Castro: Cuba not cashing U.S. Guantanamo rent checks

Castro: Cuba not cashing U.S. Guantanamo rent checks

news.yahoo.com

HAVANA (Reuters) - The United States pays Cuba $4,085 a month in rent for the controversial Guantanamo naval base, but Cuba has only once cashed a check in almost half a century and then only by mistake, Fidel Castro wrote in an essay published on Friday.

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Isnt that hypocritical of the US to pay money to cuba?
Seems that we should give the land back to Cuba if you ask me, doesnt seem right.
I know its a communist country but isnt Castro getting a bum deal most of the time? I mean its been 40 years, jees.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by earth2
Isnt that hypocritical of the US to pay money to cuba?

Why is it hypocritical? We could have kept the entire island, we won it from Spain in the Spanish-American War.

Instead, we gave them their freedom, just kept the Spanish military base and pay them rent for it by treaty.

It really does say something about Cuban morality that they have only ever
cashed one check for Guantanamo, and than by mistake.

That being that they are'nt going to except money to look the other way at the
Human Rights abuses at Guantanamo, not that they can really do anything unfortunately,
more of a symbolic thing.

Originally posted by earth2


Isnt that hypocritical of the US to pay money to cuba?

Yes, and wouldnt it be just as hypocritical if Cuba were to cash these cheques?

Originally posted by djohnsto77

Why is it hypocritical? We could have kept the entire island, we won it from Spain in the Spanish-American War.

Instead, we gave them their freedom, just kept the Spanish military base and pay them rent for it by treaty.

Thats a contradiction isnt it? Give them their freedom yet take away at the same time.

If a country creates an embargo they should be the first one to abide by it.
So why do they send money to Cuba?

Originally posted by earth2


Isnt that hypocritical of the US to pay money to cuba?
Seems that we should give the land back to Cuba if you ask me, doesnt seem right.
I know its a communist country but isnt Castro getting a bum deal most of the time? I mean its been 40 years, jees.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

we? you sound british i didn't know you were one of U.S. but i digress,
how about this... how about Castro TAKES back Gitmo? i mean if he wants it so badly...

well given the current situation they would probably bounce anyhow.



I thought that America owned that section of land, its not like america to conduct its dirty business away from home.

Originally posted by earth2
If a country creates an embargo they should be the first one to abide by it.
So why do they send money to Cuba?

We have a treaty with them saying we have to pay them so much for rent for the base. If we stopped paying them, we'd have to leave. We don't want to leave.

They really didnt have a choice, thats probably a one side treaty dont you think?

Looks like Castro has a good argument to me and I really dont blame him.

American has went waay overboard on the punishment imo. And how nice would it be to be able to vacation in Cuba, it is soo beautiful there.

Originally posted by iori_komei
......................
That being that they are'nt going to except money to look the other way at the
Human Rights abuses at Guantanamo, not that they can really do anything unfortunately,
more of a symbolic thing.

It talks about the morality of the Cuban Communist regime huh?....

LOL.... i am sorry the "human right abuses at Guantanamo"?....

There have been, and still are more "Human right abuses" done in the island by castro's regime than there have ever been at Guantanamo base....

[edit on 17-8-2007 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by earth2
They really didnt have a choice, thats probably a one side treaty dont you think?

Looks like Castro has a good argument to me and I really dont blame him.

American has went waay overboard on the punishment imo. And how nice would it be to be able to vacation in Cuba, it is soo beautiful there.

....castro installed nuclear weapons with the help of the Russians pointing at the U.S., and castro was/is crazy enough about using them, and if castro ever got the change to get them again he would do it without a second thought. The United States should stay at Guantanamo base.

and you would like to vacation in cuba huh?... yeah a lot of foreigners like to go there because they can get "jineteras", and pay cheap for their vices meanwhile the Cuban people keep suffering...

Cuba is not the wonderfurl place you obviously think it is.

[edit on 17-8-2007 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Muaddib

Originally posted by iori_komei
......................
That being that they are'nt going to except money to look the other way at the
Human Rights abuses at Guantanamo, not that they can really do anything unfortunately,
more of a symbolic thing.

It talks about the morality of the Cuban Communist regime huh?....

LOL.... i am sorry the "human right abuses at Guantanamo"?....

There have been, and still are more "Human right abuses" done in the island by castro's regime than there have ever been at Guantanamo base....

I did'nt say there wre'nt now did I.

That's a rather old treaty, signed long before Castro ever came to power.

Here's a copy of it;
www.yale.edu...

Until the two contracting parties agree to the modification or abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the lease to the United States of America of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba on February 16, 1903, and by the President of the United States of America on the 23d day of the same month and year, the stipulations of that agreement with regard to the naval station of Guantanamo shall continue in effect. The supplementary agreement in regard to naval or coaling stations signed between the two Governments on July 2, 1903, also shall continue in effect in the same form and on the same conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantanamo. So long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of Guantanamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to have the territorial area that it now has, with the limits that it has on the date of the signature of the present Treaty.
ARTICLE IV

Seems to me that the way the treaty works is that the United States does not have to leave so long as we don't want to. The only way for the American presence to be removed is for either both Cuba and the US to agree on leaving, or the US would have to completely abandon the area. So the Cubans would have to either renegotiate the terms, or somehow force the Americans out.

The way I see it is that the US is not going to leave, so Cuba might as well make the most of it and cash the checks. Otherwise they're really just letting the United States have it for free, which sends a bad message if you ask me.

This is old news i'd heard this about 7 0r 8 years ago from a friend who was a jarhead and stationed at Guantanamo on his first tour. Amazing what the little ol' corporals know. The second part to this is what I don't know about. He'd said that the only reason the US was able to stay there under international law was because Cuba had cashed that one check.