MADRE Statements

Ten Years of Torture

Posted on: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Keywords: Latin America and Caribbean, US Foreign Policy, Cuba, Human Rights Advocacy

Today, on the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo prison, MADRE denounces the continued unlawful imprisonment and human rights violations faced by detainees at the facility.

On the first day of President Obama’s presidency, he made a commitment to shut down Guantanamo within a year. That promise has been broken. Three years later, there is little evidence that this Administration is willing to take action to put an end to illegal detention at Guantanamo.

On January 11, 2002, 20 men were transported by the Bush Administration into Guantanamo, the first of hundreds who would be detained there. The ugly legacy of the “war on terror” started by the Bush Administration continues.

Now, a new National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Obama effectively expands the “war on terror” to all corners of the world, with no end in sight. The new legislation allows the military to arrest suspected terrorists anywhere in the world and hold them indefinitely and without trial. This would even extend to US citizens arrested on US soil, constituting a gross violation of international human rights.

Today, thousands of activists are gathering in Washington, DC for a national day of action against Guantanamo. MADRE Communications Director Diana Duarte is there, and she will join a human chain from the White House to the Capitol. She will be posting updates on Twitter, and you can follow along on here: www.twitter.com/madrespeaks.

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