On paper, it looks like a slice of heaven. Immaculate beaches, turquoise lagoon, tropical forest and iguanas galore in this American enclave in the south-east of Cuba, 117 km2 controlled by the United States since the end of the 19th century.
But very quickly after the arrival of the first prisoners on January 11, 2002, Camp X Ray, later renamed Camp Delta, became the embodiment of arbitrary detention and a form of absurdity. In 20 years, 780 people have been imprisoned there. There are 39 left today, most of them are stuck there, as if in a legal deadlock, without any foreseeable trial, simply awaiting an extradition agreement to their country of origin.
In spite of everything, there remain around fifteen detainees who are still considered dangerous, including a few emblematic cases: in particular the Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2001, he risks the death penalty. Or the Saudi Arabian Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, prosecuted for the attack on the ship USS Cole in October 2000.
The closure of the camp is constantly postponed, it has become a “political hot potato”. Guantanamo symbolizes the excesses of the fight against terrorism: arbitrary detention without trial, physical and psychological torture, open cages, at least in the first version of the camp. Even today, the rights of the defense are reduced to the strict minimum.
Amnesty International is once again calling for the camp to be closed on the occasion of its 20 years of existence. Barack Obama wanted to do so in 2009. He intended to have the prisoners tried by civilian courts. But he encountered opposition from Congress. Then his successor Donald Trump did nothing. Joe Biden, he again promised the closure. But it is a politically delicate subject in the United States, all the more so after the fall of Kabul last summer, since former Guantanamo detainees have appeared in the Taliban government.
The current US president has therefore returned to the same policy as his predecessors: releases drop by drop, discreetly, as soon as an agreement is reached with the country of origin. Latest case: Moroccan Abdul Latif Nasir, sent back to Casablanca last summer. And even today, the United States “seeks to identify countries of transfer”. This is the formula used on January 6 by Ned Price, the spokesperson for the State Department, the US Department of Foreign Affairs.
The absurdity is also that this case costs a fortune : the bill is estimated at $ 500 million per year, payable by the United States taxpayer. Average cost of detaining a prisoner: $ 900,000 per year, 15 times more than in a regular prison in the United States.
The base houses 6,000 people, including nearly 2,000 soldiers, full-time. A staggering device if we consider the number of detainees and the political cost of Guantanamo, for the image of the United States in the world.