U.S. peace activists to attend int'l seminar in Guantanamo, Cuba

More than 100 peace activists from the United States will travel to Cuba to attend an international forum against foreign military bases next week, the daily Granma reported Wednesday.

Some 103 U.S. activists will join as many delegates from more than 25 countries at the 4th International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases that is scheduled on Nov. 23-25 in the eastern province of Guantanamo, where the U.S. maintains a military base and notorious prison.

Among the prominent U.S. activists attending are Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in the Iraq War; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former State Department official who publicly resigned her post to protest the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of peace movement Code Pink.

"The seminar aims to denounce the interventionist policies of the major world powers, intent on establishing military bases on every continent," Granma said.

It also aims to promote support for Cuba's demand that the U.S. "return the territory illegally occupied since 1903 by the Guantanamo Naval Base," the daily said, noting the prison is "thought to be the cruelest and most inhumane torture enter in the world."

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to close the prison when he first campaigned for office, but met with resistance from congress.

Representatives from Brazil, Chile, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Palestine and Puerto Rico will be participating in the two-day event. Endit