The move drew criticism from the Cuban government, with President Miguel Diaz-Canel labelling Trump’s move an “act of brutality.”
“In an act of brutality, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied territory #Cuba, of thousands of migrants that it forcibly expels, and will place them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” he wrote on X.
In the act of brutality, the new US government announces imprisonment based in Naval Base in Guantanamo, located in the territory of #Cuba illegally occupied, of thousands of migrants who necessarily expel, to which he will place with the well -known prisons of illegal torture and detention.
-Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@diazcanelb) January 29, 2025
The announcement came at a time when Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, which required undocumented migrants to be held in jail.
Here’s all you need to know about Guantanamo Bay and its notorious background.
The US Naval base in Cuba, best known for the suspects brought in after the September 11, 2001 attacks, also holds a special separate facility that has been used for decades to hold migrants. The Migrants Operations Centre continues to hold those detained at sea including many from Heidi and Cuba.
As per the International Refugee Assistance Project, the migrants are held in “prison-like conditions and trapped in a punitive system” with no accountability for the officials. A lease for 45 square miles of land and water in Guantanamo Bay was signed in 1903 between the US and Cuba. Three decades after that, a treaty was signed in 1934 between the two countries, reaffirming the lease along with the requirement of consent from both governments for its termination.
However, the Cuban revolution in the 1950s led the US government to cut diplomatic relations with the country, leading to the termination of water and supply avenues to the facility.
While the US government has been leasing for more than a century, the latter constantly opposes the same and rejects the nominal US rent payments.
During Donald Trump’s first term as US President, he authorised the use of the military base to detain migrant children. It is worth mentioning that the base has been the centre of criticism and potential closure for years.
Former President Barack Obama even signed a directive in 2016 to close the facility after George W. Bush opened it in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
