World Can't Wait initiated the rally in which we gathered outside the main branch of the NY Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street on January 11. The open violations of human and legal rights of those detained – secret “renditions,” torture by third country allies, “enhanced interrogation" via the CIA – shocked the world. And yet, the U.S. has upgraded Guantanamo.  The demands of the rally were:

• Close Guantanamo Now
• End indefinite detention without trial, allow prisoners to defend themselves
• Immediate release and repatriation to join their families for 21 men who have been “cleared” for years
• Health care and financial support for those men who have been “freed” but unjustly denied years of their lives through detention outside the law

Debra Sweet, Director of World Can't Wait addressed the attendees. You can read the text of her remarks here.

A dozen people joined a signholding at Thomas Square (at a very busy intersection that catches traffic coming from downtown Honolulu).  Most people seemed puzzled but there were those who supported it enthusiastically.  The sign-holders spoke to some pedestrians and their summation was that those who were under 40 had never heard of Guantanamo while some who were older were surprised it was still open. An Afghan woman and her friend were amazed that we were doing this. Ann Wright spoke as did Martha Hennessey from Catholic Worker in NY who shared her own experiences both holding actions against torture and her arrest in 2018 with Ploughshares.

From some of Frida Berrigan reflections on actions of Witness Against Torture in Washington DC in January this year. You can read more here.

On Andy Worthington's evening talk to the fasters: "Andy Worthington's face was as big as the wall, and when he leaned forward to emphasize one of his many points, his glasses filled the screen. We, fasting members of Witness Against Torture, sat in the dark, in our masks, close together and leaned in to listen, and catch every word as he ran through two decades of history in under an hour.... Over all these years, there has been plenty of blame to go around. But, now, at the beginning of 2023, Worthington laid responsibility for closing Guantanamo and transferring the men cleared for release out of the island prison, squarely at the feet of the current president, Joe Biden. 'Biden and Blinken [Secretary of State] need to accept responsibility,' said Worthington, 'they have two more years to get this done.'"

And on the march on Jan. 11:

Today, in Mexico City, we stood up for justice, as we protested to close Guantánamo. I have been going to the US embassy on this day for many years by myself to protest another year of the torture facility not being closed... but today I got to protest with a great activist and person and activists from Amnesty International and Amnistía Internacional México.

In Mexico, terrible violations of human rights happen every day and torture has been a common practice, but the men in Guantánamo and the torture there don’t seem to be of public interest here. Many people still don’t know how many men have been there, or the fact that most of them are innocent and not terrorists. Most don’t know where the prison is or why it opened in the first place.

Today I got to the US embassy in my orange jumpsuit with my Truth (WikiLeaks) t-shirt and joined the many activists that were getting ready to shout the message “Close Guantánamo”. Activists from both countries showed up, drew a big sign and used the speaker, towards the embassy, to ask Biden to close the detention camp detailing the violations of human rights by the U.S. government in the prison in Cuba and around the world. The media, like Canal Once, MVS Noticias and La Verdad Noticias were there too. Alli, an activist from AI, who now lives here video-called Mansoor Adayfi, an activist, talented author, kind human being and former Guantánamo detainee. He gave a message about the importance of taking action and I was honored to translate it to Spanish for the media and the people around us. At the end, he said that we, the people taking actions to close Guantánamo, are heroes and my voice broke.

I hope this is the year Guantánamo will close and that this will be the final year we have to protest. If not, I hope that this year’s protest, in Mexico City, will wake interest in people’s minds and hearts.

Andy Worthington, British journalist and leading campaigner for 21 years for the closure of Guantanamo, writes, "on January 11, the 21st anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, over 150 rights groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Victims of Torture, the ACLU, and groups closely associated with Guantánamo activism over the years — Close Guantánamo, Witness Against Torture, and the World Can’t Wait, for example — sent a letter to President Biden urging him to finally bring an end to the monstrous injustice of the prison by closing it once and for all." The letter in its entirety and all signatories can be read here.