Report: 6 Guantanamo Prisoners to Arrive in Uruguay Soon

Uruguay will make good before the end of the year on its offer to the United States to take in six Guantanamo prisoners, a media report said Thursday.

Uruguay's leftist President Jose Mujica had announced in March that the South American country would take in the inmates on humanitarian grounds in an effort to help U.S. President Barack Obama fulfill his long-delayed promise to close the military prison in Cuba.

After months of delays, "both governments have begun arranging the details of the transfer and the goal is for it to take place in late December," reported weekly newspaper Busqueda, citing "sources with knowledge of the preparations."

Busqueda is the newspaper that broke the story in March of the negotiations for the transfer deal.

Under the plan, the men would be treated like any other resident and be allowed to travel freely, according to Mujica.

But the transfer had appeared to be in jeopardy after outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reportedly hesitated for months over approving it.

By the time Washington was ready, Uruguay was in the midst of an election campaign to choose Mujica's successor, making the issue a political hot potato.

But Mujica's Broad Front (FA) party has now secured its hold on power for another five years with the victory of his ally, former president Tabare Vazquez, in a run-off election Sunday.

Mujica, a former guerrilla who has become something of a celebrity for legalizing marijuana, giving most of his salary to charity and living in a run-down farmhouse, has said he sympathizes with the Guantanamo inmates' plight because of the 13 years he spent as a political prisoner.

There are now 142 inmates remaining at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, set up in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Officials have not named the inmates who would be brought to Uruguay.

They have been described as low-level operatives who have been cleared for release but cannot return home because of conflicts or the threat of torture.