When Jose, a Venezuelan traveler that was looking for asylum in the USA, was woken up by a Migration and Traditions Enforcement authorities at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 8, he noticed he was being sent out to Guantanamo Bay, home of the well-known united state jail camp that management authorities claimed would certainly house one of the most fierce “worst of the most awful” travelers collared on American dirt.
” When we hopped on the [military] airplane, they placed restrictions on our hands, feet, and midsection,” claimed Jose, that asked for that his surname not be utilized out of anxiety of revenge. “They looked us and after that rested us in a chair, linking us to it and binding our feet with each other. We wished it would not be Guantanamo yet in the long run, that’s where we wound up.”
Jose is among the greater than 170 travelers that invested 2 weeks at the marine base prior to being sent out to Venezuela. He informed ABC Information that while he had an uncertainty he was being sent out to Guantanamo, he asserts united state authorities never ever informed him and the various other travelers where they were being sent out.
” Our minds were competing, believing we were abducted, questioning that would certainly obtain us out of there,” claimed Jose. “Due to the fact that no person informs you anything.”
Jose informed ABC Information that he had actually taken a trip to Mexico’s north boundary to wait on an asylum consultation that he asked for via the united state Traditions and Boundary Defense application, before it being closed down by the Trump management. After 3 weeks of waiting and “no food or an area to remain,” he determined to give up to authorities at the united state southerly boundary. He was apprehended at an apprehension facility till he was moved to Guantanamo.
ABC Information talked to Jose and an additional Guantanamo detainee, Jhoan Bastidas Paz, in Spanish, and assessed court testaments from 3 various other detainees concerning their experience on the marine base prior to they were launched. They declare united state authorities moved them to Guantanamo regardless of their having no rap sheets, and numerous case they were rejected call with their lawyers and family members regardless of duplicated needs.
” From the minute we existed, we attempted to kick the doors, we took place many strikes,” Jose claimed. “We blocked the bathrooms and opposed, we covered the cams since the arrest is intolerable.”
The primary gateway at the jail in Guantanamo at the United States Guantanamo Naval Base, Oct. 16, 2018, in Guantanamo Base, Cuba.
Sylvie Lanteaume/AFP through Getty Photos
Jose informed ABC Information the space in which he was put had “webs and a horrible scent.” He claimed that he invested 10 days without a cushion.
” They provide you food … yet it resembles they do not provide you any kind of, [it’s] really little food,” Jose claimed. “There came a factor where I would certainly lick home plate. The food had no salt, yet I would certainly still consume it as if it were really delicious, since I was starving.”
Jose claimed he and the various other detainees were just permitted outside two times in 2 weeks and were rejected call with their family members and households.
” There are 4 cages outside,” Jose claimed. “That’s the lawn. You leave one space to enter into an additional cell.”
Agents from the Division of Homeland Safety and security did not react to an ask for remark from ABC Information.
Bastidas Paz had actually given up to authorities after going across the united state southerly boundary from Mexico in 2023. He was billed with “incorrect entrance” to which he begged guilty, and remained in an apprehension facility in El Paso, Texas, till he was moved to Guantanamo Bay.
Both Jose and Bastidas Paz informed ABC Information they are not participants of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, regardless of the united state federal government claiming they are.
” We’re not from Tren de Aragua or anything, we’re not offenders, we’re immigrants,” Bastidas Paz claimed. He claimed that authorities never ever informed him he was being sent out to Guantanamo and after that to Venezuela.
” I do not believe it’s reasonable that they’re taking us there, like that, with lies, since virtually we’re being taken there, abducted, without informing us anything, and when we recognize it, they leave us there, and I do not believe it’s reasonable,” Bastidas Paz claimed.
Bastidas Paz informed ABC Information that he took place an appetite strike with various other detainees while they required info from authorities. He additionally asserts he was just permitted to bath 3 times while he remained in Guantanamo.
” We are immigrants and we have not devoted any kind of criminal activity to be required to that really unsightly jail,” Bastidas Paz claimed.
Jose claimed he has actually not had the ability to rest because he got here in Venezuela.
” I have not rested whatsoever due to the anxiety that I may drop off to sleep and … I would certainly awaken back there,” he informed ABC Information. “That’s the fear I really feel.”
