The conquistadors came with their sabres and guns   And they raped and they slaughtered until they were done   They hacked and they killed and left no one alive   Then they brought in the slaves who they allowed to survive   Welcome to the New World, you could hear the men say   As they sat on the shores of Guantanamo Bay      And after four hundred years independence was short   That's just how it is with a deep water port   The battleships came and they never left shore   Tasting the conquest, they just wanted more   The sign it said welcome to the US of A   In the Republic of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay      Past the barbed wire fence and the field of mines   You can see the men who left their families behind   To burn 'neath the sun to be tortured and killed   Where their stomaches are empty and their spirits are grilled   If you're looking for freedom this is the price you must pay   It's written in blood on Guantanamo Bay      The vultures they circle at ease overhead   The living may live and the dead will be dead   the time it may come in this tropical heat   That they'll have to go somewhere else to eat   Maybe a storm will come wash it away   But still the guard towers glitter on Guantanamo Bay