Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. empire, Simón Trinidad, will have his 70th birthday in solitary confinement in a federal Supermax prison. Simón Trinidad, born Ricardo Palmera, is languishing in the Florence, Colorado Supermax prison after a bogus extradition to the United States in 2004, convicted on trumped-up charges, and sentenced to 60 years.

Organizers with the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera are asking people to email their birthday greetings for Simón to [email protected] before his birthday on July 30. On his birthday, the group is calling for a Twitterstorm, in Spanish a Twitazo, that will then post the greetings on their Twitter account @SimonTrinidadLi and ask people to use this Tweet format:

#FreeSimonTrinidad @realDonaldTrump

The signing of the 2016 Peace Accords has not made life more peaceful for working-class and poor Colombians. Paramilitaries, many times in coordination with the Colombian government, have killed nearly 800 social leaders from trade unions, environmental groups and indigenous rights organizations. To add to that, they have killed around 200 ex-combatants from the FARC as well. The election of ultra-right President Ivan Duque in 2018 has only led to an intensification of the murders, disappearances and intimidation.

That situation will only get worse with the recent arrival of a U.S. Security Force Assistance Brigade. It must also be noted that the SFAB is in eastern Colombia on the border with Venezuela, to coordinate activities among Colombian military, cartels and paramilitaries for the purposes of terrorizing Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and movement toward socialism.

As these conditions unravel the Peace Accords, we demand that President Trump free Simón Trinidad and return a respected peace negotiator so that Colombia can chart a course for peace with justice.

Free Simon Trinidad! U.S. out of Colombia!

#UnitedStates #RicardoPalmera #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalPrisoners #SimónTrinidad