To the Editor:
Re “Decaying Buildings and Sluggish Justice System at Guantánamo Prison” (news article, Dec. 16):
Over the years, there have been discussions over Guantánamo Bay prison and its inmates, but there has not been enough discussion about what right we have to be there in the first place.
The colonial treaty we imposed on Cuba in 1903 (modified in 1934) allowed the American use of the base only as a coaling and naval station, which certainly did not include a prison complex. In any case, colonial-imposed treaties should not be viewed as valid.
We have long felt that Cuba should be our property. President James Polk offered Spain $100 million to buy the island. President Franklin Pierce increased that to $130 million, while President Willliam McKinley upped the offer to $300 million. When Spain still refused to sell, we invaded Cuba and turned it into a colony or protectorate that lasted until the Castro-led overthrow of Batista in 1959.
The 1903 treaty, which we had compelled the occupied Cubans to sign, gave us the naval station in Guantánamo Bay. But we nullified it by violating Article II, which declared that the base was “for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.” This does not include a prison complex. The real issue is our imperialism.
Roger Carasso
Santa Fe, N.M.
The writer is a professor emeritus of political science at California State University, Northridge.
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