MIAMI — The looming presidency of Donald Trump has created a deep sense of uncertainty for inmates at Guantanamo on the 15th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at the US base in Cuba.
Nineteen of the remaining 55 prisoners are cleared for release and could be freed in the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency, part of an effort to shrink the prison since the administration couldn’t close it on his watch.
But those left behind will face the future under Trump, who has said he wants to keep Guantanamo open and recently called on Obama to halt releases.
“There is a great deal of anxiety and fear,” said Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based organization that represents five prisoners.
That backdrop has given a feeling of urgency to anti-Guantanamo demonstrations scheduled for Wednesday’s anniversary in London, Los Angeles and Washington, featuring activists in the orange prison jumpsuits that came to symbolize the detention center though now they are typically worn only by a handful of detainees who have violated detention center rules and are on “disciplinary status.”
In Washington, human rights groups, including Amnesty International USA, plan to rally at the Supreme Court and then march to the Senate as they demand Obama use his executive powers to override congressional restrictions on moving detainees to the US and close the detention center before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, an unlikely prospect given it would face legal challenges and could be reversed once Trump takes office. — AP
