This Tattoo Could Land You in Guantanamo
Michelle Ellner
Imagine being forced to leave everything behind, your home, your family, your dreams, because US sanctions have devastated your country’s economy, making day-to-day living increasingly unbearable. You endure a treacherous journey, risking everything for a chance at stability and to help your family back home, only to be met with handcuffs and an indefinite sentence in one of the world’s most infamous prisons.
This is the fate of many migrants, including Venezuelans, fleeing an economic war waged by US policies. One of President Trump’s first actions was to sign an executive order expanding the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay to detain up to 30,000 migrants, labeling them as “criminal illegal aliens.” Following mounting legal challenges and international scrutiny, the US government has now deported 177 Venezuelan migrants who were detained at the naval base.
According to US officials, 126 of them had criminal charges or convictions, and 80 were accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Fifty-one had no criminal records. Human rights advocates raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the US classification of detainees, especially given the cases where migrants were detained at Guantanamo based on nothing more than their tattoos.
Yes, the US government is using tattoos, sometimes nothing more than a name, a date, or even a tribute to a favorite athlete, as justification to label migrants as “gang-affiliated” and ship them off to Guantánamo Bay.
Take Luis Castillo, a 23-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker, who was detained at the border and later sent to Guantánamo simply because he had a Michael Jordan tattoo.
Let that sink in.
A Michael Jordan tattoo. Never mind that millions worldwide have the same logo inked on their skin or that it appears on bumper stickers, billboards, and sneakers everywhere. By this logic, half the country should be under surveillance. But when it comes to migrants, suddenly, a tattoo is a ticket to indefinite imprisonment.
Luis was detained, then abruptly sent to Guantánamo Bay on February 4, cut off from his family and legal representation. His sister, Yajaira Castillo, had been desperately trying to find out where he was, telling reporters, “He’s innocent. He just wanted a chance at life.”
Luis is not alone. Dozens of Venezuelans and other asylum seekers have been flown to Guantánamo under vague security classifications, with no access to attorneys and no clear path to getting out of Guantanamo.
Why Guantanamo?
For decades, Guantánamo has been a legal black hole where the US government detains people it does not want to acknowledge. It is a place built on stolen land, Cuban territory that the US has occupied since 1903, against the will of the Cuban people and government.
Now, it is being repurposed yet again, this time to imprison desperate migrants, far from public scrutiny and without the legal protections guaranteed on US soil.
A Dystopian Reality
Guantánamo is not just a prison; it’s a bizarre, dystopian military outpost where injustice coexists with American consumer culture. Just miles from where detainees are held indefinitely without trial, there is a McDonald’s, a Subway, a bowling alley, an escape room, and even a mini-golf course. The base has a recreation center, a movie theater, and a marina where troops and personnel can rent jet skis and go fishing! All within walking distance of a detention center infamous for torture.
And if that wasn’t surreal enough, the base also features a Starbucks, the only one on the island of Cuba, alongside a gift shop selling beer koozies, T-shirts, and shot glasses emblazoned with slogans like “Straight Outta GTMO” and “It Don’t GTMO Better Than This,” as if this were a quirky tourist attraction rather than a site dedicated to systemic human rights abuses.
The Cuban people have long demanded the closure of Guantánamo and the return of their land. Still, instead, the US government continues to use it as a dumping ground for those it refuses to recognize as human beings. And in an absurd display of imperial arrogance, the US still sends Cuba a check every year as “rent” for the base, money that the Cuban government refuses to cash, rejecting the illegal occupation.
Guantánamo should have been shut down long ago. Instead, it’s expanding because the US government never misses an opportunity when it comes to cruelty. Locking up migrants on stolen land while troops sip Starbucks and grab a Big Mac isn’t security for the “homeland,” it’s a grotesque spectacle of unchecked power and horrific violation of human rights.
The Bigger Picture
The expansion of Guantánamo Bay as a migrant detention center marks a dangerous escalation in US immigration policy. Instead of addressing the root causes of migration, many driven by US economic and foreign policies, the government is doubling down on militarized enforcement, turning a site infamous for human rights abuses into a holding cell for asylum seekers.
By detaining migrants in Guantánamo, the US government, sidesteps, legal obligations, and publicity create a system where people can be held indefinitely without due process.
Guantánamo is more than a prison. It’s a symbol of unchecked power. Today, it holds Venezuelan migrants, but tomorrow, it could hold anyone the government deems inconvenient.
Michelle is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK. She was born in Venezuela and holds a bachelor’s degree in languages and international affairs from the University La Sorbonne Paris IV, in Paris. After graduating, she worked for an international scholarship program out of offices in Caracas and Paris and was sent to Haiti, Cuba, The Gambia, and other countries for the purpose of evaluating and selecting applicants. Subsequently, she worked with community based programs designed to promote productive endeavors in Venezuela and then served as an analyst of U.S.-Venezuela relations.
Thaank you for covering this!
Excellent article. Thank you.