GREENFIELD — To mark the 24th anniversary of the first prisoners entering the United States detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, a vigil will be held on the Greenfield Common on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 11 a.m.
Activists from local chapters of No More Guantanamo and Witness Against Torture will stand silently for a half hour to remember the prisoners taken to the facility in Cuba.
An event announcement from Sherill Hogen, a Charlemont resident and member of No More Guantanamo and Witness Against Torture, states that the demonstration will “remember the shame” of bringing prisoners there starting in 2002.
“We would like people to understand that we are still locking up people without any judicial rights and human rights,” Hogan said on Thursday. “It’s hard to put into words to capture the outrage of picking up people out of the streets, then giving them no judicial process to defend themselves.”
Guantanamo Bay houses detainees that the U.S. government has classified as enemy combatants, according to a United Nations (UN) information page about the facility. Per a New York Times report from November 2025, around 780 people have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. As of November, 15 people remain detained at the camp, and nine have been charged with war crimes. Nine have died in custody there since 2002.
The first round of detainees to enter Guantanamo Bay were 20 men from Afghanistan, months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that kicked off the war on terror. The camp has been under scrutiny for human rights violations and legal rights violations of the prisoners.
Recently, Guantanamo Bay has been used by the White House to hold migrants under the Trump administration, including 22 Cuban migrants who were sent to the facility in December for deportation by the U.S.
In light of the continued use of Guantanamo Bay, Hogan said Saturday’s vigil is important to remind people of how it is still being used for detainees.
“We all need to be aware of the actions of our government,” she said.