The US and Guantanamo Bay

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

11/29/2006

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

International relations

Oboulo.com selection criteria

$ 14.95 Add to cart

Summary :

Issue background: Guantanamo and the United States since 1898
1. The Platt Amendment
2. The revolution in 1959
3. The post 9/11 world: A new dimension to the Guantanamo issue
Courses of action
1. Reaching an agreement with the Castro government on this issue
2. Abandoning the naval base without any negotiation
3. keeping the Guantánamo Naval Base
Arguments: Why Guantanamo should return to Cuba
1. The Treaty of 1934
2. The denial of the Cuban national sovereignty
3. The example of the Panama Canal
4. Denying detainees at Guantanamo the protection of the Geneva Conventions
Conclusion
Works cited

Abstract

In 1898, the United States intervened in the Caribbean and Pacific to fight against Spanish imperialism. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the United States occupied Cuba from January 1899 to May 1902. On February 25, 1901, Senator Orville H. Platt introduced in Congress "the famous amendment that bears his name" (Aguilar 1972), which shaped the American intervention in Cuban affairs. It also proposed the creation of an American naval base in Cuba. The bill became law on March 2. In spite of a strong opposition in the country, Cuba conceded that a restricted independence was better than a military regime (Aguilar 1972) and included the amendment in its 1901 Constitution. In 1903, the Lease of Coaling or Naval Stations Agreement Between the United States and Cuba Treaty specified that, in exchange of "the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba, ... the United states shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas" (Treaty Series No. 418). Since then, Guantánamo bay has been under U.S. control.
Although the Platt Amendment was abrogated by Cuba in 1904, a new agreement was negotiated between the Roosevelt administration and the American-friendly Caffery-Batista-Mendieta government. It kept the "Platt spirit" (Dominguez, Smith 1988) by not changing the status of Guantánamo, "so long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of guantanamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits" (Treaty Series No. 866). Thus, the new Treaty of Relations established a "lease in perpetuity" (Dominguez, Smith 1988).
Since the revolution in 1959, Cuba has wanted to terminate the lease, but it is has not been able to do so without American consent (Ratner, Ray 2004). In opposition to the lease, Fidel Castro has always refused to accept the rent of about $4,085 a year. On October 29, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro declared that the only effective guarantee "that there will be no aggression against Cuba" would be five points , including the U.S. withdrawal from Guantánamo Naval Base (Blight, Brenner 2004). This request was supported by the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries in its First Summit Conference , held in Belgrade in 1961 (Ricardo Luis 1994), but the movement was not influent enough to change the U.S. foreign policy.