The prison of Guantánamo It turns 20 years open this Tuesday, despite being a controversial symbol of the United States’ anti-terrorist fight that currently houses 39 inmates and whose closure is not yet in sight despite the president’s promises, Joe Biden.
Located at a US naval base in eastern Cuba, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center opened in 2002 by order of the then US President, George W. Bush (2001-2009) in response to the attacks of the September 11, 2001.
“Twenty years later, it is undeniable that the Guantanamo Bay Prison is a legal, moral and ethical failure. It is a global symbol of injustice, torture and contempt for the rule of law, “Hina Shamsi, director of National Security for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told EFE on Monday.
Destination of nearly 800 suspected terrorists detained in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo has been in the eye of the hurricane for secret detentions and torture, which included simulated drownings and techniques so that prisoners could not sleep.
America spends every year $ 540 million to maintain Guantanamo, where there are currently 39 men interned, 27 of them free of charge against him, according to a report published by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the prison.
For HRW, the use of these practices by the United States has damaged the entire international human rights system, facilitating abuses by other countries and making their justification easier.
A closure to be fulfilled
The controversy generated by Guantánamo was such that its closure became one of the president’s great promises Barack Obama (2009-2017), although he was never able to fulfill his commitment.
Obama wanted to send the prisoners to jails in the United States, but the Congress, with a Republican majority, blocked his efforts under various pretexts, so the government transferred them to other countries.
With the arrival of Donald Trump (2017-2021) to power, the White House abandoned its efforts to close the prison and only transferred a single inmate in four years. According to a book published by “The Washington Post” journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, Trump would have even suggested on two occasions his team transferred to Guantánamo to COVID-19 patients at the beginning of the pandemic.
The current president, Joe Biden, has taken up the promise of closing the jail, but with a much more discreet profile than that of Obama at the time, which has been criticized by civil society organizations.
Last year, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that “the objective and the intention” of the current Administration is to close the prison, Although it is not an issue that has been on Biden’s agenda during his first year in office.
For now, the government has authorized the transfer of three prisoners out of the Guantanamo naval base, where there are 39, far from the 780 who came to pass through its facilities during the Bush Administration.
Last summer, the United States repatriated Abdul Latif Nasir, the last Moroccan prisoner from Guantánamo and the first inmate returned to his country by the Biden government, but since then there has been no further progress.
The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, was asked this Monday by journalists at a press conference if the Executive has adopted any concrete measures to close Guantánamo and replied that the Biden Administration “continues to focus on closing the detention facility.” .
“Nothing has changed in that regard, we are in the middle of a review now on how to proceed“said Kirby, who noted that currently the Board of Review of the cases of inmates in prison continues its work to relocate inmates out of the center.
The director of National Security of the ACLU has pointed out to Efe that “Biden must be made to keep his promise”, because “your Administration can do it and it is a matter of will.”
“If President Biden is serious about defending human rights, racial equity and justice, he must take action and close Guantanamo for good,” said Shamsi.
Amnesty International has denounced in a statement, published in the last week, that “the United States Government continues to perpetrate serious human rights violations in Guantánamo”, given that “none of the prisoners has received a fair trial and they continue to be detained indefinitely violating due process “.
The NGO, which every January 11 organized a rally with people dressed in orange jumpsuits in front of the White House, will hold a virtual protest due to the advance of the omicron variable of the coronavirus in the United States.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
