So, I've been doing some reading lately about the CIA, the red scare, JFK, etc. Naturally, I've covered the Bay of Pigs from a couple of different sources. I did some wikipedia reading about the Naval base at Guantanamo, but nothing really gave me the answer that I was looking for. Why wasn't the base closed in the 60s when the Castro came into power? How was it kept open these 50 years despite the horrible Cuba-US relations? Couldn't Castro have taken it? I suppose I don't understand why the Cubans would allow it to stay open on their island during the embargo after the Bay of Pigs.
Any details would be nice.
Edit: Thanks! I guess I never bothered putting the act of removing Gitmo from the map in context before. Oh logic, you so silly.
The US had a legal right to the base resulting from the 1903 treaty.
So one way to read your question is just why didn't castro declare war on the US and attack US property and a naval base. Essentially castro taking over Gitmo would represent an escalation which Castro never decided it was in his interest to act on. Remember despite the cuban missile crisis the US still has the power to destroy cuba a billion times over (exaggeration) and invade the island.
I don't have anything specific about the cuban missile crisis but the basic logic of avoiding escalation of a nuclear standoff. The only way for Castro to take Gitmo during the period would be to move forces against the US base there and take it. It's pretty clear that this move dramatically increases the risk of escalations of the conflict. That being said given the US evacuated civilians from Gitmo during the crisis it was seen as a possibility.
To my knowledge, Castro only nationalized the private properties of U.S companies.
To attack a military base is a completely different matter.