Chicago, IL – “It's a crime that the U.S. government has jailed a man who has dedicated his entire life to fighting for the liberation of the Colombian people,” said Tom Burke of the newly formed National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. Palmera, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is being held in a prison near Washington D.C. The FARC is a rebel army that has fought for 40-plus years to rid Colombia of exploitation, oppression and foreign domination. The FARC now controls more than 40% of the countryside.
Ricardo Palmera, a key leader Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, (FARC), was handed over to U.S. custody Dec. 31. He is now sitting in a U.S. jail awaiting trial in federal court. Everyone who values justice should raise their voices and demand his immediate release.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following essay from the Colombian trade unionist and political prisoner, Liliany Obando. The introduction was prepared by the Colombia Action Network.
President George Bush has made his long-awaited speech on the situation in Palestine. He said no more than a few sentences about the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and the continued theft of more land to build more Jewish-only settlements. Nothing was said about Israel's war plans or the escalation of Israeli violence that has included a wave of assassinations, 24-hour curfews, checkpoints, massive arrests and the destruction of all equipment and buildings needed in the major cities of the West Bank, such as Nablus, Jenin and Ramallah.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter from Liliany (Lily) Obando who is a Colombian trade union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and agricultural workers federation in Colombia. She writes academic papers and makes documentary films about the struggles of Colombian campesinos. On Aug. 8, Lily was arrested and imprisoned by the ‘anti-terrorism unit’ of the Colombian National Police. She has been charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities.” Her story is tragically familiar in a country where thousands of trade unionists have been threatened, arrested or killed by the U.S.-backed Colombian government. The following letter will be read from the stage and at the Fight Back! forum on Colombia at the School of the Americas demonstration in Fort Benning, Georgia Nov 21-23 by speakers for the Colombia Action Network.
Palestinian Prisoners' Day, commemorated throughout Palestine and by solidarity activists the world over, April 17, is a day to bring attention to the plight of all Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails and to demand their immediate release.
Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement demanding the release of Palestinian political prisoner Ahmad Saadat. Saadat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement that demands the release of Ahmad Sa'adat, one of the key leaders of the struggle to liberate Palestine. Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was interviewed by Fight Back! in May 2003, a year after his incarceration.
Butner, North Carolina - More than 80 students and civil rights activists rallied here, March 24, to protest the U.S. government’s indefinite imprisonment of Dr. Sami al-Arian. Dr. al-Arian, a Palestinian, was a tenured professor of computer science at the University of South Florida. In 2003, he and three others were arrested and charged with ‘supporting terrorism.’ The U.S. government claimed he was working on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organization that is fighting to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
