Implementation of President Trump's proposal to turn the US military base at Guantanamo into a "super prison" has gotten underway. The first aircraft carrying migrants arrived at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay as part of the new administration's measures to combat illegal immigration. People were brought from El Paso, Texas, to be placed in a secret high-security prison where Al-Qaeda (banned in the Russian Federation) members had been contained.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 10 people on the flight were suspected members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, ABC News reports, calling them "worst of the worst" criminals. Migrants will not be accommodated with other prisoners at Guantanamo and be guarded by an enhanced unit of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In late January, President Trump signed an executive order instructing the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to "expand migrant operations center at naval station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity" in order to "provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States." This refers to preparing the prison for receiving an additional 30,000 people, according to Trump himself.
"Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries [of origin] to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said. “So, we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo. This will double our capacity immediately."
The Guantanamo Bay naval base leased by the United States from the Cuban authorities since the Spanish-American War, is 30 km away from the same-name city. It is US’ southernmost deep-sea naval base in the Western Hemisphere, with constant 10,000-strong personnel deployed there.
After the revolution of 1959, the Cuban authorities repeatedly demanded that the United States remove the base from their territory. Also, official Havana got outraged by Trump's current intent to send illegal migrants there. But no one in the United States has deemed it necessary to take heed.
The American base at Guantanamo became notorious in 2002, when a secret prison was established in its territory for "terrorist suspects acting against the United States and its allies." Some reports suggest that in 2002 to 2006, over 750 foreigners passed through it after having been captured as a result of US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are known to use torture and abuse against prisoners in Guantanamo.
Ex-President Barack Obama pledged to close the prison, and so did Joe Biden. In April 2021, The New York Times reported that the military was closing "the failing facility at Guantánamo Bay to consolidate prisoners." "US shuts once-secret Guantanamo prison unit, moves prisoners," The Associated Press wrote back then.
But all of this turned out to be information fog meant to cover up the Democrats' election promises to do away with the infamous prison. There was no world-shaker as the prison never got closed, with those dwelling in it simply transferred from one barrack to another.
As The New York Times reported at the time, citing the US military, people held in Camp 7 were relocated to Camp 5 "in order to consolidate prisoners." In other words, they got packed and bunched. The reason for the transfer was that Camp 7 started collapsing and fell into disrepair. The lights were constantly going out there, and even the doors were hard to close. And yet, the Pentagon refused to allocate money for repairs, let's note.
Camp 7 was intended for "prisoners who had previously been held in a network of secret CIA facilities, referred to as ‘black sites,’ where they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques." According to The Associated Press, among those held in Camp 7 were five prisoners charged with “war crimes for their alleged involvement in planning and supporting the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.”
The Miami-based US Southern Command, which oversees the Guantanamo Bay Naval base and the prison located in its territory, does not exactly specify the number of detainees. Earlier, there were official reports that 14 people were being held in Camp 7, with the alleged total population of Guantanamo accounting for about 40.
Camp 7 was "a maximum-security facility intended for holding prisoners in cells." According to The New York Times, Camp 7 has long been one of the most secret locations at Guantanamo. The Pentagon refused to disclose either its cost or the name of contractor who built it and even when. Reporters were never allowed to see Camp 7, while lawyers needed to obtain court permission to visit it. Its location was considered classified, although some sources indicated it on the satellite map of the base.
If Camp 7 has not been repaired since 2021, one can hardly imagine that Trump's decision is able to accelerate the process in just a few days. The future prisoners will be likely assigned to this part of the entity, "most secret and reliable". After all, as mentioned above, they will have to be guarded with particular care, which is whom Camp 7 was initially intended for.
However, a question arises here as to who can guarantee that these 30,000 thugs won’t easily overcome a contingent of 10,000 American soldiers with the lock’s doors all but "open". Probably it is these concerns that made the Cuban government say the other day that Trump's decision to send case-hardened criminals to Guantanamo would "undermine security in this illegal enclave and its surroundings," "endanger peace," and even "entail serious consequences."
President Trump has recently set the task for the immigration police to bring the number of arrested illegals "from several hundred to 1200-1500 a day." With such a pace of migrant capture, the Guantanamo Bay prison will swiftly fill up with a relevant contingent. What happens next is anybody’s guess.
