Denver, CO – “You often hear of horrific human rights abuses around the world but just two hours down the road is one of the grossest violations of human rights, located at the federal supermax prison in Florence,” stated Mark Burton to open his presentation about his client, Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad.

Burton went on to describe to the attentive student crowd the inhumane conditions of the prolonged solitary confinement suffered by those who “are attempted to be thrown away and forgotten.” Although most of the world views prolonged solitary confinement as psychological torture, the U.S. does not.

Trinidad led a relatively comfortable life as a professor and banker in Colombia when his interest in working to change Colombia brought him to the electoral movement of the Patriotic Union. Sadly, the Patriotic Union suffered massive violence from far-right death squads in the 1980s. At the age of 37, Simon escaped to the mountains to join the people’s army of the FARC-EP. He continued his role as an educator with the revolutionary organization and served as a peace negotiator.

The FARC-P fought for new Colombia and once controlled nearly one-third of the country, presenting a serious challenge to the Colombian oligarchy. The U.S. across many administrations sought to tip the scales in favor of the rich elite. This saw its most serious expression in Plan Colombia, which funded, armed, trained and commanded Colombian military forces, under the guise of the “War on Drugs,” in anti-insurgency tactics.

In late 2003, a U.S.-coordinated intelligence operation kidnapped Trinidad in Ecuador and eventually far-right President Alvaro Uribe worked with the U.S. to extradite him to face a number of bogus charges.

It took four trials, and various changes in charges, to convict Simon of kidnapping U.S. military contractors who were doing reconnaissance flights over FARC-EP territory. There still remains no actual evidence to prove the U.S.’s case. The U.S. government effectively gave him a life sentence of 60 years.

Despite the grave injustices, the current political climate in both Colombia and the U.S. present the best conditions to Free Simon Trinidad since his capture.

“We need dialogue between President Petro and President Biden about the important role Simon can play in the unique court known as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace created by the historic 2016 Peace Accords. Simon’s experience as a victim of political violence in the 80s and his institutional knowledge of the civil war can rally and unite many Colombians to support the faltering peace process,” added Burton.

Since the signing of the Peace Accords in late 2016, far-right paramilities have continued the violence by killing well over 1300 social leaders and several hundreds of former FARC-EP fighters who agreed to lay down their arms. As the death squads terrorize those working toward peace, Simon Trinidad, a recognized peace negotiator, languishes in a prison in the mountains of Colorado.

The people of Colombia are fed up with the old way of things. Consecutive years of national strikes challenged the ruling order and brought a wave of change into the presidency and vice presidency with the election of Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez. Clearly, the need for peace with justice and reconciliation is central on the minds of Colombians, as thousands demonstrated a remembrance vigil of all the victims of the far right since the passing of the Peace Accords.

With social and political support in Colombia and less than 100 days in President Biden’s term, the time to free Simon Trinidad is now.

The crowd, made up of many chapters of the National SDS on colleges and universities, roared their applause when Burton concluded with his commitment to do “all that is possible and necessary to free Simon Trinidad!”

On day two of the convention, SDS once again voted to support the call from the National Committee to Free Trinidad with a resolution that outlines the history and importance of supporting peace with justice in Colombia, and the central role Simon Trinidad must play in that.

The last section of the resolution begins: “Momentum is building for Simón Trinidad as he now has access to his Colombian lawyer after a successful lawsuit against the U.S. government. We need Colombian President Petro to demand the return of Simon Trinidad in coordination with the JEP. We need the United States President to free Simon Trinidad. We ask all progressive forces to spread the call and demand: Free Simón Trinidad!” 

For information about Simon Trinidad and the campaign to free him please visit: www.freesimontrinidad.org

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