by James Patrick Jordan It is just over a month since Colombia’s National Strike (Paro Nacional) began. The international community is appalled by the endless reports of atrocities and abuses by the ESMAD riot police and Colombian Armed Forces (which combine the military and police under one command), and the right-wing gangs allied with them.…
by James Patrick Jordan “James, we are here. There are many wounded, many captured, many bullets, just everything. This is horrible.” The message is from Darnelly Rodriguez, her voice shaking with emotion. Darne is a spokesperson for the Francisco Isaias Cifuentes Human Rights Network (REDDHFIC), and acting coordinator for the Centro Pazífico (Human Rights Center…
by James Patrick Jordan (originally published in LookLeft) Colombia and numbers have their own special relationship. On one of my first visits there, I consulted a map and estimated the place I wanted to go was only around 300 kilometers away. I did not consider the two Andean corridors we would cross, nor the big…
By Eunice Escobar and James Patrick Jordan Colombia’s national Human Rights Day began with the brutal pre-sunrise killing of Javier Ordoñez, a 46-year-old lawyer and taxi driver. In the early morning hours of September 9, 2020, bystanders recorded police who beat and repeatedly tasered Ordoñez. He was arrested while going to the store with friends.…
By Natalia Schuurman, Eduardo Garcia, Victoria Cervantes, and James Patrick Jordan The Alliance for Global Justice has just updated its list of U.S. political prisoners.* Let’s review a few basic facts and statistics, and consider some of the implications. The number of political prisoners in the United States has risen by 12.28% since the beginning…
by James Patrick Jordan (This piece was written for the Irish website LookLeft) On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while calling out, “I can’t breathe!” The next day, a popular uprising swept the country. It is impossible to give numbers and statistics to fully communicate the extent of…
by James Patrick Jordan (The following piece is an updated version of a presentation for the 2020 African Liberation Day radio special by the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party-(GC) and the Africa Awareness Association) The United States government has invested considerable resources toward the restructuring of African prison systems. This is an example of what we,…
by James Patrick Jordan Colombian Armed Forces attacked prisoners on Sunday who were striking against filthy conditions and lack of protections against the COVID-19 coronavirus. Colombian agents killed at least 23 persons and wounded more than 90 at La Modelo prison in the capital city of Bogotá. This attack takes place in the context…
by James Patrick Jordan Killings of Colombian social leaders and peace process participants have skyrocketed over the past month to a rate of over one victim per day. As if to underscore the point in blood, on January 21, 2020, two persons were killed, two wounded, and 70 persons displaced in Tarazá, in Colombia’s Bajo…
By James Patrick Jordan by James Patrick Jordan The lack of coverage in the United States of the national strike in Colombia is unbelievable. What little coverage it does receive has been misleading, at best. Colombia is the U.S. government’s closest ally in Latin America. It is held out as a model of democracy,…
