Guantánamo prison marks 25th year with 15 wartime detainees remaining

The Guantánamo prison entered its 25th year on Sunday, holding the last 15 detainees from the war against terrorism at the U.S. base in southeast Cuba. The base, more than 100 years old and home to about 4,200 residents, opened its detention operation on Jan. 11, 2002, with the arrival of 20 detainees from Afghanistan.

Over the years the U.S. military has held about 780 men and boys there, and the Bush administration repatriated about 500. Today the operation has a staff of 800 soldiers and civilians — and, the report said, more than 50 U.S. government workers for detainee duties — while tens of thousands of troops have served on temporary deployments.

In the past year the Trump administration used the base as a transit hub for federal prisoners, including about 775 migrants held there for days or weeks. The newspaper said a secret operation this month brought the deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to Guantánamo for minutes before they were taken to a Justice Department plane bound for New York on federal charges.

The administration has refused to release full costs; the Pentagon told Congress it spent $40 million in the first month and Senator Gary Peters estimated costs of $100,000 a day for an ICE prisoner. As of Friday, the Homeland Security Department held 54 men there. The focus could return to the national security court on the base.

Key Topics

Politics, Guantánamo Bay, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Nicolás Maduro, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba