Inside Guantanamo Bay Naval Station

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

A ferry crosses Guantanamo Bay from one side of the base to the other. A treaty reaffirmed the lease of the naval base in 1934, and granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay. It also required that both the U.S. and Cuba must mutually consent to terminate the lease.

AP Photo/Hans Deryk

United States Marines stop in front of the northeast gate of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The sign over the Cuban gate reads: "Republic of Cuba, Free Territory in America." The number of Cubans, once in the hundreds, that worked on the base has declined since the 1959 revolution, when the Navy stopped hiring from the nearby town. All that remains of the once friendly and fluid relations between Cuba and its U.S. tenant are 10 Cuban workers who still cross two military checkpoints everyday to get to their jobs.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide if foreigners held at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba should have access to American courts.

AP Photo/Tim Chapman

A ferry is loaded with vehicles to be transported across Guantanamo Bay. The base is divided into two distinct areas by the 2 1/2 mile-wide Guantanamo Bay. The airfield is located on the Leeward side and the main base is on the Windward side. Ferry service provides transportation between the two areas.

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

Cuban soldiers observe U.S. activity from guard towers located around the perimeter of the base.Although would-be Cuban defectors have occasionally tried to run across the mined perimeter or swim into the base, the border areas have been peaceful since 1995, when U.S. and Cuban officials signed migration accords.

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

German tourists observe Guantanamo Bay Naval Station from the Malones lookout on the Cuban side of the fenceline. About 5,000 visitors a year -- most of them Europeans -- travel here for a view of the naval base and the deep blue Guantanamo Bay. The tourist attraction, which includes amplification viewers and a small outdoor restaurant, was opened in 1991.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

An aerial view of the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.U.S. Marines set up base at Guantanamo on June 6, 1898, at the outset of the Spanish-American War. In 1903, the newly established Cuban Republic acceded to U.S. demands to lease Guantanamo.The rent was and remains 2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at $4,085, but Fidel Castro says the base is an affront to Cuban sovereignty and he refuses to cash the United States' annually delivered check.

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

The U.S. Naval Hospital at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was dedicated in 1956, just a few years before Fidel Castro rose to power. Because of its isolation, Guantanamo Bay has to be self-sufficient. A desalination plant on the base produces 3.4 million gallons of water and more than 800,000 kilowatt hours of electricity daily.

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

A Cuban military vehicle patrols the 17.4-mile perimeter of the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay. The base is guarded by barbed wire, mine fields, a barrier of prickly cactus ordered by Castro, and the eyes of both U.S. and Cuban sentries.

AP Photo/Jose Goitia

An airplane lands at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. There are regular two-hour flights between Jacksonville, Fla., and Guantanamo, but no regular travel between Guantanamo and Castro's Cuba.

KRT

The U.S. Naval Station straddles both sides of Guantanamo Bay on the southeastern coast of Cuba.The 3,000 residents of the base are surrounded by communist Cuba, but they live in American-style homes, shop for American products and drive American cars. They have cable TV and radio stations, and their children attend schools that could be found in any suburban neighborhood.