Cuba demands closure of Guantanamo base - envoy

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Washington should close the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay to restore relations with Havana, Cuba's ambassador to Russia said on Wednesday. "No American base will be operating in Cuba under the socialist government," Emilio Losada Garcia said. The diplomat said the US naval base was illegal as it had been opened under the US-dependent government. Cuba signed a treaty that leased Guantanamo Bay to the United States for use as a naval station in 1903. He said the US withdrawal from Guantanamo Bay was a condition for total normalisation of bilateral relations. In December 2014, US and Cuban Presidents Barack Obama and Fidel Castro that they would move towards resuming diplomatic relations and reop embassies in each other’s countries. Read more