More than 50,000 Cubans took to the streets in the southern city of Guantánamo on February 26 to reject United States President Donald Trump’s plan to use the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base as a detention centre for deported migrants.
Trump announced in January the construction of a 30,000-bed prison at Guantánamo Bay to detain migrants deported from the US. Although the installation of tents has since been temporarily suspended, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth visited the base on February 25 to “ensure its safety and operational effectiveness”.
The US-controlled military base is on Cuban soil and represents a violation of the country’s sovereignty. The Cuban government signed an indefinite “lease” with the US government in 1903 to hand over Guantánamo Bay, under threat of US military intervention if it refused.
Since then, the US has used the base as a launching point for imperialist military incursions, such as its invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and Grenada in 1983.
The base has contained a prison since 2002, which is a notorious site of torture and inhumane treatment.
Observers from the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2022 called the prison “a site of unparalleled notoriety, defined by the systematic use of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against hundreds of men brought to the site and deprived of their most fundamental rights”.
They called on the US government to close the site and return the prisoners home or to safe third countries.
Despite the post-revolution Cuban government’s consistent protests, the US government refuses to cease operations at Guantánamo Bay and withdraw.
Now, human rights groups have denounced Trump’s plan as “deeply cruel”, and pointed out that many of the migrants are victims of US imperialist policies towards Latin America that have caused widespread poverty and insecurity.
Since January, the Trump government has taken at least 200 migrants to Guantánamo Bay, the majority of whom were sent to Venezuela within a few weeks. During this time, they were subjected to beatings, denied contact with their families or lawyers and withheld food and water by US soldiers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights and International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) have filed lawsuits against the Trump government on behalf of the migrants to block their transfer to Guantánamo Bay and attain access to those already there to provide legal assistance.
“For decades, Guantánamo has been the site of grave human rights abuses perpetrated by the US government,” said lawyer Kimberly Grano from IRAP. “The Trump administration is exploiting this sordid history to send the message that no cruelty is off limits in its assault on the rights and humanity of immigrants.”
Speakers at the rally denounced the continued US presence in Cuba, which not only violates the country’s sovereignty but affects local people’s right of movement and access to one of the world’s largest pocket bays.
Speakers also condemned the US blockade that prevents food, medicine, fuel and other essentials from reaching the country.