Mujica Asks Obama To Release Cuban Prisoners from Guantanamo

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http://watchingamerica.com/News/236635/mujica-asks-obama-to-release-cuban-prisoners-from-guantanamo/

The Uruguayan president cited the fact that he was a prisoner during the military dictatorship. There are already 18 countries who have agreed to collaborate on taking in the prisoners.

Mujica Asks Obama To Release Cuban Prisoners from Guantanamo
El Mundo, Spain
By Dino Cappelli
Translated By Ana Acosta
21 March 2014
Edited by Kyrstie Lane

As one of the exchanges for Uruguay to take in prisoners from Guantanamo, President Jose Mujica has requested that Barack Obama “do everything in his power to release the Cuban prisoners who are there,”* referring to “two or three Cubans”* who still remain in the U.S. naval base prison. Moreover, he added, “to [those of] us who have had comrades as refugees all over the world, this is an inalienable matter of principles, non-negotiable. We have earned the moral authority to ask the powerful to be less proud and less imposing. If these negotiations do come to an end, Uruguay shall feel it was at the service of a cause to close a disgraceful chapter for humanity.”*

Mujica also explained his decision to cooperate with the United States and assured that there is no need for them to wait for two years to leave the country “because we are nobody’s warden.”* For the president, it would be nothing but a “voluntary gesture from them to find a way out of that disgrace and by no means an imposition,”* making it clear that the exchange “is still far from being settled.”*

At the same time, government sources disregarded those in Uruguay that criticize the decision to host the prisoners. These sources have explained that the prisoners are not dangerous and that they will have both custody and protection, as well as complete freedom to leave Uruguayan soil whenever they desire.

President Mujica explained that taking in the prisoners from the Guantanamo prison is an issue that is “far from being over because it depends on decisions out of our reach.”* In his address, he defined Guantanamo as “a real disgrace for humanity and even more of a disgrace for a country like the United States, which is most commonly known for aiming criticism at other societies based on the principles of human rights. [It is a] disgrace because of the amount of prisoners who were there without due process, without a prosecutor or a judge or conclusive evidence.”*