Statement of Ministry of Foreign Relations of Cuba  /  January 29, 2025

Cuba rejects the decision announced by the President of the United States to use the Guantanamo Naval Base to imprison tens of thousands of migrants that it has proposed to forcibly expel.  It is a demonstration of the brutality with which that government is acting to supposedly correct problems created by the economic and social conditions of that country, the government's own management and its foreign policy, including hostility towards countries of origin.

Many of the people that the United States is expelling or intends to expel are victims of that government's own plundering policies and cover labor needs that have historically existed in agriculture, construction, industry, services and various sectors of the American economy.  Others are the result of the ease of entry into the country at the border, of selective, politically motivated rules that welcome them as refugees, and also of the socioeconomic damage caused by unilateral coercive measures.

A significant number contribute and have contributed to the economy of that country.  They have jobs, have homes, have created families, and have planned their respective lives in the United States.

The territory where they are proposed to be imprisoned does not belong to the United States.  It is a portion of the territory of Cuba in the eastern province of Guantánamo, which remains militarily occupied illegally and against the will of the Cuban nation.  This military installation is identified internationally, among other reasons, for housing a center of torture and indefinite detention, outside the jurisdiction of the American courts, where people have remained for up to 20 years who have never been prosecuted or convicted of any crime.

Its irresponsible use would generate a scenario of risk and insecurity in this illegal enclave and its surroundings; It would threaten peace and lend itself to errors, accidents and misinterpretations that could alter stability and cause serious consequences.

Havana, January 29, 2025

(Taken from Cubaminrex)