Trump announces a detention center in Guantanamo for 30,000 migrants and Cuba qualifies it as an “act of brutality”
- Author, Drafting
- Author’s title, BBC News World
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Wednesday to enable a detention center for immigrants considered “high priority criminals” in the Naval Base of Guantanamo.
Trump announced that the new space will serve to arrest up to 30,000 immigrants in an irregular situation in the United States who allegedly raise a threat to society.
The president signed the executive order after an act in the White House in which he signed his first legislation as president, the Laken Riley Law, which will facilitate the arrest and deportation of undocumented foreigners accused of minor crimes.
The base of Guantanamo, Cuban territory in perpetual lease to the US since 1903, is known for having housed migrants from the “Balser Crisis” in the 1990s, in an installation that is still used to process undocumented found in the sea.
It also reached relevance from the prison where detainees of the anti -terrorism crusade of the American country was locked at the beginning of the 21st century.
The order and response of Cuba
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain illegal criminal foreigners who threaten Americans,” Trump said.
He added: “Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust that countries retain them, we don’t want them to return, so we will send them to Guantanamo.”
The American president ordered the National Defense and Security Secretaries to take “all appropriate measures” to expand to their maximum capacity the migratory operations center of the Naval Station of the Bay of Guantanamo.
This, he said, will allow providing additional detention space for “high priority criminals” who are illegally in the United States.
“It is a difficult place to leave,” he emphasized.
The new “Tsar of the border” of the United States, Tom Homan, told the press that the Guantanamo detention center will only house “the worst of the worst.”
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, described as an “act of brutality” the announcement of his counterpart from the United States.
He added that the “new US government announces jailed based on Guantanam , according to its publication in the social network X.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also reacted, who said that Trump’s announcement “shows contempt for human condition and international law.”
Rodríguez proclaimed that the base is “in illegally occupied Cuba territory”
What is the base of Guantanamo
Located in southeastern Cuba on a land of 117 km2, the Naval Base of the Guantanamo Bay is a territory under the jurisdiction of the United States since 1903, when Washington obtained its perpetual lease after the Spanish-American war.
Its presence has been a source of tensions between Washington and Havana since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, when the Fidel Castro government began to demand its return by considering that its lease was imposed under coercion and is invalid according to international law.
Although it was originally used as a strategic port and American military logistics center, Guantanamo has been the scene of several controversial operations throughout its history.
In the 1990s, a detention center for Haitian and Cuban migrants intercepted in the sea was opened there, many of which were retained in precarious conditions before being deported or resettled in third countries.
It was, however, as of 2002 when he was subject to global attention to house a prison where he was locked up suspected of terrorism in the so -called “war on terror” promoted by the government of George W. Bush after the attacks of 11 September 2001.
Cases of torture, inhuman treatment and indefinite arrests were reported without trial, which unleashed criticism of international human rights organizations.
At present, it continues to be held at the detention center – separated from the prison – to refugees and asylum seekers intercepted in the sea by the US Coast Guard while its destination is decided.
The order of President Donald Trump to expand the facilities to house up to 30,000 migrants considered dangerous criminals could return Guantanamo to the spotlights of the controversy and turn it into the symbol of the migratory policies of the hard line of the new republican government.
What is behind Trump’s decision to send immigrants to a military base in Cuba?
Will Grant, correspondent for Mexico, Central America and Cuba
The Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay has been used in part for migratory purposes for decades by US authorities by what is known as the Guantanamo or GMOC migratory operations center (for its acronym in English).
It has been used mainly to house migrants rescued at sea and recently the American Union of Civil Libertads (ACLU) submitted a request for the dissemination of records on the site.
The Biden government replied that the GMOC “is not a detention center and none of the migrants there is detained.”
The difference with respect to Trump’s government plans is that the installation will now be clearly aimed at being a detention center.
President Trump has said that there will be 30,000 beds available to house “the worst” undocumented immigrants, referring to those with a criminal record, since, he said, his administration “does not trust” in their countries of origin to retain them.
This has caused a foreseeable protest by the Cuban government, which has been denouncing the existence of an American naval base on the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, described Trump’s measure as “an act of brutality” and said the base itself is illegally occupied. “
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said that Trump’s announcement “shows contempt for human condition and international law.”
However, none of those comments will worry the Trump administration too much.
With the State Department now led by former Florida Marco Rubio senator, whose family left Cuba in the 1950 additional benefit.
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