Guatemalans Call For Closing of Guantanamo Jail
Over 50 Guatemalan academics have joined so far the international call to demand United States to close the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba and other illegal detention centers in the world.

"I have always been against those foreign military bases and I think that in case of Guantanamo, there is no reason of having an enclave like that in an independent country," said physician Jose Barnoya, one of the signers of the document.

Barnoya, admirer of Cuba since he was a teenager, talked of the historic links between the two countries and Jose Marti´s presence in Guatemala, as well as termed inadmissible the US blockade on Cuba for over 40 years.

Alfonso Bauer, another Guatemalan academic, has also supported Cuba and demanded Washington to close Pentagon´s prison in its naval base in Guantanamo, a portion of Cuban territory illegally occupied against the will of the island nation.

The renowned lawyer was one of the first signers of the international call against the war in Iraq and US violations of human rights, a document signed by over 6,000 academics worldwide so far.