U.S. pacifists criticize their government for usurping Cuban territory

by Jorge Luis Merencio Cautín—Granma daily staff writer—
GUANTANAMO

Marching today on the Guantánamo naval base to demand closure of prison located there

We apologize to the Cuban people for the decision of the government of our country more than one century ago to usurp part of their territory and subsequently turn it into a center for torture and humiliation.

These words of deep sentiment toward Cuba and shame at the prison installed by Bush on Guantánamo, were stated by Ann Wright, a former colonel in the U.S. Army, who is in this city as part of a delegation of international pacifists, including Cindy Sheehan, the mother of U.S. soldier Casey Sheehan, who died in Iraq.

Wright went on to say that she feels fortunate to have made the decision not to continue working with the Bush administration, as its crimes were an unbearable weight on her conscience.

Ann Wright, who worked for 29 years in the ranks of her country’s army and 16 as a diplomat, condemned the complicity of doctors and psychologists working in Guantánamo prison, given that they are part of the U.S. government’s crimes and torture.

The U.S. pacifist spoke at the International NO to Torture event in the protocol lounge in Mariana Grajales Plaza de la Revolución.

Other speakers included the Reverend Raúl Suárez, director of the Martin Luther King Center; and pacifists Medea Benjamin, from the Code-Pink: Women for Peace NGO; and Bill Goodman, legal advisor at the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights.

The anti-war delegates are to march on the enclave today to demand an end to the torture and the closure of the prison, exactly five years after the arrival of the first prisoners at the Guantánamo base.