How did the US get Guantanamo Bay?

Where is Guantanamo Bay Cuba?
Guantanamo Bay is located on the far south east corner of the Island of Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is located in the Guantanamo province of Cuba, which among other things, is home to one of Cuba’s national parks which is a prime bird watching location, as well as various scuba diving sites off the South coast of Cuba. The USA owns only one part of Guantanamo Bay where it has built a permanent naval base known as Camp Delta. The total area of Cuban land upon which the USA has built their naval base is 116 km squared.

 How did the US get Guantanamo Bay?
 The US first seized Guantanamo Bay and established a naval base there in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. In 1903, the US and Cuba signed a lease granting the US permission to use the land as a coaling and naval station. The lease satisfied the Platt Amendment; this amendment stated a naval base at "certain specific points agreed upon by the President of the United States" was needed to "enable the United States to maintain independence of Cuba." The US and Cuba signed a treaty in 1934, granting the US a perpetual lease; private enterprise is not allowed under the treaty. Both the US and Cuba must agree on any termination of the lease, effectively making the land US soil since the US will never agree to give up the property.

The US Government originally saw Guantanamo Bay as a point of strategic value to its Navy in protecting the Panama Canal. Of course with advances in military technology and US hegemony in the Latin American region, the US government no longer needs Guantanamo Bay for military purposes. Guantanamo Bay today does more to serve political purposes in its long standing campaign against Cuba. Immediately after the Cuban revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro asked for the return of Guantanamo Bay which the US refused. The Cubans in turn responded by cutting off water and electricity supplies to the US naval base on Guantanamo Bay. Since that time, US military personnel stationed at Guantanamo Bay have been forbidden entry to Cuba and an unfriendly stand off has occurred in the area ever since.