Skip to main content
Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Ex-Guantanamo prisoner on hunger strike worsens in Uruguay

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab rests in bed while conversing with his family via a laptop, in his apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay. An Uruguayan official said on Sept. 14 that the health of the resettled former Guantanamo detainee has taken a turn for the worse due to a hunger strike he launched to demand relocation to another country. He says he no longer wants to remain in Uruguay and would like to join his wife and daughters in Turkey. Uruguayan officials say they are trying to find another country to accept him. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab rests in bed while conversing with his family via a laptop, in his apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay. An Uruguayan official said on Sept. 14 that the health of the resettled former Guantanamo detainee has taken a turn for the worse due to a hunger strike he launched to demand relocation to another country. He says he no longer wants to remain in Uruguay and would like to join his wife and daughters in Turkey. Uruguayan officials say they are trying to find another country to accept him. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico, File) FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab rests in bed while conversing with his family via a laptop, in his apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay. An Uruguayan official said on Sept. 14 that the health of the resettled former Guantanamo detainee has taken a turn for the worse due to a hunger strike he launched to demand relocation to another country. He says he no longer wants to remain in Uruguay and would like to join his wife and daughters in Turkey. Uruguayan officials say they are trying to find another country to accept him. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico, File)

By Associated Press 4 min read

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) – A former Guantanamo prisoner who was resettled in Uruguay was treated by paramedics Wednesday for the effects of a hunger strike he launched to press officials into letting him relocate to another country.

Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who drew international attention by hunger-striking during 12 years of occasionally confrontational confinement at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, fainted at the apartment where he has been staying in Montevideo and required treatment, said Jorge Voituret, a friend.

Details of his condition were not available.

Christian Mirza, an official who is the former prisoner’s liaison with the Uruguayan government, said Dhiab struggled to stand when she visited him a day earlier. “He is in extremely delicate condition, but conscious,” Mirza said.

She said the government was working “at the highest levels” to find a country that would accept the 45-year-old Syrian, who came to this South American country with five other freed Guantanamo prisoners who were offered resettlement as a humanitarian gesture by then President Jose Mujica.