Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. We urge our readers to join the protest and pack the courtroom on Dec. 4, in Washington D.C. If your organization supports the call, please send your information to the Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera.

---

The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera is protesting the U.S. government’s kidnapping, imprisonment and railroading of Ricardo Palmera. We demand the release of Ricardo Palmera now!

Ricardo Palmera is a good and honest man who has committed no crime. He is a fine example of a revolutionary fighting for the liberation of the Colombian people from poverty and oppression. Ricardo Palmera is only guilty of rebelling against an unjust system! Born into a family of wealth and power, Ricardo Palmera turned to a life of serving the poor and the oppressed, taking up the life of the guerrilla fighters of the FARC. He has been a FARC peace negotiator in talks with the Colombian government. Ricardo Palmera has dedicated his life to the struggle of the Colombian people for independence, peace and justice. George Bush, Judge Hogan and the United States government have no right to judge Ricardo Palmera.

Palmera’s trial is another form of U.S. interference in Colombia. The Bush administration is pursuing an undeclared war in Colombia. Under ‘Plan Colombia,’ begun by Clinton and Gore, the U.S. government spends nearly $5 billion on chemical warfare and paramilitary death squads that kill trade unionists, peasants, students – anyone who organizes the people to oppose the U.S. empire and the rich elite of Colombia. There are now 800 U.S. troops ‘advising’ soldiers in battle. 500 U.S. mercenaries or ‘military contractors’ are participating in the Colombian civil war on the side of the corrupt puppet government. Plan Colombia is a plan for misery, poverty and death. We demand an end to Plan Colombia! We demand an end to the trial of Palmera!

We are calling on all those who support peace, justice and fairness to picket and protest this outrageous trial. We want to pack the courtroom with supporters of Ricardo Palmera so Judge Hogan, ‘el Juez Loco,’ learns he cannot railroad a brave Colombian fighter. It is time to unite. All who oppose U.S. war and occupation, all who seek to end the misery of U.S. war and intervention in Latin America, all who support self-determination and sovereignty for the people of Colombia: Please join our protest and picket.

Protest the Trial of Ricardo Palmera

8:30 a.m., Monday, December 4, 2006

U.S. District Court, Washington D.C.,

Third Street and Constitution Avenue, Northwest

(One block west of U.S. Capitol. Facing Constitution Ave. where it merges with Pennsylvania Ave. METRO subway station, Judiciary Square – Red Line)

For more information see www.FreeRicardoPalmera.org

#UnitedStates #Colombia #RicardoPalmera #NationalCommitteeToFreeRicardoPalmera #Statement #PoliticalPrisoners