Talk:Guantánamo Bay

Dispute part of paragraph three

I note that the intro to this article says: "This article is about the body of water. For the U.S. Naval base, see Guantanamo Bay Naval Base."

The second paragraph seems OK, except for several redlinks.

I dispute the third paragraph. Let me take my points of dispute that that point by point - please refer to this wikipedia article for more info:

1st sentence: "The United States took territorial control over most of Guantánamo Bay."

That assertion is untrue. In 1903, the Cuban government leased land around the southern portion of Guantanimo Bay to the U.S. The terms of the lease, but not the extent of the land, were modified in 1934. see

showing the extent of the base. Half (more or less) of the bay lies north of the base.

2nd sentence: "They did this under the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty."

In that 1903 treaty, the Cuban and U.S. government agreed to the terms of the lease. The text of the treaty can be seen here. The proper title of the treaty is "Agreement Between the United States and Cuba for the Lease of Lands for Coaling and Naval stations".

3rd sentence: "This reaty which says thatthe United States have a perpetual lease of the area."

Apart from spelling errors, substantially correct. The treaty says that the government of Cuba leases the land therein described to the U.S., "for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations". This was modified by the 1934 treaty (which can be seen here as follows: "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."

4th-6th sentences: "The current Cuban government rejects the Cuban-American Treaty because it violates article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The Cuban government therefore considers the U.S. presence in Guantánamo to be an illegal occupation of the area. Article 52 declares a treaty void only if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of international law [1](see below)."

This is very much overstated. A more neutral phrasing of the 4th sentence might be something like: "The current Cuban government claims that the 1903 Treaty violates article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties." The validity of that claim is still open to question. See, for example, [alfreddezayas.com/Lectures/GUANTANAMOlecture2.doc this Microsoft Word document], in which the author says, in part, "I will endeavor first to elucidate the status of Guantánamo Bay in international law, taking account of the terms of the 1903 lease agreement and all subsequent developments. In this context, I will focus on the implications of the term “sovereignty” as used in the lease agreement and in United States caselaw, and outline some of the legal consequences that follow therefrom.". Section E of the document is the one of interest.

7th sentence: "The southern portion of the bay is surrounded by the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a naval base established in 1898."

Correct. (I needed a second look at the map to see this).

All of the items mentioned above are far outside the stated purpose of the article, to wit: "This article is about the body of water. For the U.S. Naval base, see Guantanamo Bay Naval Base". I suggest that the sentences of the third paragraph of this article, as discussed above, be stricken. -- Boracay Bill 23:49, 22 June 2007 (UTC) (re-edited Boracay Bill 00:15, 23 June 2007 (UTC))

Wikipedia is a project where anyone can edit articles; I rherefore invite you to change the article as you see fit --Eptalon 09:15, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Appended

I have edited/appended the article. I have extended the history section. After the Spanish-American war, Cuba became an independet state. It soon fell under the influence of the United States. The united states then installed a puppet government. With their leader, they agreed on the Platt amendment. This is basically the verson you find on other wikipedias as well, like the German one. --Eptalon 10:52, 23 June 2007 (UTC)