(Prensa Latina) The Joe Biden administration took a step toward its goal of shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center for terror suspects Monday, releasing into the custody of his home country a Moroccan who´d been held without charge nearly since the U.S. opened the facility 19 years ago.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden´s administration was considering all available options for safely transferring out the last detainees and shutting down Guantanamo.
Psaki also pointed out she did not know when it could be materialized, but they are making a pretty hard work to transfer 39 detainees, 11 of them accused of war crimes, while the rest remain with no charges, The New York Times reported.
The transfer of Abdullatif Nasser was the first by the Biden administration, reviving an Obama administration effort that had been stymied by conservative opposition and the difficulty of resolving the remaining few dozen cases, including finding secure sites to send some of the detainees.
A review board had recommended repatriation for Nasser, who is in his mid-50s, in July 2016, but he had remained at Guantánamo under President Donald Trump, who opposed closing the site.
In announcing Nasser’s transfer, the Pentagon cited the board’s determination that his detention was no longer necessary to protect U.S. national security.
For Havana, Guantanamo Bay detention center – which according to allegations became a torture center since 2002 – has been located illegally for more than a century, covering 117.6 square kilometers belonging to the Cuban national territory.
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