The Continued US Violation of Cuban Sovereignty and Independence: The 102nd Anniversary of the Platt Amendment
 

March 2nd, 2004

"The Government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence".

Thus states Article III of the infamous Platt Amendment which went into force on March 2nd 1901, 102 years ago, violating Cuba's nascent independence turning it into a client state of the USA.

Article VII went on to say that "To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the Government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States." Hence Guantánamo Bay US Naval Base which the United States "rents" from Cuba although Havana never cashes the annual check.

On January 1st, 1899, after almost four centuries of occupation, the Spanish Crown finally relinquished its colonial hold on Cuba. The United States, however - which for its own territorial gains had helped Cuba defeat Madrid - replaced one colonial power with another. US General John R. Brooke installed a military government on the island and completely ignored the important contribution of the Cuban population - especially the black contingent - in the defeat of Spain. This was the beginning of the United States occupation of Cuba.

In 1900, a Constituent Assembly was convened in Cuba which drafted a constitution that followed the same lines as the US Constitution but with one very different provider: Washington conditioned its approval of the Cuban Constitution on the acceptance of a series of clauses that would preserve its upper hand in future dealings with so-called "independent" Cuba. These clauses, which were to be appended to the draft of the Constitution, were prepared by the United States Secretary of War and attached to the Arms Appropriation Bill of 1901, becoming known as the Platt Amendment after their author US Senator Orville Platt.

In spite of the new constitution, the United States had no intention of allowing Cuba to go its own way. Way back in 1783, US President John Quincy Adams had called Cuba a natural extension of North America and as such should be annexed. His policy was not to help Cuba gain independence because that could cause sticky problems in the future, but to wait until the right moment to seize the island from Spain.

Although it took more than 100 years to get its hands on Cuba, Washington never altered its course as far as the island was concerned. John Quincy Adams, on his second term as president, commented in 1823 that "if an apple, severed by the tempest from its native tree, cannot but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its unnatural connection with Spain and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only to the North American union, which by the same law of nature, cannot cast her off from its bosom."

The Platt Amendment therefore represented a permanent restriction on Cuban self-determination and was a humiliation to those who had fought so long and hard for the island's independence - the United State's government having made it quite clear that the Platt Amendment was the only alternative to further military occupation.

With the war against Spain at the end of the 19th century - a war that Washington and the US mainstream media provoked after the highly suspicious explosion of the USS Maine in Havana's harbor - the United States had the opportunity to set itself up as Cuba's savior. Cuban writer, poet, philosopher, politician and independence fighter José Martí, however, saw through the supposed philanthropy, and, ever the Latin American that he was, commented that he sought "to prevent the United States, with the independence of Cuba, extending itself through the West Indies and falling with added weight upon our lands of America" and that he had lived "within the entrails of the (US) monster" and well understood its goals.

He was, of course, right, although he didn't live long enough to see his unfortunate forecast come true. Two years after José Martí's 1895 death in combat, the US Undersecretary of State, referring to Cuba, commented that "our policy must always be to support the weaker against the stronger, until we have obtained the extermination of them both, in order to annex the Pearl of the Antilles." The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War excluded Cuban representatives and treated the island as a spoil of war.

The Dominican fighter for Cuban independence, General Máximo Gómez, wrote that "The Americans' military occupation is too high a price to pay for their spontaneous intervention in the war we waged against Spain for freedom and independence. The American government's attitude toward the heroic Cuban people at this history making time is, in my opinion, one of big business ...This transitional government was imposed by force by a foreign power and, therefore, is illegitimate and incompatible with the principles that the entire country has been upholding for so long and in the defense of which its sons have given their lives and all of its wealth has been consumed."

One hundred and two years ago, on 2 March 1901, the US Congress forced the Platt Amendment onto the Cuban Constitution effectively turning the island into a US subcolony by legalizing US military intervention at will and seizing a large part of Cuban territory to turn into a naval base. As Cuban patriot Juan Gualberto Gómez said: "The Amendment was like giving it the key to our house so it could come and go at all hours."

Although the Platt Amendment was abrogated in 1934 the United States still maintains its base in Guantánamo Bay which is now mostly used as an extra-territorial prison to bypass US penal legislation and still represents a blatant violation of Cuban sovereignty.