Guantanamo’s Prison Population Begins To Drop

Published in La Nación
(Argentina) on 13 January 2015
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Osvaldo de la Torre. Edited by Laurence Bouvard.
Ever since Guantanamo began to operate in January 2002 – when its first prisoners arrived, finding themselves in a sort of legal limbo – that miserable prison has housed 779 inmates, the majority of whom have come from different corners of the Arab world. All of them were accused of having taken part in violent terrorist activities. Of that total number, 637 have been set free. A little over 100 of them were granted freedom during the presidential term of Barack Obama, who in the last election campaign issued the express promise to try to close down the shameful place.

Last year, a total of 28 prisoners were set free via handovers to mediating countries, which included Uruguay and Afghanistan. That number includes five detained individuals — three from Yemen and two from Tunisia — who were sent to Kazakhstan just before the end of 2014. On average, the prisoners had spent around 12 years in Guantanamo, without undergoing trial for their purported actions.

It is clear that the promise made by the American president to shut down the grim prison has yet to be fulfilled. It is also clear that efforts have been made to reduce the number of prisoners who are still in detention, a task that is recognizably mired by all kinds of complexities and undeniable risks.

Meanwhile, not only has Islamic fundamentalist terrorism not disappeared; it continues, in the multiple ways it has been adopted in recent times, to represent a far-reaching danger for all of us — from small operative cells to much more influential organizations, such as the one operating in northern Nigeria or those that report to the so-called Islamic State. The latter displays a patently savage and barbarous nature that brings shame to all humanity.

In the words of Pope Francis, issued recently at the Vatican before a group of ambassadors: “Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext.” In this vein, he denounced the “abominable” kidnapping and enslavement of young girls by Boko Haram in Nigeria, as well as the "unspeakable brutality" in the Taliban’s massacre of more than 100 children in Pakistan – in addition, of course, to the massacre that took place at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, in which 12 people were murdered.

With respect to the United States, Francis praised the proposal to close down Guantanamo’s prison, as well as the recent reconciliation between Washington and Havana, on behalf of which he himself worked.

Guantanamo is unacceptable because it represents an avoidance of responsibilities – responsibilities which, by their very nature, should be consented to and shouldered by everyone — with a minimum of transparency concerning the deprivation of freedom.


Desde que la prisión de Guantánamo comenzó a operar, en enero de 2002, cuando llegaron a ella los primeros prisioneros, aprovechando una suerte de limbo jurídico, esa triste cárcel alojó a 779 detenidos procedentes en su gran mayoría de distintos rincones del mundo árabe. Todos ellos estaban acusados de haber participado en violentas actividades terroristas. De ese total, 637 fueron liberados. Algo más de un centenar quedaron en libertad durante la presidencia de Barack Obama, quien, en la última campaña electoral, se comprometió expresamente a tratar de cerrar esa oprobiosa prisión.

El año pasado se liberaron concretamente 28 prisioneros, mediante transferencias a terceros Estados, entre otros, a Uruguay y Afganistán. Esa cifra incluye a los cinco detenidos tres yemenitas y dos tunecinos que fueron enviados a Kazakhstán, justo antes de que concluyera 2014. Todos habían estado, en promedio, algo más de 12 años en Guantánamo sin que hubieran sido juzgados por las responsabilidades que les pudieran corresponder.

Queda claro que la promesa del presidente norteamericano de clausurar ese oscuro penal aún no ha sido cumplida. También, que se han hecho esfuerzos para tratar de disminuir el contingente de prisioneros que aún se encuentra detenido, tarea que, cabe reconocer, está repleta de toda suerte de complejidades y plagada de innegables riesgos.

Mientras tanto, el terrorismo fundamentalista islámico no sólo no ha desaparecido, sino que sigue siendo un extendido e inmenso peligro para todos en cualquiera de las múltiples formas que éste ha adoptado con el paso del tiempo. Desde pequeñas células operativas hasta fuerzas de significación, como la que opera en el norte de Nigeria o las que responden al llamado Estado Islámico, que está dando muestras de una conducta marcada por el salvajismo y la barbarie, y que avergüenza a la condición humana.

En palabras del papa Francisco, dichas en las últimas horas ante embajadores en el Vaticano, "el fundamentalismo religioso, incluso antes de que elimine a seres humanos perpetrando asesinatos horrendos, elimina al propio Dios, convirtiéndolo en un mero pretexto ideológico". En ese sentido, denunció el "abominable" secuestro y la esclavización de niñas por parte de Boko Haram, en Nigeria, y la "inenarrable brutalidad" de la matanza de más de 100 niños por talibanes en Paquistán, además -claro está- de la masacre perpetrada el 7 de este mes contra el semanario francés Charlie Hebdo, donde 12 personas fueron asesinadas.

En referencia a Estados Unidos, Francisco elogió el plan de clausurar la prisión en Guantánamo y el acercamiento reciente entre Washington y La Habana, por el que él mismo trabajó.

Guantánamo no es aceptable porque se trata de una forma de rehuir responsabilidades que, por su naturaleza, debieran ser apoyadas por todos y asumirse de frente, con un mínimo de transparencia en lo que a privación de la libertad se refiere.
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