Cuba cut off water to the US’ Guantanamo Bay military base a while ago and the base is now self sufficient in that regard. Does its lease however have any agreed air or sea lanes to the base? Would Castro have ever been able (legally) to blockade the base without giving the US recourse to tackle the problem militarily?
I’ve never seen the treaty, so I don’t know about air or sea lanes. But Castro doesn’t accept the “rent” money (which isn’t that much, IIRC), so I guess he doesn’t consider it legitimate.
I obviously don’t know what the text of the treaty says, but let me put it this way. If the authors were smart enough to negotiate it in the first place, I’m guessing they were smart enough to write in the necessities of air and sea access.
If Castro were to try and make us leave, he would be staring down US gunboat diplomacy for the second time in his life. He is obviously not willing to do that, so we get to stay.
Treaties and contracts are well and good, but in international law guns carry the day.
A few thousand dollars according to Wikipedia. The legitimacy of the treaty has been deemed adequate by the US as Castro accepted the first cheque and cashed it.
When I was stationed down there at the Naval Hospital 1953-56, Batista was still in power, so we had no trouble with the water supply. Well, we did have one incident.
Our Marines guarded the tanks 24/7, as you might expect.
And I can recall just one water-related incident.
Seems a Jarhead guard saw a Cuban climbing the ladder to a tank. Jarhead yelled “Halt!” Cuban kept going. Jarhead fired his rifle at the guy, hit him, and as the Cuban fell, the guard continued to pump rounds into him.
Cuban was DOA, surprisingly enough. 
Oh. If I’m not mistaken, Castro was threatening to cut off the water supply, and getting a lot of free ink in the eprocess. So Gtmo’s Admiral beat him to the punch and cut the line himself. He’d already made sure the U.S. fleet would supply the requisite water, of course.
A bit difficult for Castro to have accepted the first payment as it was made in 1903.
LEASE OF COALING OR NAVAL STATIONS
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA
Article 1
The Republic of Cuba hereby leases to the United States, for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations, the following described areas of land and water situated in the Island of Cuba:
1st. In Guantanamo (see Hydrographic Office Chart 1857). From a point on the south coast, 4.37 nautical miles to the eastward of Windward Point Light House, a line running north (true) a distance of 4.25 nautical miles;
From the northern extremity of this line, a line running west (true), a distance of 5.87 nautical miles;
From the western extremity of this last line, a line running south-west (true), 3.31 nautical miles;
From the southwestern extremity of this last line, a line running south (true), to the seacoast.
This lease shall be subject to all the conditions named in Article II of this agreement.
2nd. In Northwestern Cuba (see Hydrographic Office Chart 2036). In Bahia Honda (see Hydrographic Office Chart 520b).
All that land included in the peninsula containing Cerro del Morillo and Punta del Carenero situated to the westward of a line running south (true) from the north coast at a distance of thirteen hundred yards east (true) from the crest of Cerro del Morrillo, and all the adjacent waters touching upon the coast line of the above described peninsula and including the estuary south of Punta del Carenero with the control of the headwaters as necessary for sanitary and other purposes.
And in addition all that piece of land and its adjacent waters on the western side of the entrance to Bahia Honda included between the shore line and a line running north and south (true) to low water marks through a point which is west (true) distant one nautical mile from Pta. Dey Cayan.
Article 2
The grant of the foregoing Article shall include the right to use and occupy the waters adjacent to said areas of land and water, and to improve and deepen the entrances thereto and the anchorages therein, and generally to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.
Vessels engaged in the Cuban trade shall have free passage through the waters included within this grant.
The first payment made when he was in power.
Don’t overestimate these people. They forgot to negotiate guaranteed driving access to Berlin in 1945 which led to the blockade.
Where exactly is the in this story?
I should have mentioned the Cuban was attempting to poison the water supply.
Since all Americans (and Cubans who worked on the base) drank that water, we thought it was sweet, though admittedly excessive justice.
The Castro-ites certainly got the message. No one else tried it.
Do you have a cite for that. All I can find is that the lease money was set in 1903 and that Castro has refused to accept it since 1960.
see:
I had read it on a wikipedia entry but thought it better to check it out on another webpage in case;
If they were smart enough to add air when the treaty was written, I’d be really impressed.
But as I was saying, Castro didn’t accept ‘the first check’. This had been paid since 1903. One payment was made after the revolution and after that refused.
Is a revolutionary government supposedly bound by acts of its predecessors? In other words, does the fact that Cuba accepted the first payment in 1903 bind the present government in any legal sense to continue honoring the lease? After all, if you pay your rent it doesn’t matter if the landlord doesn’t cash the check; you’ve done your part by paying it.
Yes, that’s why I corrected myself a few posts above. The first cheque Castro was given when in power he accepted, so any protests he made after that seemed a bit late as he’d already gone along with the US.
I’m not sure that ‘negotiated’ is the right word to use for that treaty. The initial Cuban government (post Spanish American war) was fairly constrained by the US in a number of ways, explicitly with respect to foreign policy. I am not sure that holding out for a better deal was an option for the Cubans. Saying ‘no’ was probably out of the question.
(Off-topic)
Can I mention that the Google ads for this thread are hilarious? Which should I click?
“Show your outrage over the illegal occupation of Guantanamo! Solidarity with our socialist brothers! Buy our T-Shirts!”
or
“Join the Navy! We’ll station you in Guantanamo where you can show those fucking Commies who’s boss!”