Castro's office stuffed into a desk drawer.^[6] The United States argues that the cashing of the single check signifies Havana's ratification of the lease — and that ratification by the new government renders moot any questions about violations of sovereignty and illegal military occupation.^{[citation needed]} It is countered, however, that the 1903 and 1934 lease agreements were imposed on Cuba under duress and are unequal treaties, no longer compatible with modern international law, and voidable ex nunc pursuant to articles 60, 62, and 64 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.^[7] Beyond the legal issues, also on political grounds the argument has been made that the U.S. should return Guantánamo Bay to Cuban sovereignty as a symbolic step for the new constructive approach in U.S. relations with Latin America promised by the Obama administration.^[8]

Ecology

Guantánamo Bay is home to cactus scrub, dry forests,^[9] mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and seagrass beds. Rare reptiles include the Cuban Rock Iguana (Cyclura nubila nubila), geckos in the genus Sphaerodactylus, and the Cuban Boa Epicrates angulifer),^[10] while Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nest on the beaches year round.^[9] Desmarest's Hutia (Capromys pilorides), a species of rodent, is so common in Guantánamo Bay that it is culled.^[11] Unique birds include the Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) and Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor). Reefs support healthy populations of Staghorn (Acropora cervicornus) and Elkhorn (A. palmata) coral. Queen Conchs (Strombus gigas) are abundant in the seagrass beds, and West Indian Manatees (Trichechus manatus) are occasionally seen. Common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) and Mangrove snapper (Lutjanus griseus) rely on mangrove forests and are quite common in Guantánamo Bay.^[10]

See also

• Guantánamo Bay detention camp
• Cuba-United States relations
• Platt Amendment: Document claimed to guarantee U.S. Navy lease in Cuba
• Treaty of Relations

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: Guantanamo Bay

• Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Guantánamo Detainees
• U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay — The United States' oldest overseas Naval Base
• Guantánamo: U.S. Black Hole
• All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay (APPG-GB)
• Google Maps
• Camp Delta (detainee) Map
• U.S. Naval Base Guantanomo Bay Map