Guantanamo, an exception that lasts

1- A very special status

Since 1903, the Cuban territory of Guantánamo (117.6 km2) has been occupied by a United States naval base.

Under an agreement reached at the end of the Spanish-American War, a first lease agreement for 99 years was signed on May 22, 1903. Then, a second extended it for a further 99 years.

Signed by the two countries in 1934, it makes the lease permanent, unless the two governments agree or the base is abandoned by the United States, and was not called into question by the Castro revolution.

In return, the White House pledged to pay an annual rent of $ 4,085, or 34.7 cents per hectare.

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But since 1959, the Cuban government, which challenges the very legitimacy of the American presence, refuses to cash the slightest dollar… An ubiquitous situation.

In 1994, while the 1934 agreement specified that the American army could only have a naval base and a fuel depot, the United States decided to open a detention camp there to isolate the prisoners. ...

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