Melissa Ross
On Saturday, the 14th anniversary of the day that the first detainees were taken to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, anti-war activists from across the country will march on U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Doral to demand the immediate closure of the prison.
At one point, 779 prisoners were held at Gitmo without trial or charges. Today 107 remain locked up there, but the controversial offshore prison remains open.
The protest announcement comes as a senior U.S. official confirms that several of the 17 detainees recently cleared for release are expected to be transferred next week.
Last month, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told members of Congress that 17 detainees would be sent to other countries in January.
Once those prisoners are moved, there will be just 90 left, and 59 of them are not deemed eligible to be transferred to another country. They would have to be moved to another prison in the U.S. if Guantánamo is completely closed. That plan is fiercely opposed by congressional Republicans, who say incarcerating Gitmo prisoners stateside would endanger Americans.
Meanwhile, protesters will rally in Doral at 2 p.m. Saturday and march through the streets to the front gates of Southern Command. There an international list of speakers will address the crowd, according to an email from the group POWIR South Florida.
Code Pink organizer Medea Benjamin is scheduled to speak, along with London-based documentary filmmaker Andy Worthington, among others.
In December 2013, Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2014 fiscal year. That eased restrictions on transferring Guantánamo military prisoners to foreign countries, but it’s still a far cry from Obama’s original promise when he was first elected to completely shut down the prison. This year, Obama described Guantánamo Bay as “ISIS’s most valuable recruitment tool.”
