September 24, 2014: A White House spokesperson said that any combatants captured during the offensive against Islamic State insurgents would not be brought to Guantánamo Bay. The question remains, however, of the likely status of any possible captives, as well as where such captives might be kept. September 29, 1965: Fidel Castro opens the port…

The Guantánamo Public Memory Project opened September 2 in Jones Hall at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana (open weekdays 10am-5pm).  This traveling exhibit examines the history of the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba from multiple perspectives and raises questions about U.S.-Cuban relations, civil liberties, national security, and public memory in the past,…

August 30, 2014: The U.S. Coast Guard announced that it had repatriated 24 Haitian and 62 Cuban migrants that had been attempting to reach Florida by boat. Many of these had attempted to reach the U.S. on unseaworthy ‘rafts.’ September 9, 1994: In the summer of 1994 the U.S. saw a massive increase in Cuban…

During the last months I became very interested on the topic of Guantánamo Bay. Through books, articles, photographs and videos I became more and more aware of the violence that is committed against human beings that are held within that institution. While watching a documentary called: 4 days inside Guantánamo, I was shocked by the…

Five Miami institutions are joining forces to open dialogue on the history of the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and its memories and legacies for the city’s diverse communities through exhibits, storytelling, academic and cultural programs across the city from August 14-October 31, 2014  This citywide effort, featured in the Miami Herald,  marks the debut of…

Over the past few months, we’ve slowly been adding new interviews to our online collection. Produced by students at the University of Miami and Northeastern University, these interviews share the memories of people with unique and important experiences of Gitmo. We collect and make these interviews available in the hope that they will inspire people…

Whilst taking the module ‘Ethics of Representation’, as part of my MA at the University of Brighton, part of my study has been to view photographs and discuss the ethical implications of taking and viewing such images; particularly those which portray scenes of conflict or humanitarian crisis. Whilst researching images of this nature I viewed…

We cannot know what really happens in the world. On second thoughts, this claim is a generalisation; an omniscient being does of course know what occurs everywhere at every infinitesimal fraction of time. Nobody I have met, however, possesses this extraordinary capacity, and it is possibly true to say that most of us do not…

June 18, 2014: A federal judge ordered that the government hand over videos showing a GTMO detainee being ‘forcibly extracted’ from his cell. The detainee, Mohammed Abu Wa’el Dhiab, is understood to be on a hunger-strike, and to be removed from his cell several times each week in order to undergo ‘enteral feeding,’ which has…

June 1, 2014: The last U.S. soldier held captive in Afghanistan is released by the Taliban, in exchange for five Guantánamo detainees. These detainees, all of which are understood to have connections to the Taliban, had not previously been cleared for release, and faced indefinite detention at GTMO. June 14, 1898: Although the U.S. had…