London demands closure of US Guantánamo prison
The Justice Campaign for Guantánamo demanded the closure of the prison that the United States maintains in that military base located in Cuban territory against the will of the people and government of the Caribbean island.
The activists, some of them hooded, concentrated in the central Trafalgar Square of the British capital, on the occasion of the 17th anniversary this Friday of the opening of the prison by then President George W. Bush.
The demonstration also seeks to pressure the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, to demand that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, close that prison, and summon the citizens to write to the president, one of the demonstrators explained to Prensa Latina.
According to Ray Silk, the Justice Campaign for Guantánamo holds this type of demonstration on the second Wednesday of every month in front of the British Parliament, but on this occasion they did not want to miss the 17th anniversary of the opening of the prison, which he described as a symbol of American torture and injustice.
According to Ray, the campaign has the support of many British MPs and social organizations. Data provided by the organizers reveal that 40 men, all of them Muslims, are still being held in that prison since its opening on 11 January 2002.
At least 780 prisoners have been sent to Guantánamo since then, there they have suffered torture and other ill-treatment in the name of Washington’s fight against terrorism.
Out of that number, twenty-two were children at the time of their arrest, five others were declared innocent but remain imprisoned, and nine died in prison, but no U.S. government official has been questioned for it, the source added.
The Guantánamo prison or Delta camp is located inside the U.S. military base in the southeastern Cuban province of the same name, despite the fact that the government of the Caribbean island is demanding the return of that territory occupied by U.S. troops since 1902.
(Taken from RHC in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
