Spanish colonial era The area surrounding Guantanamo Bay was originally inhabited by the
Taíno people. On 30 April 1494,
Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, arrived and spent the night. The place where Columbus landed is now known as Fisherman's Point. Columbus declared the bay
Puerto Grande. The bay and surrounding areas briefly came under
British control during the
War of Jenkins' Ear. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, the bay was referred to as
Walthenham Harbor by British cartographers. The British expeditionary force renamed the bay
Cumberland Bay. They eventually retreated from the area after an attempt to march to
Santiago de Cuba was repulsed by Spanish troops. secured
Guantánamo's harbor for protection during the
hurricane season of 1898. Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay with naval support, and American and Cuban forces routed the defending Spanish troops. There is a monument on McCalla Hill to one Navy officer and five Marines who died in the
Battle of Guantánamo Bay. The war ended with the
Treaty of Paris of 1898, in which Spain formally relinquished control of Cuba. Although the war was over, the United States maintained a strong military presence on the island. In 1901 the United States government passed the
Platt Amendment as part of an Army Appropriations Bill. Section VII of this amendment reads: After initial resistance by the Cuban Constitutional Convention, the Platt Amendment was incorporated into the
Constitution of the
Republic of Cuba in 1901. The constitution took effect in 1902, and land for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay was granted to the United States the following year.
Permanent lease The 1903 lease agreement, which has no fixed expiration date, was executed in two parts. The first, signed in February, consists of the following provisions: •
Article 1 – Describes the boundaries of the areas being leased, Guantanamo Bay and
Bahia Honda. •
Article 2 – The U.S. may occupy, use, and modify the properties to fit the needs of a coaling and naval station, only. Vessels in the Cuban trade shall have free passage. •
Article 3 – Cuba retains ultimate sovereignty, but during the occupation, the U.S. exercises sole jurisdiction over the areas described in Article 1. Under conditions to be agreed on, the U.S. has the right to acquire, by purchase or eminent domain, any land included therein. The second part, signed five months later in July 1903, consists of the following provisions: •
Article 1 – Payment is $2,000 gold coin, annually. All private lands within the boundaries shall be acquired by Cuba. The U.S. will advance rental payments to Cuba to facilitate those purchases. •
Article 2 – The U.S. shall pay for a survey of the sites and mark the boundaries with fences. •
Article 3 – There will be no commercial or other enterprise within the leased areas. •
Article 4 – Mutual extradition. •
Article 5 – Not ports of entry. •
Article 6 – Ships shall be subject to Cuban port police. The U.S. will not obstruct entry or departure into the bay. •
Article 7 – This proposal is open for seven months. SIGNED
Theodore Roosevelt and Jose M Garcia Montes. In 1934, the United States unilaterally changed the payment from gold coin to U.S. dollars per the
Gold Reserve Act. The lease amount was set at US$3,386.25, based on the price of gold at the time. In 1973, the U.S. adjusted the lease amount to $3,676.50, and in 1974 to $4,085, based on further increases to the price of gold in USD. Payments have been sent annually, but only one lease payment has been accepted since the
Cuban Revolution, and
Fidel Castro claimed that this check was deposited due to confusion in 1959. The Cuban government has not deposited any other lease check since that time.
Before and during World War II The naval base became a prime area for winter training for the
Atlantic fleet. Due to the large increase in population during the training months, the base quickly established facilities to support everyday functions. Construction of the Guantanamo Bay fleet range system began as early as 1905, with four primary ranges. Due to the size of the base, sections were shut down in order for range operations to proceed. Ironically, the concrete range system's size and cost led to its downfall. Evidence suggests the fleet ranges were used throughout World War I and the beginning of World War II. During World War II, the base was set up to use a nondescript number for postal operations. The base used the
Fleet Post Office, Atlantic, in
New York City, with the address: 115 FPO NY. The base was also an important intermediate distribution point for
merchant shipping convoys from New York City and
Key West, Florida, to the
Panama Canal and the islands of
Puerto Rico,
Jamaica, and
Trinidad and Tobago.
Cold War and beyond From 1953 to 1959, thousands of Cubans commuted daily from outside the base to jobs within it. In mid-1958, vehicular traffic was stopped; workers were required to walk through the base's several gates. Public Works Center buses were pressed into service almost overnight to carry workers to and from the gate. The "Cactus Curtain" is a term describing the line separating the naval base from Cuban-controlled territory, the
Bamboo Curtain in East Asia, and the similar
Ice Curtain in the
Bering Strait. After the Cuban Revolution, some Cubans sought refuge on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In late 1961, Cuban troops planted an -long, -wide The curtain forms part of a "
no man's land" that encircles the base. During the
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the families of military personnel were evacuated from the base. Notified of the evacuation on 22 October, evacuees were told to pack one suitcase per family member, to bring evacuation and immunization cards, to tie pets in the yard, to leave the keys to the house on the dining table, and to wait in front of the house for buses. Dependents traveled to the airfield for flights to the United States, or to ports for passage aboard evacuation ships. After the crisis was resolved, family members were allowed to return to the base in December 1962. From 1939, the base's water was supplied by pipelines that drew water from the
Yateras River about northeast of the base, for which the U.S. government paid a fee. In 1964, the cost was about $14,000 per month for about per day. In 1964, the Cuban government stopped the flow. The base had about of water in storage, and strict water conservation measures were put into effect immediately. Initially, the U.S. imported water from
Jamaica by barge, but then relocated a
desalination plant from San Diego (
Point Loma). When the Cuban government accused the United States of "stealing water", base commander
John D. Bulkeley ordered the pipelines cut and a section removed. A length of the diameter pipe and a length of the diameter pipe were lifted from the ground and the openings sealed. During the 1960s and 1970s, the base had problems with alcohol and racial tension. Harassment and
strip searches also became a regular occurrence for Cuban workers on the base. By 2006, only two elderly Cubans, Luis Delarosa and Harry Henry, still crossed the base's North East Gate daily to work on the base, because the Cuban government has prohibited new recruitment since 1959. Both men retired at the end of 2012. Several old guns from the
USS Monongahela (1862) have been salvaged and placed around the base. The warship served as a
storeship at Guantanamo until destroyed by fire on 17 March 1908. A gun was salvaged from its wreck and put on display. Since the gun was deformed by the heat from the fire, it was nicknamed "Ole Droopy". A similar gun, possibly also salvaged from the
Monongahela, is on display near the Bay View Club. The base’s territorial status has occasionally been compared to a
Sovereign base (notably the
British bases in Cyprus), though it differs in that it is lease-based rather than retained sovereignty. At the
United Nations Human Rights Council in 2013, Cuba's Foreign Minister demanded the U.S. return the base to Cuba. ==Current operations==