By Vero Garcia on March 1, 2025
For more than 120 years, the United States has illegally occupied the largest bay in the southern part of the island. Guantánamo is home to a detention center infamous for human rights violations committed there by Washington.
Recently, the US government announced its decision to send deported migrants to the illegal settlement as part of the new administration’s bloody offensive against migrants. Cuba and the international community have long denounced the return of the territory, and now it is also being used for such dishonorable purposes.
The rejection of the announcement was immediate and categorical. The statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs classifies it as a “demonstration of the brutality with which that government” acts “supposedly to correct problems created by the economic and social conditions of that country, the government’s own management and its foreign policy, including hostility towards countries of origin”.
But why is the forced appropriation of this space considered to be outside international law? These are the reasons.
An imposed lease
The installation of the naval base came about following the signing of the Treaty of 1903 between the then Cuban president Tomás Estrada Palma and the US president Theodore Roosevelt. This agreement, the result of coercion brought about by the Platt Amendment, ceded Cuban territory to the United States, the use of which was supposedly intended for naval purposes and for the storage of coal. However, the circumstances surrounding the signing of this treaty are crucial, as they were carried out under the threat of military intervention, which makes it a flawed agreement from the outset.
The will of the Cuban people
Furthermore, on January 1, 1959, after the triumph of the Revolution, Cuba has repeatedly demanded the return of Guantánamo in international forums. In this regard, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro stressed that
Guantánamo is of no use to the United States militarily today. They maintain it as an act of force and arrogance, occupying a part of our national territory, which today in the nuclear age has no strategic value. The US has no right to be there, since they are there against our will; and I believe that no country can have a military base on its territory against the will of that country. The United States is there by force. What right does the United States have to be in Guantánamo against the will of our people? What right does it have to occupy a piece of our territory against the will of our people?
This principle of territorial integrity is a pillar of the Constitution of the Greater Antilles, based on domestic law.
In the same vein, the 1969 International Convention on the Law of Treaties establishes in Article 52 that treaties obtained through coercion are null and void. Thus, the lease of Guantánamo, given that it lacks a clear time limit and perpetuates the occupation without Cuban approval, is in conflict with international law. In addition, the fact that the Cuban government has never accepted payment for this lease highlights the illegitimate nature of the agreement.
Improper use of the territory
Although the original agreement specified that the base would be used exclusively as a naval station and coaling station, the United States has expanded its use for military and detention purposes. The base has been internationally condemned for housing a detention center where human rights have been flagrantly violated, keeping people without trial for years under inhumane conditions.
In addition, on January 29, Trump announced his intention to send 30,000 of the “worst criminals” to the eastern part of the island. More than 60 percent of its own population is against such an infamous measure. “The history of abuses at Guantanamo Bay speaks for itself,” Stacy Suh, program director of the Detention Watch Network, said in a statement, “and it will undoubtedly endanger people’s physical and mental health.”
This proposal by the US government is seen as an act of brutality and an attempt to divert attention from the social and economic problems facing the US. Thus, the base is not only a symbol of occupation, but also a point of conflict in relations between the two countries and an example of the US’s lack of respect for fundamental guarantees.
Universal opinion supports the position that the Guantánamo naval base is illegal. Its existence represents an attack on Cuban sovereignty. Cuba’s repeated demands for its return, together with its rejection of an agreement that was never legitimate, highlight the need for a solution that respects the will of the Cuban people and international treaties.
Source Razones de Cuba, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English