In a speech on the proposed rapprochement with the United States Cuban President Raul Castro says that he wants Guantanamo Bay returned to Cuban control as part of the normalization.
Now known primarily for its detention center, Guantanamo Bay was leased to the United States in 1903 as a coaling and naval station. The legality of the treaty is contested.
Castro also seeks the end of the US trade embargo on Cuba, and the removal of the nation from the terror list as part of the deal to normalize ties.
The US hasn’t offered a response to the proposal, but is unlikely to agree to return Guantanamo Bay to Cuban control, even though that control would be the most straightforward way for the Obama Administration to finally follow through on its promise to close the detention center there.
What's so golden about GTMO? The formaldehyde-charged beer? The occasional iguana in the commode?
Never met anyone that enjoyed the tour @GTMO. Service personnel hate it, so of course Presidents, SECDEFS, & admirals, generals gotta keep sending 'em there: "Scream, Marine; scream good'n loud, so I know you hate it! Ha ha ha ha!"
The US, give up on Lebensraum ie the Monroe doctrine? Don't bet the bank this will happen any time soon.
Good strategy on Cuba's part.
Forget about the original legality of the 1903 treaty. Accept the treaty as legal. Even so, the lease expressly states that it is for a coaling and naval station and for no other purpose. A gulag camp is not a coaling or naval station.
If I as a homeowner sign a lease allowing a tenant to operate a lemonade stand and for no other purpose, and the tenant then starts running a chicken and burger franchise on my property, I've got a right to declare the lease null and void and evict my Tenant From H*ll. And that's what Cuba now has a right to do at Gitmo, based upon the US expansion of use beyond anything ever authorized by the original lease, even assuming the legality of that lease itself.