Obama Faces New Hindrance to Close Guantanamo Prison

Obama Faces New Hindrance to Close Guantanamo Prison
Fecha de publicación: 
23 June 2016
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The plan by US President Barack Obama to close the military prison at the naval base in Guantanamo is today facing a new obstacle after the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, rejected the President''s proposal.

According to government officials who prefer to remain anonymous, the Attorney General's office objects to a measure that would allow convicts to declare themselves guilty through a video conference and would allow them to serve their sentences in other countries, without ever setting foot on US soil.

Lynch explained that these proposals by the White House would violate established rules on criminal justice procedures.

If they manage to reduce the population at the prison at Guantanamo naval base, a military facility set up in Cuba's southeastern region against the will of the Cuban Government and people, Obama would keep his political promise of closing the prison before finishing his second term of office.

A recent editorial published by the newspaper 'The New York Times' highlighted that the failure to close the prison in Guantanamo was a shameful stain on the US Congress, which has hindered all efforts to close it.

The prison, where 80 detainees remain, has ruined the image of the United States as champion of human rights and is a deplorable example to other governments inclined to violate international law.

Under the title of 'The Broken Promise to Close Guantanamo' the editorial quotes Thomas Pickering, a US veteran diplomat, who recently denounced the severe treatment and even brutal procedures, such as the force feeding of the detainees, who are kept in stainless-steel cells in solitary confinement.

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