Trump plan to open migrant detention centre at Guantánamo Bay an ‘act of brutality’, Cuban president says

Good morning and welcome to our dwell protection of the newest information from US politics.

First up, the Cuban president has described President Trump’s announcement of plans for a migrant detention facility at Guantánamo Bay as an “act of brutality”.

Writing on X, Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned the transfer would place individuals deported from the US “next to well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention”.

On Wednesday, Trump signed an government order instructing officers to organize a facility able to holding 30,000 individuals on the naval base, which over the previous twenty years has been used primarily to carry suspects accused of terrorism-related offences, with few ever charged or convicted.

Trump mentioned the brand new facility could be used to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.

Stick with us for extra on that announcement and all of the day’s developments.

Up to date at 11.38 GMT

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Right here’s the complete textual content of that publish from the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, condemning President Trump’s announcement of plans for a migrant detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

“In an act of brutality, the new US government announces that it will imprison thousands of migrants at the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied #Cuba territory, and forcibly expel them, placing them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” he wrote on X.

The nation’s international minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, mentioned the bottom was in “illegally occupied #Cuba territory outside the jurisdiction of US courts” and confirmed “contempt for the human condition and international law”.

En acto de brutalidad, nuevo gobierno de EEUU anuncia encarcelamiento en Base Naval en Guantánamo, ubicada en territorio de #Cuba ilegalmente ocupado, de miles de migrantes que expulsa forzosamente, a los que ubicará junto a las conocidas cárceles de tortura y detención ilegal.

— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 29, 2025

What has Trump introduced about Guantánamo Bay?

The Guantánamo Bay naval base is located on a strip of land on the south-eastern coast of Cuba leased by the US in 1903. {Photograph}: Miami Herald/TNS

As a part of his plans to scale back unlawful migration to the US, President Trump has ordered the creation of a brand new detention facility able to holding 30,000 individuals at Guantánamo Bay.

He mentioned the centre could be used to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.

“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 mentioned. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”

Guantánamo Bay is best-known as the positioning of a US naval base on a coastal strip of land in southeastern Cuba that was leased by the US beneath a treaty in 1903.

A army jail arrange on the bottom within the wake of the 11 September assaults has since been used to carry suspects accused of terrorism-related offences, with few ever charged or convicted.

Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden each tried to shut the jail however had been stopped by Congress.

An present facility, separate from the jail, is already utilized by the US to detain migrants intercepted at sea, though it doesn’t seem in public authorities information and particulars have solely lately surfaced.

As of February 2024, 4 individuals had been being held on the facility, the New York Instances reported, citing the division of homeland safety.

Up to date at 11.40 GMT