The monthly Guantánamo vigils and their ongoing significance
Photos and a report from ten locations across the US and around the world, where coordinated monthly vigils still call for Guantánamo’s closure.
Photos from this month’s vigils. Clockwise from top left: Washington, D.C., London, San Francisco and New York.
I’ve just published my new article, Photos and Report: The Ongoing Relevance of the Monthly Global Vigils for Guantánamo’s Closure, May 7, 2025, on my website, which features over two dozen photos from the ten coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London, Brussels and Mexico City on May 7, 2025. I hope you’ll visit and have a look.
The “First Wednesday” vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for 28 months, and have gained greater resonance under Donald Trump and his “war on migrants”, in which he has cynically used Guantánamo, and, more recently, has also sent migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, a mega-Guantánamo that, arguably, wouldn’t exist at all without the template provided by the Bush administration at Guantánamo, and shamefully maintained by every president ever since.
Where else but Guantánamo could a dictatorial president like Bukele have found such a resounding demonstration of a prison where men described as terrorists, and seized without due process using emergency powers, can be held indefinitely without charge or trial?
As I also explain in my article, when Donald Trump recently used Guantánamo as the venue for a demonstration of performative cruelty in his “war on migrants”, he inadvertently revealed how the “war on terror” prison is no longer relevant, and that the 15 men still held there, who include prisoners regarded as the most dangerous terrorists in US history for their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks, are now, to Trump, nothing more than forgotten men, mothballed and ignored as they were shunted aside so that he could abuse some hapless migrants instead.
I don’t suppose that any of the above makes any practical difference to Guantánamo right now. The military commissions will continue their work, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, regardless of who is in charge, although when decisions are required — on plea deals, for example — they will probably hit a roadblock via Pete Hegseth, the incompetent and wildly over-promoted former Fox News host who, extraordinarily, is the defense secretary of the United States.
Similarly, arranging releases for any of the men still held seems highly unlikely, as that would require the attention of Marco Rubio, another incompetent and wildly over-promoted individual, who, again extraordinarily, is the Secretary of State.
Nevertheless, eventually, the fate of Guantánamo and its 15 remaining prisoners will need to be resolved, and at that point, I hope, people will remember that, when confronted with its legacy, Donald Trump seemed almost unaware that the aging men still held at Guantánamo even existed.
The vigil in London, where MPs and peers who are part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Guantánamo’s closure, joined campaigners. The photo includes John McDonnell MP, Baroness Natalie Bennett and Chris Law MP.
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