Guarding the entrance to Guantánamo Bay since 1901, the U.S Naval Base known affectionately as “Gitmo” is the only American military enclave in a communist country.  It covers 118 sq kms (45 sq miles) one-third of that inland water  and is protected by a heavily patrolled perimeter fence that stretches 27 kms (17.4 miles).

The base is a byproduct of the 1898 Spanish-American War. A treaty signed more than a century ago by Washington and the newly born Republic of Cuba granted the United States the right to keep the site exclusively for coaling and naval operations.

Because the treaty cannot be broken unless both governments agreed to do so, the United States is assured a perpetual military presence on Cuban soil.

Under a May 1934 modification, the U.S. government agreed to pay Cuba $4,085 per year to lease the territory, though Fidel Castro has never deposited a single U.S. Treasury check because doing so would be an admission of yanquí sovereignty over the base.
Gitmo which happens to host the only McDonald’s and Subway fast-food outlets on Cuban soil has been the site of daring escapes by desperate Cubans swimming for miles at night in shark-infested waters, or running blindly across minefields under the eyes of Cuban border guards with shoot-to-kill orders.

Following the rupture in U.S.-Cuban diplomatic ties in the early ‘60s, all vital links with Cuba were abruptly broken, including the freshwater supply from Río Yateras, for which the U.S. paid $14,000 monthly for up to 2 million gallons per day.

The situation forced the U.S government to make the base self-sufficient for a permanent population of around 6,000 military personnel and their dependents.

In the past, Gitmo has sheltered thousands of desperate Haitians and Cubans, and in the mid-1990s even hosted refugees from war-torn Kosovo. More recently, Gitmo has become a tropical penitentiary for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured in Afghanistan.