THE United States continued to violate human rights both within and outside of its borders in 2004, according to the annual report by Amnesty International (AI) published yesterday and reported on by EFE from London.

That organization points out that hundreds of people are still detained without charges or trial at the US naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba, and that the basic human rights of thousands of people were trampled on when they were arrested during the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By the end of 2004, more than 500 people of some 35 nationalities were still being held at the Guantánamo base, according to AI, noting that almost four years after a detention center was established at the base, official statistics still do not exist.

The organization calculates that at least 10 more prisoners arrived during the year from Afghanistan, and that more than 100 were transferred to their countries of origin either to be released or to remain in custody.

The report includes the case of torture carried out at the Abu Ghraib prison and notes that US forces had some 25 detention centers and 17 in Iraq, where prisoners are "systematically denied access to lawyers and their families."

Moreover, some prisoners considered to be "highly valuable" because of the information they might provide, "were held in secret locations," in some cases for up to three years.

The report also says that interrogation techniques were authorized in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture, and quotes President George W. Bush, who said in February of 2002 that, although "prisoners should be humanely treated" according to US values, there are individuals who "are not legally entitled" to that treatment.

In that sense, it is noted, the decision not to apply the Geneva Convention to the prisoners captured in Afghanistan was based on the advice of Alberto González, White House counsel at the time, whom Bush selected as attorney general for his second term.

According to the report, "the fact that the majority of investigations were done by the Army itself and not by the highest levels of government was a cause for concern.