Guantánamo Bay detention camp opens
- Date
- 11 January 2002
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 11 January 2002 the first twenty detainees in the US 'War on Terror' arrived at Camp X-Ray, a hastily built facility at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Established by the Bush administration to hold terrorism suspects classified as 'illegal enemy combatants', the camp was located offshore in part to place detainees beyond the normal reach of US courts. Over time more than 780 men from roughly 48 countries were held there, many for years without charge or trial. The camp became a global symbol of controversy over indefinite detention, 'enhanced interrogation' techniques widely condemned as torture, and the erosion of legal protections. US Supreme Court rulings (notably Rasul v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush) later affirmed detainees' rights to challenge their detention. Despite repeated pledges to close it, the facility remained open into the 2020s.
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Related politics & governance events
- The end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's election in South Africa27 April 1994 (election); 10 May 1994 (inauguration)
- Dissolution of the Soviet UnionAugust–December 1991
- German reunification3 October 1990
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
- Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe1989 (Autumn of Nations)
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
Further reading
The wider story
The Americas: A Hemispheric History
Brisk single-volume history of the whole hemisphere since European contact.
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