Jan 11 was the 17th anniversary of the opening of AmeriKKKa's dungeoun at Guantanimo Bay, Cuba. On Jan 11, 2019 protesters marked the occasion with a broader protest both of indefinate detention at Gitmo and US mass incarceration in general. Immigration detention was also singled out as protesters marched from the White House to Trump Hotel, and then to DC's own Central Cellblock.
A Jan 2008 pirate radio report on that year's Gitmo anniversary protest opened with "When you arrive at Guantanimo Bay, you know that there is a hell, and you know that there is a Devil, and his name is George W Bush!" Since then two presidents have run out their terms and left office, with Barrack Obama having disappointed the whole world by breaking his campaign vow to close the gates of Hell at Guantanimo Bay forever. Now 40 prisoners are still held at Gitmo and over half of them are "forever prisoners" denied trial because all the evidence against them was obtained by torture. Donald Trump has halted all releases and transfers of prisoners from Guantanimo Bay-even of clearly innocent people cleared for release under the Obama administration.
The songs and chants of protester clearly demanded the release of ALL prisoners held by the so-called "United States"-whether in Guantanimo Bay, the dungeouns of ICE and CBP, or any of the jails and prisons all over the US that hold in excess of 2 million prisoners. The US has become internationally known as a nation of cold iron prisons, the very thing it used to condemn the Soviet Union for being.
