Skip to content
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Cuba–United States relations

20 min listen · Ch. 1 of 8
8 sections
  • Cuba-United States relations once rested on a prediction dressed up as political science. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote to the American minister in Spain about Cuba's expected fate. He said the island, once broken loose from Madrid, would have no choice but to fall toward Washington. Adams compared Cuba to "an apple severed by the tempest from its native tree," one that "cannot choose but fall to the ground." Nearly two centuries later, the two countries are still negotiating, this time over oil, fuel shortages, and blackouts. What happened between that confident prediction and today's standoff? And why has the relationship between Cuba and the United States refused to end in either full separation or lasting friendship?

  • Cuban merchants began traveling regularly to North American ports in the early 1700s, trading illegally to dodge Spanish colonial taxes. Spain officially opened Cuban ports to North American commerce in November 1776, and the island grew steadily more dependent on that trade. By 1820, Thomas Jefferson called Cuba the most interesting territory the United States could ever add to its system of states. He urged Secretary of War John C. Calhoun to seize the first opportunity to take it.

    President James K. Polk sent his minister to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to offer $100 million for Cuba in the late 1840s. Saunders spoke almost no Spanish. Secretary of State James Buchanan admitted that even in English, Saunders sometimes murdered it. Spain answered that its officials would rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean than sold. In 1854, American diplomats drafted a secret plan called the Ostend Manifesto, offering Spain $130 million for the island. The plan hinted at war if Spain refused. The proposal leaked, triggered a public scandal, and collapsed, partly because anti-slavery campaigners opposed adding another slave state to the union. Cuba then held roughly half a million enslaved people, and annexation would have given pro-slavery lawmakers more influence in Congress. None of these purchase bids succeeded. American economic power grew anyway. By 1877, Americans were buying 83 percent of Cuba's total exports. Investors used the economic strain of the Ten Years' War, fought from 1868-78, to buy up estates at low prices.

    Cuban rebels won early victories in a second war of independence in 1897. President William McKinley responded by offering Spain $300 million for the island. Spain refused, and the explosion that sank the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor helped tip the two countries into the Spanish-American War. Spain signed the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of December 1898, renouncing all claims to Cuba. Within days, an American-owned company called the Island of Cuba Real Estate Company opened for business, selling Cuban land to U.S. buyers.

    U.S. military rule over Cuba lasted until 1902, when Washington finally granted the island formal independence. The Teller Amendment of 1898 had disavowed any American intent to exercise sovereignty over Cuba. Even so, U.S. troops only withdrew after Cuba accepted the Platt Amendment, an 1901 measure written by Connecticut Senator Orville H. Platt. The amendment let the United States intervene in Cuban affairs to preserve good government. It also required Cuba to lease land for U.S. naval bases, including part of Guantánamo Bay, where a naval station had opened in 1898. Those terms shaped Cuban-American relations for the next 33 years. The lease itself proved remarkably durable. Since 1974, the United States has paid Cuba $4,085 a year for the Guantánamo Bay tract. That tract covers 45 square miles of land and water on the bay's southeastern shore. Before 1934, the rent had been $2,000 a year, paid in gold, until the rate was adjusted to match gold's dollar value.

    United States Governor Charles Edward Magoon took over Cuba's government for three years after a rebellion partly led by José Miguel Gómez. U.S. forces intervened militarily again from 1906-09, in 1912, and from 1917-22. In 1912, American troops were sent specifically to put down Afro-Cuban protests against discrimination. By 1926, U.S. companies owned 60 percent of the Cuban sugar industry and imported 95 percent of the island's total sugar crop. President Calvin Coolidge visited Havana from the 15th to the 17th of January 1928. He led the U.S. delegation to the Sixth International Conference of American States. It was the only trip abroad Coolidge made as president. It would also be the last time a sitting American president visited Cuba for 88 years.

  • General Fulgencio Batista rose to power in the 1930s, ruling Cuba as its de facto leader. He later served as elected president for two terms, from 1940-44 and 1952-59. Cuba and the United States signed a new Treaty of Relations in 1934. After Batista returned to power through a military coup planned in Florida, President Harry S. Truman quickly recognized his government and supplied military and economic aid. American ambassador Arthur Gardner later recalled that Batista had always leaned toward the United States and that the two countries never had a better friend. Gardner also said it was regrettable that Batista was known to be taking a cut of nearly everything done in the country. Gardner admitted he had no direct proof of this. Even so, Gardner still called Batista's performance an amazing job. Havana, meanwhile, became a haven for American organized crime figures, hosting the Havana Conference in 1946.

    Armed conflict broke out in July 1953 between Batista's government and rebels led by Fidel Castro. The United States sold Batista's forces $8.238 million worth of weapons during the fighting. Cuban president-in-waiting Manuel Urrutia Lleó pressed Washington to stop the arms sales. In March 1958, the U.S. government halted rifle sales to Batista. State Department adviser William Wieland privately said he knew Batista was considered by many, in his words, "a son of a bitch." He insisted that American interests came first. Batista was, as he put it, "our son of a bitch." That halt changed the course of the Cuban Revolution.

    President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized the new Cuban government after Batista's fall in 1959. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith was replaced by Philip Bonsal within days. Fidel Castro visited the United States as a guest of the Press Club between the 15th and the 26th of April 1959. During the visit, he laid a wreath at the Lincoln Memorial. He also met Vice President Richard Nixon to outline his reform plans for Cuba. By September, Ambassador Bonsal was formally protesting to Castro about the treatment of American agricultural and utility interests on the island. By September 1959, Bonsal's protests had produced no change in Cuban policy, and Washington began weighing tougher measures.

  • A French freighter called La Coubre exploded in Havana Harbor in March 1960, killing more than 75 people. Fidel Castro blamed the United States, though he admitted he could offer no evidence. That same month, President Eisenhower secretly authorized the CIA to organize, train, and equip Cuban refugees as a guerrilla force against Castro. After Washington severed diplomatic relations in January 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. Two of the seven U.S. ships involved belonged to the United Fruit Company. That detail carried personal weight for Castro, whose father had worked as a laborer for the company.

    Washington did not stop after the Bay of Pigs failure. It pursued a program known as Operation Mongoose, or the Cuban Project, combining terrorist bombings, sabotage, psychological operations, and assassination attempts against Cuban leaders. The Joint Chiefs of Staff separately proposed Operation Northwoods, a plan to stage attacks on American targets and hijackings. The goal was to build public support for military action against Cuba. In 1962, U.S. forces staged a mock invasion of a Caribbean island under Operation Ortsac, a name that spelled Castro backward. A later U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee report confirmed more than eight attempted plots to kill Castro between 1960-65. It also cited additional plans targeting other Cuban leaders.

    Tensions peaked in 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft photographed Soviet construction of intermediate-range missile sites on the island. That discovery triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even amid the standoff, Kennedy administration officials and Cuban representatives began building quiet back channels. Even so, Washington's economic measures against the island were only beginning to escalate.

  • Cuba nationalized every American-owned onshore oil refinery in 1960, seizing about $1.7 billion in U.S. oil assets. The United States retaliated by prohibiting all exports to Cuba on the 19th of October 1960, and severed remaining diplomatic ties within months. President John F. Kennedy widened the restrictions into a near-total trade ban in 1962, exempting only non-subsidized sales of food and medicine. A year later, Washington barred U.S. citizens from travel and financial transactions with Cuba. The embargo has continued in varying forms ever since.

    The Cuban Democracy Act of October 1992, known as the Torricelli Law, barred foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba. It also blocked family remittances. The Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act of 1996, the Helms-Burton Act, extended sanctions to non-U.S. companies doing business with the island. Multinational firms had to choose between the Cuban and American markets, and most chose the larger one. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 later allowed licensed food and medical exports. Approval still required sign-off from the U.S. Commerce Department and Treasury.

    Cuba's medical missions, one of the country's main export services, became a flashpoint of their own. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expanded sanctions in 2025 to restrict visas for Cuban medical officials and their international partners. Barbados' prime minister, Mia Mottley, whose country relies on Cuban doctors, publicly condemned the U.S. position. Rubio's 2025 sanctions were only the latest addition to a list of trade restrictions Washington keeps adding to.

  • U.S. ambassador William Attwood met repeatedly with Cuban official Carlos Lechuga starting in 1963. Attorney General Robert Kennedy worried the contact would hurt his brother's re-election chances. President Kennedy kept the channel open anyway, reaching Castro indirectly through media figures such as Lisa Howard and French reporter Jean Daniel. Days before Kennedy's assassination, Castro told Daniel he was willing to declare Barry Goldwater his friend if that would guarantee Kennedy's re-election. Castro tried the same approach with Kennedy's successor, writing to President Lyndon Johnson. He called hostility between the two countries, in his words, both unnatural and unnecessary, and said it could be eliminated through dialogue.

    At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton shook hands briefly at a group photo session. It was the first such handshake between a U.S. and Cuban president in more than 40 years, according to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Castro described the moment as a gesture of dignity and courtesy; the White House downplayed it as insignificant. A more consequential handshake came on the 10th of December 2013, at Nelson Mandela's memorial service. Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shook hands there, and Castro said, in English, "Mr. President, I am Castro."

    Secret talks between Cuban and U.S. officials, brokered partly by Pope Francis and hosted in Canada and Vatican City, produced a framework for normalizing relations. Castro and Obama announced it simultaneously on the 17th of December 2014. As part of the deal, Cuba released aid worker Alan Gross and intelligence officer Rolando Sarraff Trujillo. The United States, in turn, freed the three remaining members of the Cuban Five. Cuban-American senators Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz condemned the shift, even as opinion polls showed it was broadly popular with the American public. On the 20th of July 2015, embassies reopened in Washington and Havana, restoring formal diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961. Barack Obama visited Cuba in March 2016, the first sitting U.S. president to do so in 88 years. That August, a JetBlue flight to Santa Clara became the first direct commercial flight between the two countries since the early 1960s. On the 28th of November 2016, the first regularly scheduled commercial flight in more than 50 years landed in Havana from Miami. The plane was an American Airlines jet.

  • President Donald Trump suspended the policy of unconditional sanctions relief for Cuba in June 2017. He left the door open for what he called a better deal. That November, his administration reinstated business and travel restrictions that had been loosened under Obama, effective the 9th of November 2017. In August 2017, American and Canadian diplomats stationed in Havana began experiencing unusual symptoms affecting the brain, including hearing loss, dizziness, and nausea. The condition became known as Havana syndrome. American investigators were never able to identify its cause. By September 2017, the U.S. had ordered nonessential diplomats and their families out of Cuba.

    The United States had first named Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism in 1982, a designation that lasted until 2015. On the 12th of January 2021, the U.S. State Department re-added Cuba to the list. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba harbored American fugitives, including Assata Shakur, along with members of Colombia's National Liberation Army. He added that Cuba supported Nicolás Maduro's government in Venezuela. The Biden administration largely kept the renewed embargo in place. In 2021, observers described Biden's approach as tougher on Cuba's government than Trump's had been. In May 2022, the U.S. refused to invite Cuba to the 9th Summit of the Americas, drawing criticism from other Latin American countries.

    On the 22nd of July 2021, President Biden told Cuban-American leaders he condemned the mass detentions and sham trials. He said they were meant to intimidate and silence Cuban dissidents. His administration sanctioned a Cuban special forces unit known as the Boinas Negras, along with individual officials, for abuses tied to that year's protests. By January 2022, the U.S. had placed travel restrictions on eight members of the Cuban government. Cuba retaliated by banning U.S. cash deposits at its banks. It had to reverse the ban by 2023 amid its own economic distress, leaving the island short of medicine, food, and gasoline.

    U.S. intelligence officials later reported that Cuba worked to build relationships with sympathetic American media figures ahead of the 2022 elections. The goal, they said, was to discredit U.S. politicians seen as hostile to Havana. During the 2024 elections, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Cuba ran narrower operations focused on opposing anti-regime candidates. In January 2025, the U.S. government briefly removed Cuba from the terrorism list under Biden. The Trump administration then re-added it days later, alongside a prisoner exchange. By July 2025, Trump had ordered greater enforcement of the Cuban travel ban. He also barred Cuban First Secretary Miguel Díaz-Canel and two ministers from entering the United States, later extending restrictions to Cuba's luxury real estate sector.

  • On the 3rd of January 2026-32 Cuban troops were killed in Venezuela during the U.S. intervention there. It was the biggest single loss of Cuban combatants to the American military since the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. Trump responded by vowing to cut off Venezuela's oil supply to Cuba and urged Havana to, in his words, make a deal. Oil sales from Venezuela to Cuba stopped following the operation.

    On the 29th of January 2026, Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency over Cuba. It authorized tariffs on countries supplying the island with oil. His administration claimed Cuba had links to Hamas and Hezbollah and called the island an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. security and foreign policy. Mexico halted its own oil shipments to Cuba after the order. President Claudia Sheinbaum said the choice was Mexico's sovereign decision, not a response to U.S. pressure. On the 12th of February 2026, United Nations experts condemned the order. They called the resulting fuel blockade "a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order." The episode became known as the 2026 Cuban crisis.

    On the 6th of March 2026, U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones established a working group of federal prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration officials. Their task was to pursue cases against people connected to Cuba's government and Communist Party. Florida lawmakers urged the Trump administration to reopen its investigation into the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft. The group included former governor Rick Scott and Representatives María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez. Cuban MiG-29 fighters had shot down the planes, killing three Cuban-Americans and one Cuban U.S. resident. A week later, on the 13th of March, First Secretary Miguel Díaz-Canel made a public admission. He confirmed, for the first time, that his government was holding diplomatic talks with Washington over the fuel and energy blockade.

    In May 2026, the Trump administration moved to unseal criminal charges against Raúl Castro over that same 1996 shootdown. Federal prosecutors expected to file the indictment in Miami on the 20th of May, pending grand jury approval. Days before that, on the 14th of May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials in Havana. The Cuban government described the meeting as an effort to improve political dialogue. The meeting came a day after Cuba's energy minister described the country's fuel supply. He said Cuba had, in his words, absolutely no fuel, no diesel, and no fuel oil, because of the U.S. blockade. Protests broke out in Havana as residents faced blackouts lasting up to 22 hours. The grand jury's decision on the Castro indictment was still to come.

Common questions

When did Cuba and the United States restore diplomatic relations after the Cold War rupture?

Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on the 20th of July 2015, ending a break that had lasted since 1961. The reopening followed secret talks brokered partly by Pope Francis and held in Canada and Vatican City.

Why does the United States maintain a trade embargo against Cuba?

The United States has maintained a comprehensive trade embargo against Cuba since 1960, after Cuba nationalized American-owned property, including onshore oil refineries worth about $1.7 billion. Congress later expanded the embargo through the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.

What happened during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba?

In April 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched an armed invasion at the Bay of Pigs and were defeated by Cuban armed forces. Two of the seven U.S. ships involved in the operation belonged to the United Fruit Company.

How much does the United States pay Cuba to lease the Guantánamo Bay naval base?

The United States has paid Cuba $4,085 per year to lease Guantánamo Bay since 1974. Before that, the lease was $2,000 per year, paid in gold, until 1934, when the rate was adjusted to match the dollar value of gold.

How many times has the United States designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism?

The United States has designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism three times: from 1982 to 2015, from 2021 to 2025, and again from 2025 onward. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Cuba's harboring of American fugitives, including Assata Shakur, when the designation returned in January 2021.

What caused the 2026 Cuban crisis between Cuba and the United States?

The 2026 Cuban crisis followed a January 2026 U.S. intervention in Venezuela that killed 32 Cuban troops, after which Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba were cut off. On the 29th of January 2026, President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency and imposing tariffs on countries supplying Cuba with oil, citing alleged links between Cuba and groups including Hamas and Hezbollah.

All sources

168 references cited across the entry

  1. 1ReportCuba, the U.S., and the concept of sovereignty: Toward a common vocabulary?Ted Piccone et al. — Brookings Institution — December 19, 2016
  2. 3JournalThe deep, historical roots of Cuban anti-imperialismErnesto Domínguez López et al. — Taylor & Francis — 2 November 2017
  3. 4JournalCuban-U.S. Relations: The Terrorism DimensionCarlos Alzugaray et al. — Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales — July–December 2011
  4. 5BookCuba and the U.S. empire : a chronological historyJane Franklin — New York University Press — 2016
  5. 6BookCuba under siege : American policy, the revolution, and its peopleKeith Bolender — Palgrave Macmillan — 2012
  6. 7BookWashington rules : America's path to permanent warAndrew Bacevich — Henry Holt and Company — 2010
  7. 8ReportKennedy and Cuba: Operation MongooseThe George Washington University — October 3, 2019
  8. 9ReportInternational Policy ReportCenter for International Policy — 1977
  9. 10BookWar and Cold War in American foreign policy, 1942–62Nicola Miller — Palgrave Macmillan — 2002
  10. 11BookThat infernal little Cuban republic : the United States and the Cuban RevolutionLars Schoultz — University of North Carolina Press — 2009
  11. 12U.S.-Cuba RelationsClaire Felter et al. — 7 March 2019
  12. 13NewsThe Pope's Diplomatic Miracle: Ending the U.S.-Cuba Cold WarBarbie Latza Nadeau — 17 December 2014
  13. 14First take: Key points from the President's announcement on Cuba SanctionsPwC Financial Services Regulatory Practice, December 2014
  14. 15BookCuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American HistoryAda Ferrer — Simon and Schuster — 2021-09-07
  15. 18BookBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War eraJames M. McPherson — Oxford University Press — 1988
  16. 19BookLopez's Expeditions to Cuba, 1850 and 1851Anderson C. Quisenberry — John P. Morton & Company — 1906
  17. 20BookHistory of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. II: 1854–1860James Ford Rhodes — Harper & Bros. — 1893
  18. 21Doing Business with Cuba – The Complete GuidePatricia Maroday — 12 January 2015
  19. 22José Martí: Apostle of Cuban IndependenceJ.A. Sierra — historyofcuba.com — 1898
  20. 25Travels of President Calvin CoolidgeHistorian — U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian — 2018
  21. 29DSCA Historical Sales BookDefense Security Cooperation Agency — 2020
  22. 33Book"One Hell of a Gamble": Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964Aleksandr Fursenko et al. — W. W. Norton & Company — 1998
  23. 34CubaJohn Pike — Globalsecurity.org
  24. 35BookThe Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin AmericaStephen Rabe — Oxford University Press — 2012
  25. 36BookThe Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-62Fabián Escalante Font — Ocean Press — 1995
  26. 37BookThe American Way: Stories of InvasionTalal Abu Shawish et al. — Comma Press — 2021-09-23
  27. 40BookThe Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin AmericaSteven Rabe — Oxford University Press
  28. 43Profile in CourageQuery.nytimes.com — 8 June 2003
  29. 45NewsExile Group Fights Castro With WordsJay Ducassi — June 17, 1984
  30. 48NewsExiles' Message Embraced at U.N.Juan O. Tamayo — March 3, 1992
  31. 50NewsAngelos 'Dominant' Force Behind Cuba-Orioles SeriesDavid Ginsburg — 2 May 1999
  32. 52The earth-shattering, 'delightful' Clinton-Castro handshakeClaudio Campuzano — 18 September 2000
  33. 53Activities by Country: CubaThe Carter Center
  34. 56Bush Tightens Cuba EmbargoAntiwar.com — 7 May 2004
  35. 59NewsUS and Cuba's complex relationsDaniel Schweimler — 9 May 2002
  36. 61US tightens Cuba embargo enforcementTurkishPress.com — 10 October 2006
  37. 62NewsCuba aid money 'wasted' by exiles16 November 2006
  38. 65Planning for a Cuba without CastroNick Caistor — 11 April 2006
  39. 68Cuba Vows Communist Succession Post-CastroAnita Snow — 16 July 2006
  40. 72JournalBiodiversity without BordersBrian Boom — 14 August 2012
  41. 73JournalEpidemics and Opportunities for U.S.-Cuba CollaborationMarguerite Jiménez — 6 September 2014
  42. 75NewsRaul Castro: Cuba willing to sit down with USPeter Orsi — 26 July 2012
  43. 76NewsObama shakes hand of Cuba's Raúl Castro at Mandela memorialPascal Fletcher — 10 December 2013
  44. 78Obama-Castro Handshake Shows Thaw in Relations With CubaCarol E. Lee and Jared A. Favole — 10 December 2013
  45. 80NewsU.S., Cuba restore ties after 50 yearsReuters — 17 December 2014
  46. 82NewsObama Announces U.S. and Cuba Will Resume RelationsPeter Baker — 17 December 2014
  47. 83NewsReaction In Little Havana: Deal is 'ultimate bailout'Alan Gomez — 17 December 2014
  48. 88NewsMenendez blasts Obama on CubaJonathan Tamari — Interstate General Media, LLC — 17 December 2014
  49. 89NewsCuban-American Senators Rip Obama's Cuba TradeAlex Rogers — 17 December 2014
  50. 94NewsCuba to Be Removed From U.S. List of Nations That Sponsor TerrorismRandall C. Archibold et al. — 14 April 2015
  51. 100NewsUnited States and Cuba reestablish diplomatic relationsMimi Whitefield — 20 July 2015
  52. 101NewsWith Obama Visit to Cuba, Old Battle Lines FadeDamien Cave — 26 March 2016
  53. 103US commercial flights take off for CubaPatrick Oppmann et al. — 31 August 2016
  54. 107NewsBusiness or Politics? What Trump Means for CubaFrances Robles — 15 November 2016
  55. 108Trump chips away at Obama's legacy on CubaDan Merica and Jim Acosta — 15 June 2017
  56. 110Essential Washington14 April 2018
  57. 113Trump chips away at Obama's legacy on CubaDan Merica et al. — June 16, 2017
  58. 114Trump cancels Obama's 'one-sided deal' with CubaCordelia Lynch — Sky News — June 17, 2017
  59. 119NewsPompeo Returns Cuba to Terrorism Sponsor List, Constraining Biden's PlansMichael Crowley et al. — 11 January 2021
  60. 121NewsCuba Named a State Sponsor of Terrorism by Trump AdministrationMichael R. Gordon — 11 January 2021
  61. 122NewsOpinion A Sanction Worth Lifting in CubaMary Anastasia O’Grady — 2021-09-06
  62. 124NewsBiden Ramps Up Pressure on Cuba, Abandoning Obama's ApproachErnesto Londoño et al. — 2021-08-09
  63. 136NewsCuba lifts ban on cash deposits in US dollars at banksVanesa Buschschlüter — 2023-04-11
  64. 143NewsUS-funded Cuban media in limbo after Trump orders USAID closedDavid Sheerwood — February 10, 2025
  65. 145The Unlikely Biden-Trump Throughline on CubaWill Freeman — 2 July 2025
  66. 149NewsTrump tells Cuba to 'make a deal' or face the consequencesJon Henley et al. — January 11, 2026
  67. 155Justice Department official in Miami eyes criminal cases against Cuba leadersAlanna Durkin Richer The Associated Press — 2026-03-06
  68. 165BookNaval Station Guantanamo Bay: History and Legal Issues Regarding Its Lease AgreementsJennifer K. Elsea et al. — Congressional Research Service — 17 November 2016
  69. 167JournalGuantanamo and U.S. LawSweeney, Joseph C. — 2006
  70. 168NewsGuantánamo By the NumbersCarol Rosenberg — October 25, 2018
  71. 169NewsCastro: Cuba not cashing US Guantanamo rent checksAnthony Boadle — Reuters — 17 August 2007