Cuba and Guantánamo

Cuba complains a lot about U.S. control over Guantánamo Bay. Raúl Castro did so again not long ago. If you remember, the United States took it during the Spanish-American War in 1898, wrote it into a 1903 treaty, then updated it in 1934 with the aid of, among others, Fulgencio Batista.

So op-eds arguing that Cuba has no right even to talk about it are funny to read.

A few short years after the Spanish-American War, 

Cuba emerged not as a colony of Spain but as an 

independent and sovereign republic - a change in 

status made possible only thanks to U.S. military 

assistance.

I must say I've never seen anyone even try to make this claim, so I am impressed. If you also remember, the 1903 Platt Amendment explicitly noted all the ways in which Cuba was not allowed to be sovereign. In neither 1903 nor 1934 was the United States treating Cuba as sovereign.

It's very hard to argue that Cuba doesn't have a legitimate claim over it, and even harder to claim Cuba was sovereign when Guantánamo Bay was granted to the U.S.