The United States government closed what was once a secret camp at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba, created in 2002 to house terrorism suspects after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
THE INMATES WERE TRANSFERRED TO CAMP VII
The US Southern Command reported this Sunday the transfer of the prisoners who were in the so-called Camp VII from the prison for accused of terrorism in Guantanamo to the so-called Camp V, a maximum security compound built in 2004.
In a brief statement, the Southern Command indicated that the transfer was made “without incident” and specified that the 40 prisoners of the military prison are now distributed in only two precincts.
According to the statement, the Southern Command command, which is based in Doral, on the outskirts of Miami, directed the transfer that will increase “operational efficiency and effectiveness and reduce the cost” of the prison.
According to the statement, it is a decision “of fiscal responsibility” that does not affect “security or the mission of providing care and safe, legal and humane custody to the detainees in JTF-GTMO (as jail is known in military jargon. )”.
Located on the grounds of the Guantanamo military base in Cuba, the prison for terrorists was created in 2002 by President George W. Bush, after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
He was imprisoned in the questioned US prison in Cuba.
Always surrounded by controversy, the prison housed 800 detainees and has been the subject of investigations and complaints about inhumane treatment of inmates.
President Barak Obama (2009-2017) made closing the base one of his priorities and, although he did not achieve his goal, he managed to empty part of the prison by transferring a total of 196 detainees to third countries.
As of today, only 40 prisoners remained in that jail, according to the Southern Command statement.
We explain.
Last January, Amnesty International (AI) asked the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2009, during the 2009 Munich Security Conference, Biden, then president, told his audience: “We will defend the rights of those we bring to justice. And we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.”
“A dozen years later, as he prepares to enter the White House as president, Biden has the opportunity to make those words come true. He must not let it pass,” AI said in its report last January.
In addition, he asked the new administration headed by Democrat Biden to give “priority” and “resources” to the closure of this prison located in the naval base that the United States maintains in the territory of Guantánamo, in Cuba.
The report documents a catalog of human rights violations perpetrated against detainees in the camp, “where torture victims are held with inadequate medical care, indefinitely and in the absence of fair trials,” the organization said in a statement.