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June 10, 1898: After a U.S. Marine Corps battalion land on Cuba during the Spanish-American War and camp at Guantanamo The United States leases 45 square miles of land and water. The land was intended to be a coaling station
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A treaty was signed and ratified by both governments finalizing the lease agreement.
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A reaffirmed treaty granted Cuban and her trading partner to use the bay and changed the lease payment to $4085. It also was added that termination of the lease could only happen with consent of the United States and Cuba governments.
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Cuban rebel forces kidnapped Sailors and Marines outside the base gates. They were held hostage for 22 days in the hills before they were released.
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Castro led revolutionaries overthrow the Cuban government causing the United States to ban servicemen from entering Cuban territory.
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President Dwight Eisenhower severs official diplomatic relations with Cuba causing many Cubans to seek refuge on the base.
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10/1962 Evacuations The presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba lead to the evacuation of service people stationed here and their family members. The beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the source of a quarantine of the island. The evacuees were allowed to return to the base by Christmas after the Soviet Union removed the missiles.
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Tasked to support Joint Task Force 160, the base provided humanitarian assistance to thousands of Haitian and Cuban Migrants. By September the migrant population rose to more than 45,000. The migrants had all departed by Nov 1, 1995
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The start of the current detention operation begins after 20 unlawful combatants from Afghanistan are brought in. They are not called prisoners of war and therefore do not have rights under the Geneva Convention.
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Disguised as a detainee Specialist Sean Baker was pretending to be an inmate for an extraction drill. Believing Specialist Baker was a real inmate U.S. soldiers beat him during the practice. After receiving a tramatic brain injury Specialist Baker was released from the military a year later.
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Captives from foreign national at Guantanamo have the right to legal counsel and the ability to challenge the legality of the captivity. In the first four years of the ruling more than four hundred detainees have been released.
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President Barack Obama issues an order to close the prison at the Guantánamo Naval Station.
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The United States Senate votes to keep the prison at Guantánamo open.
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U.S. government fines Cuban fishermen after fishing in Florida. Castro in retaliation cuts off water supplies to the base
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During a news conference Obama stated, “maintaining the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay was both expensive and problematic. During a time of budget cuts, we spend $150 million each year to imprison 166 people.”
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Closure President Obama has selected Clifford Sloan to lead in the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Sloan, a high-powered Washington Lawyer, has extensive government experience.
