Twisp man, co-worker joining protest at Guantanamo Bay
Dana Visalli plans to start the new year just outside the walls of a detainment camp in Cuba, with a dozen or so other protesters.
Visalli, a 58-year-old biological consultant from Twisp, Wash., will fly to Havana on Monday, via Mexico City, to protest the fifth anniversary of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Federal provisions prohibit Americans from most travel to Cuba.
He and a co-worker, 30-year-old Anaka Mines, will join a dozen other protesters, Visalli said. They will be accompanied by a photojournalist.
“I have no idea what one person, or five people, or 20 people, speaking honestly from their hearts will do,” Visalli said. “I just know it’s unacceptable to us.”
Mines said the group also plans to visit several organic farms in Cuba.
“I’ve been fascinated by Cuba for a long time, even before they put a prison in Guantanamo,” Mines said. “The irony of a secret lawless prison in a country we are not even allowed to visit is just too much for us to take.”
The trip caused a minor stir in Twisp, population 915, after the Methow Valley News published an article on the protest.
One letter to the newspaper, published by a man from nearby Winthrop, said, “I hope they succeed in getting their release and bring them all back to the valley so they can live and mingle in Twisp, read the local newspaper and go to the Farmers Market on Saturdays.”
The Methow Valley, Visalli said, “has a broad spectrum, from so-called liberals to so-called conservatives.
“Some people are very, very appreciative of this trip,” he said. “There are those who are horrified. There are others who think it’s necessary to do what we are doing.”
Visalli became interested in the detainment center after researching the topic for his anti-war group, Methow Just Peace.
Many of the men held at Guantanamo Bay were captured in Afghanistan in the U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks. Many have been held for years and nearly all are being held without charges, according to Reuters.
The Bush administration has designated Guantanamo prisoners “enemy combatants,” denying them the prisoner of war status that would guarantee them certain rights under international law.
“It’s a blot against the human race,” Visalli said. “Almost 700 people have gone through there. Almost no one has been charged with a crime. It’s the torture of innocents.”
A recent screening of the docudrama “The Road to Guantanamo” raised about $2,500, which Visalli hopes to use to cover travel costs for a relative of one of the prisoners to speak in Cuba.
The protest will be held Jan. 11, as part of an international day of protest sponsored by Code Pink, a women’s anti-war group.