The Guantánamo lease is perpetual and eviction-proof, reverting only by mutual consent.

Evidence

In 1903, U.S. officials pressured Cuban leaders into accepting thinly disguised U.S. rule in exchange for Cuba’s official independence and the withdrawal of most (though not all) U.S. troops. The U.S.-penned Platt Amendment allowed the United States to invade Cuba at will to ensure stability and so-called independence, prevented Cuba from making treaties with other governments, and permitted the construction of U.S. “coaling or naval stations.” The two governments also signed a lease giving the U.S. military “complete jurisdiction and control” over forty-five square miles of Guantánamo Bay—an area bigger than Washington, D.C. Tellingly, the “lease” had no termination date, which effectively meant that Cuba had ceded the territory to its northern neighbor. In exchange, the United States agreed to build a fence, prevent commercial or industrial activities within the base, and pay a meager yearly fee of $2,000. … Cuban leaders would eventually annul the Platt Amendment, but U.S. officials insisted on a new treaty to hold on to Guantánamo Bay. The treaty continued the terms of the original lease and stipulated that Cuba could never force the United States to leave. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 68

Categorization

• QUESTION: Do any international-law scholars consider this lease legally void today, given the coercion under which Cuba signed it?
• XREF: Relevant to analysis of the current debate over whether the lease is perpetual and whether Cuba can force closure; the £2,000 yearly fee is $4,085 today in inflation-adjusted terms but the claim remains that it was set at 1903 value.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 68