U.S. commander overseeing Guantanamo Bay fired: Southern Command

[April 29, 2019]  By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. admiral in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba has been fired "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command," U.S. Southern Command said in a statement on Sunday.

Rear Admiral John Ring was removed from the post on Saturday, the brief statement said, without giving details about why.

Jose Ruiz, a spokesman for Southern Command, which oversees Guantanamo, told Reuters the decision was the result of a monthlong investigation completed earlier in April, but declined to provide specifics.

The firing was first reported by The New York Times.

Ring had led Guantanamo since April 2018. General John Hussey, formerly the center's deputy commander, will now lead it in an acting capacity, the statement said.

"This change in leadership will not interrupt the safe, humane, legal care and custody provided to the detainee population at GTMO," Southern Command said in its statement.

The Guantanamo detention center, opened by Republican President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has become a byword for harsh detention practices that have opened the United States to accusations of torture.

A guard opens the gate at the entrance to Camp VI, a prison used to house detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo

President Barack Obama shrank its population while in office but failed to completely close the center as he had once promised. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2018 to keep the center open, and has discussed adding to its population. Since May 2018, Guantanamo has housed 40 prisoners.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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