Public Comment

On the 21st anniversary of the first “unlawful enemy combatants” arrival at the U.S. naval base base at Guantánamo Bay, more than 150 international human rights organizations in a letter dated January 11, 2022, called on President Joe Biden to close the prison. Around the world, Guantánamo is a symbol of racial and religious injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rights long-recognized under both human rights law and international humanitarian law. Arguably, the president has the Constitutional power to close the Guantánamo Bay prison without congressional approval. 

Since 2002, 779 were held at Guantánamo Bay prison; presently 35 detainees remain. The Senate Torture Report . which found, among other things, that the CIA engaged in torture such as waterboarding, shackling in painful positions, prolonged sleep deprivation, and slamming detainees against walls confirms that Guantánamo was a place of torture and indefinite detention, and is a continued international embarrassment. The remaining detainees should receive a speedy trial. Those found guilty should be transferred to a stateside prison. Those found not guilty should be immediately released. 

How did the U.S. come to occupy Guantánamo? The Platt amendment to a U.S. Army Appropriations Bill of 1901 gave the U.S. the right to intervene militarily in Cuban affairs whenever the U.S. decided such intervention was warranted. Cubans were given the choice of accepting the Platt Amendment or remaining under U.S. military occupation indefinitely. The U.S. has intervened militarily in Cuban affairs at least three times. U.S. intervention has endowed Cuba with a series of weak, corrupt, dependent governments. In 1903, the U.S. used the Platt Amendment to obtain a perpetual lease of Guantánamo Bay, a blatant example of U.S. gunboat diplomacy. 

Opponents of normalization argue that Cuba has a repressive regime with a poor human rights record. Yet, the U.S. administration got along fine with Fulgencio Batista, the thug Fidel Castro overthrew. Under Batista, Americans were free to frolic at Cuban nightclubs, casinos and beach resorts. But then Batista was in our pocket, Castro was not.  

Opponents of closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention facility also argue that it would be too dangerous to public safety to have "terrorists" on U.S. soil. Yet, during World War II, the U.S. housed, fed, and worked over 425,000 German POWs in 700 camps in 46 states with little or no risk to the populace. Most of the camps were low to medium security camps, not prisons, although some of the camps had to be designated "segregation camps," used to separate the Nazi "true believers" from the rest of the prisoners. Of the 425,000 POWs held in U.S. prison camps, only 2,222 -- less than 1% -- tried to escape, and most were quickly rounded up. Guantánamo prisoners, on the other hand, would be sent to high, medium or even a so-called supermax security prisons, where the chance of escape would be minimal. 

It is time for President Biden to end the U.S. embargo of Cuba, close Guantánamo Bay prison, and return Guantánamo Bay to Cuba.