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

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/ts_nm/cuba_castro_usa_dc ^

[ops33]

Years ago in a college history class I remember the prof talking about the Spanish-American War and Guantanamo. IIRC, the treaty signed with the new Cuban government gives the US the naval base in perpetuity as long as we make the payments.

If that is correct, to stop making the payments means we would be giving up the base. I think that some time in the future when Cuba is no longer under a communist dictatorship we will leave Guantanamo.

[John123]

Maybe someone who knows a lot about Guantanamo Bay can answer me this... Are we actually leasing this naval base from Cuba? If so, how much longer is the lease?

[Grizzled Bear]

“If we have to wait for the collapse of the (capitalist) system, we will wait,” Castro wrote.

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SNORK!!! Bwahahahahaaha!!!!

Whoa * * *

I think I pissed my pants from laughing so hard!

[samson1097]

From wikipedia (of course, not always the most reliable internet source):

By the war’s end, the U.S. government had obtained control of all of Cuba from Spain. A perpetual lease for the area around Guantánamo Bay was offered February 23, 1903, from Tomás Estrada Palma, an American citizen, who became the first President of Cuba. The Cuban-American Treaty gave, among other things, the Republic of Cuba ultimate sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay while granting the United States “complete jurisdiction and control” of the area for coaling and naval stations.

A 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in U.S. gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 in U.S. dollars, and made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it or the U.S. abandoned the base property.

[John123]

made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to break it or the U.S. abandoned the base property.

Thanks man. Castro is screwed... :)

[hiredhand]

I fail to understand why the putrid chunk of flesh with the scraggly beard is still breathing perfectly good air down there on that patch of dirt in the ocean. ...and for that matter why the American flag isn't flying over the island as well.

Call me old fashioned, but he's got nothing down there that the 1st Marine Battalion can't take care of. But you know how it goes with us being governed by a bunch of asshat spineless globalist panty-waist cowards and all. They're having enough problems just letting Marines BE Marines in Iraq now!...so I suppose a good ole BFI overthrow is just plain out of the question. I can always hope though. :-)

[Constantine XIII]

“The Cuban leader, the last of the major Cold War figures still alive, is seen as a Stalinist tyrant by his enemies but is widely admired in the Third World for standing up to the United States, a David-versus-Goliath role he has relished.”

Margaret Thatcher? Mikhail Gorbachev? LOL.

[dfwgator]

What about Helmut Kohl?

[shield]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1882807/posts?page=66#66

[Constantine XIII]

He went into the slaw business. *rimshot*

[ExSoldier]

I fail to understand why the American flag isn't flying over the island as well.

We took the island entirely in the Spanish American War and decided the island had nothing we wanted in the way of natural resources. Sugarcane didn't count. Be glad we decided to give it back and that we never decided to invade after Fidel took control. Imagine the strain on our welfare system! One thing we wouldn't have to mess with is the educational system. They're already exactly alike. In fact where it concerns public education, I think we copied them.

[dfwgator]

Methinks pretty soon Fidel is going to be “cashing in” all right.