text: how is it that cuba allows usa to have a military base on cuban terratory?   in february 1903, the united states leased 45 square miles of land and water at guantanamo bay for use as a coaling (fueling) station.  the treaty was finalized and the document  was ratified by both governments and signed in havana in december of that same year.     a 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 u.s. treasury dollars, and added a requirement that termination of the lease requires the consent of both the u.s. and cuba governments, or the abandonment of the base property by the u.s.