We have several important updates regarding Colombian political prisoner struggles. We are especially pleased to announce that there has been a victory at the Doña Juana penitentiary in La Dorada, Caldas, where 1,300 prisoners had engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience, including more than 176 hunger strikers, 18 who had sewn their lips shut. INPEC (Colombia’s Bureau of Prisons), government officials and the private health care provider that contracts with INPEC have agreed to maintain for two months an around the clock medical presence and to evaluate how that can be extended permanently. They also have agreed to conduct an investigation into the deaths of three inmates due to lack of medical attention this year. Thank you to all who sent emails and made phone calls on behalf of the hunger strikers. International solidarity was a key component in winning this victory. The actions you take really do matter!
Three important updates regarding political prisoners whose cases the Alliance for Global Justice has been following:
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“I want to make it clear primarily that I have been putting up with political persecution for many years on account of my defending human rights and workers and the working class….I am on the board of directors of Astracatol and belong also to the executive board of Fensuagro. That’s why they have been threatening me over many years….They invade the place where I live. They take me away. Then a helicopter arrives with the judiciary system police and they put me on the floor. They checked out my whole house….They only found things belonging to Patriotic March and to Astracatol. They took away none of these documents but they sure did study all of them. And it was then that they read an order of arrest against me….as someone associated with rebellion.”
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Send an email to Colombian authorities demanding Don Guillermo’s release!
3) Liliany Obando, former International Relations Coordinator for the Fensuagro agricultural workers federation, has been convicted in abstentia of “Rebellion”, and sentenced to 5 years and 8 months. Because she has already served 3 years and 8 months, she would have to serve about two more years. Charges that she was raising money for the guerrillas were dropped for lack of evidence. WATCH THE VIDEO “BEYOND THE WALLS” based on the writings and testimonies of Liliany Obando and other Colombian women political prisoners.