Chicago, IL – On December 20, over 175 people gathered in the Chicago Teachers Union Hall to stand in solidarity with Gustavo Petro and the people of Colombia as their country faces an intensification of U.S. aggression.

Petro has had his visa revoked by the Trump administration, and the country is seeing attacks in the form of sanctions, tariffs and military threats. These attacks have been because of his un-fearful stance against U.S. imperialism, from calling out the U.S./Israel’s genocide in Gaza to defending the sovereignty of Latin American nations. Petro is a popular and progressive internationalist.

In attendance were members of the Colombian consulate, progressive Chicago politicians, and leaders in the people's struggle, speaking on what Colombia needs from the people of Chicago.

Our solidarity must be concrete as well

“We must stand in solidarity with Gustavo Petro and the beautiful people of Colombia, as they have stood with Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, with forces fighting for climate and environmental justice, as they have stood with their neighbors in Venezuela who are in the crosshairs of the U.S. military,” said Hatem Abudayyeh from the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

Abudayyeh continued, “Together we will reject sanctions, threats, intervention and war against the people of Colombia.”

Daniel Garcia-Peña, the Colombian ambassador to the United States, spoke on the achievements that Colombia has made under the leadership of Petro. He also spoke of the need for solidarity with the nation during rising tensions. Peña stated, “We are very concerned about what is happening in the Caribbean. It’s a clear sign of how the U.S. is threatening not only Venezuela but all of Latin America, which continue to be seen as a backyard that can be trampled on.”

Garcia-Peña noted “But me and President Petro have been clear, times are different. Colombians and Latin Americans are not going to stand for interventionism as they may have happened in the past. We need each other's solidarity. Palestinians can count on Colombians, but we also need the world to stand with Colombians and our Latin American neighbors in these trying times.”

Speakers from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), the Anti-War Committee (AWC) and the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) also spoke, representing the progressive movements which they work in.

Alderperson Byron Sicho-Lopez echoed the message of late Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton on the need for solidarity. Lopez introduced the resolution commemorating the historic 2024 visit of Petro to Chicago – a city that, much like Colombia, is a beacon of hope in the resistance against the reactionary Trump administration.

#ChicagoIL #IL #International #Colombia #AntiWarMovement #CAARPR #AWCChicago #CATA #CTU #Labor #Teachers

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Committee to Free Simón Trinidad. His birthday is July 30.

Colombian revolutionary Simón Trinidad has lived 75 years on this earth and his last 21 have been spent as a prisoner of the U.S. Empire. Once a valuable thinker and peace negotiator for the FARC-EP, four sham trials based on bogus charges saw a U.S. federal court eventually sentence Trinidad to 60 years in the Federal Supermax prison in Florence, CO. The terms of his imprisonment included the psychologically challenging isolation of Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) and the restrictive access to legal support. His U.S. lawyer battled and helped win him access to his Colombian lawyer working on his cases in the U.S.-support Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) handling peace, justice, and reconciliation.

The international campaign to support has yielded messages of solidarity from freed Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Rivera Lopez, a Nobel Peace laureate and numerous human rights activists from over 18 countries. The magistrate from the JEP, who also ruled Trinidad free of the charge of rebellion, have asked that the U.S. return him to share his knowledge and experience of the country’s past. He is seen as a key asset to the peace process.

A landmark event occurred in the fall of 2024 when current Colombian president Gustavo Petro made a formal request that the U.S. release Trinidad into Colombian custody. Outgoing U.S. president Biden did not commute nor pardon before he left office.

As Simón Trinidad remains strong and endures the conditions in the empire’s prison, we salute his courage to have served his people and continue to present the best of Colombia’s revolutionary heritage. We urge all progressive forces and supporters of human rights to demand that President Trump free Simón Trinidad.

Join us on X and social media platforms to use #FreeSimonTrinidad in your posts and stories and tag @FreeSimonTrinidad

#International #Colombia #PoliticalPrisoners #SimonTrinidad #NCFST #Feature

Fight Back! is circulating this timely statement from the Committee to Free Simon Trinidad.

Call President Biden at 202-456-1111 and ask him to “Free Simon Trinidad!” Call between 11am-3pm Eastern, from Tuesday, December 10 to Thursday, December12.

Leave your message to “Free Simon Trinidad!” on the White House comment line. Now is the time to call before President Biden leaves the White House in January 2024.

Say: “I call on President Biden to ‘Free Simon Trinidad’ so he can return home to Colombia and strengthen the ongoing peace process. 20 years in lock down is too long. Please honor the request of Colombian President Petro for Simon Trinidad’s return. Trinidad was ordered to testify at the special court of justice (JEP) in Bogota, Colombia. Give the gift of peace these holidays! Free Simon Trinidad!”

Who is Simon Trinidad?

Known popularly as Simon Trinidad, he is a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. held in the Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado. The U.S. government extradited, held four trials, and now imprisons Trinidad under his birth name of Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda (BPO No. 27896-016).

Simon Trinidad was a leader and peace negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP). Prior to that, he spent his life organizing people for progressive causes and social change, including with the Patriotic Union (UP) political party.

What will he testify about at the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)?

Just as he did over the course of four trials in a Washington D.C. Federal Court, Trinidad will speak about his role in the FARC-EP revolutionary movement and then be cross-examined.

He can also detail the political violence against the Patriotic Union (UP) in the 1980’s and 1990’s when more than 4000 party activists, candidates, and elected officials were kidnapped, murdered, and assassinated. The Colombian government and right-wing repression closed the electoral avenue to change in this period. As a political candidate, Trinidad himself was a victim of this terror campaign and it caused him to join the rebel fighters of the FARC-EP at the age of 37.

Why ask President Biden now?

President Biden has the power to release Simon Trinidad in the last days of his term in the White House. It appears as a “now or never moment” for Trinidad and Colombia. We want Trinidad to return home to serve an important role: support and strengthen the ongoing Colombian peace process.

Biden is very familiar with U.S. policy in Colombia. Biden introduced Plan Colombia to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. war plan that spent 10 billion dollars to cause misery, poverty and death in Colombia. Joe Biden was then Vice President under President Obama when the U.S. supported the 2016 Peace Accords between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP).

What does Colombia’s President Petro want?

Today, the ongoing Colombian peace process with the FARC-EP and the Colombian government faces great challenges. Once back in Colombia, Trinidad will participate in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a court backed by the Obama and Biden administrations to create justice and reconciliation.

Trinidad was left out of the peace negotiations between the Colombian Government and FARC-EP which resulted in an uneasy and sometimes faltering peace after 2016. A peace where the far-right paramilitaries continue to murder hundreds of former FARC-EP fighters who trusted the peace process by laying down their arms. The violence of the far-fight continues to claim labor and community leaders every single week to this day. Because of the lack of unity and trust, guerrilla groups like the ELN continue to fight in the countryside, and new ones, remnants of the FARC-EP are appearing.

What can we do?

The ongoing imprisonment of revolutionary Simon Trinidad is a violation of the sovereignty of Colombia. We can help end his imprisonment and now is the time.

Colombia’s President Petro and solidarity activists in the U.S. see Trinidad’s freedom and testimony as a way to reinforce the current peace efforts. Bringing Simon’s historical and institutional knowledge to the special court of the JEP would allow the country to hear and think about a better future. The weight of Simon Trinidad’s absence is heavy, and his leadership is sorely missed by those who he can rally, as well as others who he might persuade.

Freeing Simon Trinidad to face court proceedings under the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia will show consideration and goodwill from Biden as President of the United States. It will also strengthen the will of those who advocate for democracy in Colombia and in the U.S.

The Committee to Free Simon Trinidad!

info@freesimontrinidad.org and https://freesimontrinidad.org

#International #Colombia #SimonTrinidad #PoliticalPrisoners #Feature

“Frecuentemente se escuchan de horribles abusos de los derechos humanos en todo el mundo, pero a sólo dos horas de distancia se encuentra una de las violaciones más graves de los derechos humanos, que se encuentra en la prisión federal de máxima seguridad de Florence”, afirmó Mark Burton al inicio de su presentación sobre su cliente, el revolucionario colombiano Simón Trinidad.

Burton continuó describiendo a la atenta multitud de estudiantes las condiciones inhumanas del aislamiento prolongado que sufren aquellos a quienes “se intenta desechar y olvidar”. Aunque la mayor parte del mundo considera el aislamiento prolongado como una tortura psicológica, Estados Unidos no lo considera así.

Trinidad llevó una vida relativamente cómoda como profesor y banquero en Colombia cuando su interés en trabajar para cambiar a Colombia lo llevó al movimiento electoral de la Unión Patriótica. Lamentablemente, la Unión Patriótica sufrió violencia masiva por parte de los escuadrones de la muerte de extrema derecha en los años 80. A la edad de 37 años, Simón escapó a las montañas para unirse al ejército popular de las FARC-EP. Continuó su papel como educador en la organización revolucionaria y sirvió como negociador de paz.

Las FARC-P lucharon por la nueva Colombia y en su momento controlaron casi un tercio del país, lo que representó un serio desafío para la oligarquía colombiana. Durante muchas administraciones, Estados Unidos buscó inclinar la balanza a favor de la élite rica. Esto tuvo su expresión más grave en el Plan Colombia, que financió, armó, entrenó y comandó a las fuerzas militares colombianas, bajo el disfraz de la “guerra contra las drogas”, en tácticas antiinsurgentes.

A fines de 2003, una operación de inteligencia coordinada por Estados Unidos secuestró a Trinidad en Ecuador y, finalmente, el presidente de extrema derecha Álvaro Uribe trabajó con Estados Unidos para extraditarlo y enfrentar una serie de cargos falsos.

Se necesitaron cuatro juicios y varios cambios en los cargos para condenar a Simón por secuestrar a contratistas militares estadounidenses que realizaban vuelos de reconocimiento sobre el territorio de las FARC-EP. Todavía no hay evidencia real para probar el caso de Estados Unidos. El gobierno de Estados Unidos le dio efectivamente una sentencia de cadena perpetua de 60 años.

A pesar de las graves injusticias, el clima político actual tanto en Colombia como en Estados Unidos presenta las mejores condiciones para liberar a Simón Trinidad desde su captura.

“Necesitamos un diálogo entre el presidente Petro y el presidente Biden sobre el importante papel que puede desempeñar Simón en el tribunal único conocido como la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz creada por los históricos Acuerdos de Paz de 2016. La experiencia de Simón como víctima de la violencia política en los años 80 y su conocimiento institucional de la guerra civil pueden movilizar y unir a muchos colombianos para apoyar el tambaleante proceso de paz”, agregó Burton.

Desde la firma de los Acuerdos de Paz a fines de 2016, las paramilitares de extrema derecha han continuado la violencia al matar a más de 1.300 líderes sociales y varios cientos de excombatientes de las FARC-EP que aceptaron deponer las armas. Mientras los escuadrones de la muerte aterrorizan a quienes trabajan por la paz, Simón Trinidad, un reconocido negociador de paz, languidece en una prisión en las montañas de Colorado.

El pueblo de Colombia está harto de la vieja forma de hacer las cosas. Años consecutivos de huelgas nacionales desafiaron el orden gobernante y trajeron una ola de cambios a la presidencia y vicepresidencia con la elección de Gustavo Petro y Francia Márquez. Claramente, la necesidad de paz con justicia y reconciliación es central en las mentes de los colombianos, ya que miles de personas se manifestaron en una vigilia en memoria de todas las víctimas de la extrema derecha desde la aprobación de los Acuerdos de Paz.

Con el apoyo social y político en Colombia y menos de 100 días en el mandato del presidente Biden, el momento de liberar a Simón Trinidad es ahora.

La multitud, compuesta por muchos capítulos de Estudiantes por una Sociedad Democrática (SDS) Nacional en colegios y universidades, rugió de aplausos cuando Burton concluyó con su compromiso de hacer “todo lo que sea posible y necesario para liberar a Simón Trinidad”.

El segundo día de la convención, SDS una vez más votó para apoyar el llamado del Comité Nacional para la Libertad de Trinidad con una resolución que describe la historia y la importancia de apoyar la paz con justicia en Colombia, y el papel central que Simón Trinidad debe desempeñar en eso.

La última sección de la resolución comienza así: “Simón Trinidad está ganando impulso popular ya que ahora tiene acceso a su abogado colombiano después de una demanda exitosa contra el gobierno de Estados Unidos. Necesitamos que el presidente colombiano Petro exija el regreso de Simón Trinidad en coordinación con la JEP. Necesitamos que el presidente de los Estados Unidos libere a Simón Trinidad. Pedimos a todas las fuerzas progresistas que difundan el llamado y exijan: ¡Libertad para Simón Trinidad!”.

Para obtener información sobre Simón Trinidad y la campaña para liberarlo, visite: www.freesimontrinidad.org

#International #Colombia #SimonTrinidad #PoliticalPrisoners #SDS #StudentMovement

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

#International #Colombia #PoliticalPrisoners #SimonTrinidad #SDS #StudentMovement #Feature

With the death of Senator Piedad Cordoba, Colombia lost a great leader and friend of the people. For Simon Trinidad, Colombian revolutionary and prisoner of the U.S. empire, it was the sad loss of a valuable advocate.

Piedad Cordoba was found dead at her home by bodyguards on January 20, likely due to a heart attack. This was after a long life of struggle for the freedom of the Colombian people.

Piedad Cordoba was a labor lawyer, activist and politician who stood for the independence and sovereignty of Colombia. She opposed U.S. intervention and Wall Street rule. She wanted a Colombia that was free and served the needs of the Colombian people instead of foreign corporations and billionaires. Like Presidents Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, she was a Bolivarian revolutionary who wanted freedom from U.S. domination.

Last Saturday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro praised Senator Cordoba as one who “fought all her mature life for a more democratic society.”

As far back as 1997, Cordoba was a staunch opponent of laws allowing the extradition of Colombians to the U.S. She argued that Colombians uphold and rely on their own laws and courts to dispense justice, and that extradition violates Colombia’s legal sovereignty.

She was involved in humanitarian exchanges of prisoners between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army. Officially recognized as a go-between by the Colombian government of Alvaro Uribe, she was brave and effective. She worked with President Chavez of Venezuela and former Argentine President Kirchner on these projects.

Cordoba was a Colombian senator from 1994 to 2010, elected repeatedly with the left wing of the Liberal Party. Bold and outspoken, she publicly exposed Colombian President Uribe and many leading conservative politicians for having financial and political ties with the drug cartels and far-right paramilitary groups like the AUC. All this was known to the U.S. government.

The senator loudly opposed the U.S. war plan, Plan Colombia, which brought poverty, misery and death to Colombia’s countryside. Introduced to the U.S. Senate by Joe Biden in 1999, Plan Colombia spent more than $10 billion during the presidencies of Bush and Obama. Like other U.S. interventions, it was designed to roll back the gains of the expanding and advancing People’s Army. It also greatly expanded the war in Colombia, especially increasing the killing of trade unionists, peasant, indigenous, Afro-Colombian leaders, and many innocent civilians.

One of the more hideous results of Plan Colombia was the more than 1400 “false positives”. These were young people abducted and murdered by Colombian military officers, who were paid for every FARC rebel body they could produce. As both an intimidation tactic and financial gain, this wicked policy incentivized Colombian military leaders to coordinate the kidnapping and massacre of noncombatants, claiming them to be FARC members. Colombian military officers were trained in the United States at the notorious School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

President Uribe retaliated against Cordoba by stripping her senate seat first in 2005, and again in 2010. The Colombian Supreme Court restored her rights in 2016 due to a lack of evidence against her. This lifted an 18-year ban from holding office and she ran for the presidency in 2018. The recent election victory of President Petro allowed her to reclaim her senate seat.

Senator Cordoba campaigned in Colombia to free Simon Trinidad, currently held prisoner by the U.S. in a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. She visited Simon Trinidad in the Washington D.C. jail during the time when he faced four trials and was sentenced to 60 years in prison by a U.S. federal judge.

Trinidad was a FARC insurgent fighting a civil war in his own country, where the U.S. government was intervening to fund, arm and direct a war. The U.S. government was angry because three of its military contractors had been captured and held by the FARC. Trinidad’s imprisonment is seen as retaliation, even though the FARC has since signed a peace agreement and disbanded in 2016.

Piedad Cordoba lived a long life of struggle, dedicated to the people of Colombia. She was unstoppable: having been kidnapped by the AUC right-wing paramilitaries, exiled to Canada for over a year, surviving at least two assassination attempts, and still forcing the Colombian and U.S. governments to answer for their corruption and crimes. Piedad Cordoba’s legacy in Colombia will live on in the people’s movements for democracy and freedom from U.S. domination.

With the sad passing of Senator Piedad Cordoba, there will need to be a renewed effort to find leaders in Colombia who defend the sovereignty and independence of Colombia. The Colombian court formed by the Peace Accords, the Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP), has formally asked the U.S. government multiple times to allow Trinidad to participate. In September 2023, the Amnesty and Pardon Chamber of the JEP announced Trinidad as a member to appear before their transitional justice court. Weeks later Cordoba sent a letter to President Petro urging him to create the conditions for Trinidad to appear stating. “It would be very important for the country to know the truth about this former FARC member, who is willing to provide the whole truth.”

Perhaps President Gustavo Petro can honor Piedad Cordoba by finishing her work to “Free Simon Trinidad”? A fitting tribute would be for President Petro to request that President Biden send Simon Trinidad home to participate in the Colombian peace and reconciliation processes.

#International #Colombia #SimonTrinidad #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #Feature

On January 2, 2004, under the orders of the U.S. government and the CIA, Ecuadorian and Colombian forces kidnapped and arrested Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad. 20 years detained and imprisoned is 20 too many. That needs to change immediately, and conditions are better than ever for activists in the U.S. and Colombia to push for his freedom.

A member of the revolutionary organization and army of the people, the FARC, since 1987, Trinidad was a leading thinker and peace negotiator. Acting in that role, Trinidad’s and the FARC’s peace-seeking efforts have been routinely sabotaged by the U.S. government and the far-right Colombian oligarchy.

How does a Colombian revolutionary fighting for his own people, in his own country, end up on trial in the U.S.? After four sham trials in Washington D.C., Trinidad was sentenced to 60 years solitary confinement in the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

As Trinidad languished under repressive “Special Administrative Measures” in Colorado, the Colombian peace process bypassed him and was ratified in 2016. This was despite international solidarity activists and the FARC demanding Trinidad be freed to help Colombia navigate the difficult peace. The Colombian Peace Accords did lead to the creation of a special court, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). Now the JEP courts are calling for the U.S. government to allow Simon Trinidad to participate. The JEP wants to question Simon Trinidad in an effort to bring clarity, truth and justice.

There is a transformed political landscape in Colombia with a progressive, former guerrilla, former prisoner holding office. President Gustavo Petro is showing initiative and independence. Petro’s foreign minister, a conservative, is just the person to ask the U.S. government under President Joe Biden to repatriate Simon Trinidad back to Colombia. It is a good move to advance the continuing struggle for peace.

It is in these conditions that the movement to “Free Simon Trinidad!” finds itself. The situation is far more favorable than before. However, “where the broom does not reach, the dust will not sweep itself.”

We need to continue to organize and support Colombian requests to repatriate Simon Trinidad and pressure President Biden to oblige. To date, the JEP has yet to receive a response from the U.S. government since its first communication in March 2023 that it wants access to question Trinidad. Forces are in motion in Colombia, and activists in the U.S. need to do our part to demand freedom for an unjustly imprisoned revolutionary.

Let 2024 be the final year of U.S. imprisonment for Simon Trinidad!

#International #Colombia #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #SimonTrinidad #FARC #Feature

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Committee to Free Simón Trinidad.

Simón Trinidad, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. empire, will have his 72nd birthday in solitary confinement in a federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Simón Trinidad, born Ricardo Palmera, is languishing in prison after a bogus extradition to the United States in 2004, convicted on trumped-up charges, and sentenced to 60 years. He has been requested by the Special Peace Jurisdiction Court (JEP) in Colombia to help rebuild his country toward a peace with justice. With the incoming Petro-Marquez administration and strong mass movements, the conditions have changed in favor toward Trinidad’s release and role as a peace negotiator.

On his 72nd birthday, revolutionary and progressive forces are calling for a Twitterstorm, in Spanish a Twitazo, that will tag President Biden in the following Tweet format:

#FreeSimonTrinidad @POTUS @SimonTrinidadLi

Free Simon Trinidad!

U.S. out of Colombia!

#UnitedStates #Colombia #PoliticalPrisoners #RicardoPalmera #SimónTrinidad

For more than 52 years now the U.S. has backed the wealthy Colombian oligarchy against revolutionaries of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army) and ELN (National Liberation Army) who are fighting for national liberation against U.S. imperialism. There was a brief negotiated peace in 1985 and leftists ran for office under the Patriotic Union (Unión Patriótica), but 5733 party members and candidates were assassinated by right-wing paramilitary death squads which destroyed the peace process. In 2016 the FARC-EP and the Colombian government again initiated a peace process, and this recent election has been closely watched across the world.

The election of Petro offers an opportunity for the Colombian government to demand the release of Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad from the Florence Colorado Supermax prison where he is held by the U.S. government.

Fight Back! interviewed longtime international solidarity activist James Jordan with the Alliance for Global Justice ( https://afgj.org/) to get his insight on the Colombian presidential election. Jordan is the national co-coordinator for the Alliance for Global Justice and has led international solidarity work with Colombia for decades and was in Colombia during this most recent presidential election.

Jordan’s delegations have given Americans the opportunity to see the consequences of “Plan Colombia”, the U.S. plan to militarize and dominate Colombia, involving seven U.S. military bases and the U.S. funding of the “war on drugs”. Through this plan the U.S. sent billions in military aid which ended up funding right-wing paramilitaries who targeted union and human rights leaders with murder and disappearances. The U.S. also trained members of the Colombian military who led and participated in these paramilitary death squads at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Fight Back! : What is the significance of the recent Colombian presidential election?

James Jordan: There are many things that are significant. This is the first time that a Center-Left ticket has been elected in Colombia's history. Francia Marquez is the first Afro-Colombian and the first woman vice president. But what's most significant to me is not what these two individuals or the electoral movements behind them achieved. It is not that they waged a smart and successful campaign. It is not that they were backed up by a majority of voters. What is most significant to me is that they were elected on a wave of popular movement militancy. I think both President-elect Gustavo Petro and Vice President-elect Marquez would agree that their success is a result of that old adage that, “If the people lead, the leaders will follow”. There has been a steady drumbeat of mass mobilizations that they rode, that carried them to their positions of power today.

There are many points where we could start, but let's start with the founding of the Marcha Patriótica (Patriot March) in 2012 and the demand for a peace process to end 50 years of war. Let's look at the indigenous mobilizations of 2012, the agrarian strike in 2013, a series of other such strikes and mobilizations, the negotiation and implementation of the 2016 Peace Accord, and the huge national strikes of 2019 and 2021, in which millions of Colombians took to the streets to beat back austerity measures proposed by the right-wing Ivan Duque government, and to demand compliance with the 2016 Peace Accord and an end to right-wing military and paramilitary violence that was killing social leaders, protesters and peace accord signers at a rate of one victim per day.

That accord had been trashed and ignored and was in the trash can, ready to be hauled away to history's garbage dump. And that is another huge significance – the election of Petro and Marquez has pulled that accord out of trash and given it new life. All that was made possible because of the militancy and mass mobilizations of Colombians in the streets. And Vice President-elect Marquez is herself a product of the social movements.

I hope people in the U.S. will take notice. If we take our power to the streets and demand everything, rather than tailing leaders who throw us crumbs, the same thing can happen in the U.S.!

Fight Back!: What can you tell us about Gustavo Petro?

Jordan: Another truly significant thing about Petro is that he began his life of struggle at age 17 as a young member of the M-19 guerrilla movement, as someone who in his youth gave himself to the armed struggle. His entry into political life was a result of another peace accord, and he has ever since supported a peace process with both the FARC-EP and the ELN. When Petro talks peace, it's not some namby-pamby romantic pacifism with no roadmap, just naively asking everyone to lay down their arms. He understands the kinds of concrete and practical steps needed to achieve peace. He also has an impressive track record as a former congressman, senator and mayor of the capital city of Bogotá.

Of course, we should understand that the Petro/Marquez election could be correctly described as a political revolution, but it's not the full-scale revolution many of us hope for. He says he supports “democratic capitalism” as if a system based on exploitation could be described as real “democracy.” But this is a step towards people's democracy, but even that hasn't been achieved yet. Petro and Marquez will have to deal with nefarious forces in Congress, plus an oligarchy and a brutal right wing that will try to stop their progressive initiatives at every turn, using every tool at their disposal, both legal and illegal. And Petro/Marquez are not making a clear break at all with Colombia's status as the U.S.’s number one military colony in Latin America. But, yes, it's a start, and hopefully, again, the people will lead, and the leaders will follow.

Fight Back!: What are you hearing from grassroots movements in Colombia about the impact of this election?

Jordan: Ah, well, it's hard to hear anything above all the celebrating and dancing in the streets! Seriously, I was in the city of Cali when the victory was announced, and all over the city, you could hear people taking to the streets with joy. I think the grassroots movements are well aware of everything this election is and isn't. The real power in Colombia lies with the people, and this is their victory. But are their struggles over? Hardly. And if Petro and Marquez betray the people in any way, they will answer for it. The people will continue to mobilize, and I think that Petro and Marquez both know that whatever successes they achieve, they will need to keep riding that wave of popular leadership. The fight for Colombia's “second independence” is far from over. But, yes, a new Colombia is being born.

Fight Back!: How do you think the U.S. will respond to the election of Petro?

Jordan: The U.S. will try to co-opt Petro and Marquez, manipulate them, subvert them, convince them that the real power lies in Washington, DC. When that doesn't work, or even if it does work, they will be using all their influence, all their tools, to undermine their power in favor of those more amenable to the designs of empire. You can bet on that. They already called Marquez to a sit down in Washington, DC when she was in the U.S. speaking to Colombians living in our country.

But Petro has already said that he wants to dismantle the hated ESMAD riot police, who were co-created by and who are armed and advised by the U.S. based on a U.S. police model. That itself shows some real backbone, and I only hope he follows through. ESMAD has brutally murdered protesters in both the cities and the countryside. I think that may be one of the real tests of the Petro presidency. Will he follow through on this promise? I just hope that U.S. popular movements will join in struggle with the Colombian people, because we are fighting the same oppressors, and we will win or lose, together.

Colombia is so important throughout Latin America and the world. The influence that Colombia has, for good or for bad, is tremendous. We have often repeated the slogan – and it's the truth: “Peace for Colombia is peace for the world!”

#Colombia #GustavoPetro #Americas

Tucson, AZ – Despite massive amounts of corporate media propaganda, police crackdowns and right-wing violence, Colombians elected leftist Gustavo Petro as president in a runoff election on June 19. The new vice president is Francia Marquez Mina, an Afro-Colombian woman. This is the first time Colombia elected a president who is not from either the mainstream liberal or conservative parties.

This election victory is a rejection of the reactionary agenda of Rodolfo Hernandez, who is now making allegations of electoral tampering and fraud. Not only did the people of Colombia defeat this right-wing agenda, they elected a president with goals to advance items from the demands of the social and labor movements. This election comes in the wake of two years of nationwide strikes that were brutally repressed by police and military, with hundreds dead, and thousands injured and arrested.

In his victory speech, President-elect Petro said, “Lets scream ‘Freedom,’ so that massacres no longer come to our territory, so the government does not kill the young people anymore, or an economic policy does not take food away from children, so that democracy can be built and a Republic is possible. Long live freedom!”

President-elect Petro also represents an opportunity to address the issues related to the historic Colombian Peace Accords signed in 2016. Despite the ratified agreement, the Colombian government, under the right-wing former President Ivan Duque, gave the military and paramilitaries a blank check to murder, assault and intimidate social leaders throughout the country. The death toll since January of 2022 is over 80 labor unionists, community organizers and activists murdered.

This huge electoral victory may also improve the chances of freeing Simon Trinidad, a Colombian revolutionary held as a political prisoner of the U.S. in the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The Special Jurisdiction Court of Peace has requested the presence of Trinidad in their court to discuss issues related to the Colombian Peace Process. It is abundantly clear that Trinidad needs to be freed from the U.S. and allowed to play a vital role in moving his country towards a peace with justice.

#TucsonAZ #Colombia #RicardoPalmera #PeoplesStruggles #GustavoPetro #Americas

The undersigned parties and organizations express our total support for the people’s uprising in Colombia, begun again on the 28th of April and initiated on November 2019 against the same oligarquic and pro-imperialist government of Iván Duque.

After the fifteen days of this superior phase of the Colombian resistance (they) have shown much militancy, heroism and a bigger conscience than earlier. This is the reason why they haven’t been able to stop it in spite of the repression by the National Police, the Anti-riot Mobile Squad (ESMAD, acronyms in Spanish) and general Eduardo Zapateiro’s army.

The blood-letting of patriots has been enormous, due to the repression ordered by president Duque. According to Colombian Humans Rights organizations, up to the 12th of May, there were 47 dead demonstrators, 548 disappeared, 1,023 detained and 1,040 wounded. This is why grassroots and left-wing forces of the world have organized events and many demonstrations of solidarity in many countries.

The people’s starting point was the opposition to Duque’s “Tax Reform” and his Treasury minister, Alberto Carrasquilla, who imposed new taxes on products, services and income. They argued more taxes for the treasury, but they are the same who in earlier tax reforms were benefitting the great capitalists, mining companies, oil companies and bankers, so that they paid less (taxes).

The social strife was wider and deeper, because in spite of the fact that the president withdrew his project on the 2nd of May, the strikes and demonstrations of a varied social and political band: union and social organizations within the Strike’s National Committee, with important support by workers, students, peasants, native peoples, intellectuals, traders, transport people, small and medium entrepreneurs, etc.

President Duque lives his worst political moment, isolated to the maximum and with only 33% approval rate, so it is possible that he might fall due to this struggle without the need to wait for the elections of May 2022.

The struggle continued after the withdrawal of the discriminatory project, with demands that they withdraw the law Health project 010 and that it not be privatized, that there be vaccines for all, that the ESMAD be dissolved and that there be democratic guarantees for those that mobilize and protest, among many other demands.

Our sympathy towards the Colombian people, with special respect and value for the mass of youth who are on the first line of street fighting. And our greetings in solidarity with combative social and political organizations, who are committed to the uprising before talking with Duque, looking for parliamentary or electoral advantages.

As well as condemning Duque’s current repression we also repudiate the repression against social leaders and former demobilized guerrillas, as this totally broke the 2016 Peace Accords signed with the FARC-EP and who never wanted to sign an accord with the ELN.

It is totally evident that the Duque presidency totally responds to the great capitalists and multinationals, as well as drug trafficking like his mentor Alvaro Uribe. He is a loyal server of yankee imperialism, the South Command and their military bases, pointing towards the legitimate government of Venezuela. Also, as it was made evident on the last of 28th April, its hands are stained with blood, it criminalizes protests and represses it militarily, with police and para-militaries.

“Mr” Almagro’s Organization of American States (OAS) and the High Commissioner of the UN Michelle Bachelet, so active against the government of Venezuela and at its time against Evo Morales in Bolivia, today maintain a nearly contemplative attitude towards Colombia’s drama.

The undersigned political parties and organizations are part of several movements in solidarity with the Colombian uprising in our countries. And with this joint statement we reiterate our commitment to heighten those campaigns with new declarations, events and festivals of support for that noble cause.

IF DUQUE FALLS COLOMBIA WINS AND WE ALL WIN

DOWN WITH THE SMALLER ASSOCIATE OF YANKEE IMPERIALISM IN LATINAMERICA

SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO STRUGGLE IN COLOMBIA. THEY ARE NOT VANDALS NOR TERRORISTS, THEY ARE FIGHTERS AGAINST THE ADJUSTMENT, NEOLIBERALISM, FASCISM, CORRUPTION AND DRUG-TRAFFICKING.

SIGNED BY:

Liberation Party (PL) of Argentina

Chilean Communist Party of Chile (Proletariat Action)

Movement for Peace and Socialism (Cantabria)

Kurdistán Communist Party – Irak (KCP)

Spanish Workers Communist Party (PCOE)

Simón Bolívar Coordinator, Venezuela

Socialist Workers Party of Croacia (SRP)

Proletariat Union (Spain)

Spanish Communist Party of the People (PCPE)

Workers World Party (WWP) USA

Egyptian Communist Party

Communist Party (Switzerland)

Spanish Workers Party (PTE)

Spanish Youth Red Guard (JGRE)`

Albanian Communist Party (PKSH)

Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR, Chile)

Bolchevique Communists of All the Union Party (VKPB) – Russia

People’s Revolution Party (PRP), Dominicana Rep.

Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist) – CPGB ML

Communist Party of Germany (KPD)

Azerbaiyan Communist Party

Communist Union (Mexico)

Italian Marxist Leninist Party (PMLI)

Mexican Communist Movement

ChavismoSur

Foro Pacifista Ciudad Real (Spain)

Italian Communist Magazine “Cumpanis”

Communist Initiative (Spain)

Volksrat der Suryoye in Europa (Council of the Suryoye in Europe).

Euskal Komunisten Batasuna / Union of Basque Communists (EKB).

The Workers' Party of Ireland (WPI).

Andalusian nation.

Internationalist Anti-Imperialist Front (FAI) – Spain.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) – USA.

Red Red (Spain).

La Garland Polar Cultural Magazine (Canada).

Traditional indigenous Tait-Tatewari government (Mexico).

Community news agency Urgent Notice! TV.

Union of Farm Workers-Nayarit.

Danish Communist Party (KP).

Palestinian Communist Party (PCP).

Communist Party of Puerto Rico (PCPR).

Iraqi Communist Party.

Jeunesse Patriote Communiste-PCQ (Québec).

Communist Party of Kenya (C.P.K).

Marxist Movement “Popular Resistance” Republic of Moldova.

(Translator: Eduardo Salgado, M.A. SolidarioGB)

#Colombia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization

On May 17, a U.S.-backed Colombian commando unit, acting like bounty hunters, illegally crossed into the Venezuelan state of Zulia to murder Colombian rebel leader Jesus Santrich. Like the criminal gangsters they are, the commandos cut off his left finger to verify his identity to claim the $1 million bounty cosponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Colombian President Ivan Duque.

One might be forced to ask the question: why would the U.S. and Colombian governments place a $1 million bounty for a dead-or-alive capture of a blind 55-year-old former peace negotiator who was in a small mountain town near the Colombia-Venezuela border?

Jesus Santrich was a revolutionary fighter for national independence, peace with justice, and socialism. Given the history of the rule of a vicious oligarchy in Colombia long propped up by billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, someone like Santrich was a marked man. A longtime member and leader with the revolutionary organization FARC-EP, Santrich played a role as a peace negotiator that secured the historic Peace Accords in 2016. As part of that deal with the Colombian government, the FARC-EP transformed from an armed guerrilla organization into a legal political party with a guaranteed ten seats in congress. Santrich was to fill one of those seats.

However, despite Santrich’s being blinded by a deteriorating eye condition, the ultra-right Duque administration and U.S. imperialism considered him a threat in need of removal. He, and other revolutionaries, were a threat to the oligarchy, as he was a vocal proponent of the rights of the workers and peasants and criticized the government for not fulfilling their promises under the peace agreement. To prevent him from taking his legally guaranteed Congressional seat, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Colombian government cooked up drug charges with plans to extradite him to the United States.

This operation was designed to undermine the peace agreement and impede the left’s participation in Colombian politics. This arrest violated the peace agreement – in particular, Transitory Article 19 of the Legislative Act 01 of 2017, which determines that the Colombian Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP) is the only competent authority to handle this matter, as none of the spurious accusations occurred anywhere but in Colombia.

This indictment that was a frame-up by the DEA and the Colombian attorney general and used false evidence. There were videos that had been tampered with and they attempted to use the nephew of Iván Márquez as a snitch. Later it was found that the Colombian attorney general had failed to disclose that Santrich’s telephone was tapped and interceptions clearly showed that Santrich was not involved in drug trafficking and was working on projects for the peace process

In fact, the DEA evidence revealed 24,000 recordings from illegal wiretapping of Santrich, most of which was the DEA and its informant, and some person impersonating FARC leader Ivan Marquez. Even with these blatantly obvious falsifications and lack of credible evidence, the U.S. government continued to push to have Santrich arrested and extradited. Santrich responded with a 40-day hunger strike that drew international attention to his case.

Santrich would not have been the first Colombian revolutionary to be extradited to the U.S. on bogus charges. Simón Trinidad, now 70, has been languishing in the Florence, Colorado Supermax prison after having been extradited to the United States in 2004, convicted on trumped-up charges, and sentenced to 60 years. Many believe that if the Colombian government really wanted to show their commitment to the peace process, that it should begin efforts to achieve the repatriation of the Colombian hero Simón Trinidad. This action would engender enormous confidence in the flailing peace process.

The JEP ruled that Santrich could not be extradited to the United States due to many irregularities in the case, including insufficient proof, and ordered his immediate release. Santrich was about to be released from La Picota prison when the Colombian attorney general had him re-arrested based on ‘new’ evidence provided by the United States to the Colombian attorney’s general’s office. Santrich was drugged by officials, reportedly tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists when he heard that he was going to be extradited and was flown off in a helicopter to the attorney general’s jail called the Bunker. Santrich suffered a cardiac and pulmonary arrest and was hospitalized.

The JEP prevailed and had Santrich released and began an in investigation of misconduct by the attorney general who issued the warrant and the U.S. DEA. The attorney general promptly resigned.

This story can almost be seen as a microcosm of the peace process: the U.S. government, from Obama to Trump and now Biden, is financing and greenlighting the Duque government to undermine the congressionally approved Peace Accords. Since the signing in November 2016, the violent repression of Colombia’s social movements has been the worst in the world. Well over 1000 social leaders have been murdered and over 250 ex-FARC members have been killed in a clear sign that the government is not interested in peace.

It is also painfully clear that, with the disarming of the FARC-EP, many of the left were exposed and made vulnerable. For these and many other reasons, Santrich, veteran leader Ivan Marquez, and many others left the FARC political party in August 2019 to re-form the FARC-EP as an armed revolutionary organization in the hopes of uniting with other guerrilla groups like the ELN and FARC dissidents who had never turned in their arms.

For Santrich and many others, it was clear that the Colombian oligarchy and members of the government were not interested in pursuing peace. Instead, they continued their allegiance to their U.S. imperial masters.

In a country that has historically suffered at the hands of brutally violent governments with full support and coordination from the U.S., Santrich and the Colombian people met a macabre spring. When a proposed tax hike sparked protests, Duque unleashed the police and military forces, resulting in over 50 people dead and over 600 disappeared. Just weeks later, at the frothing request of President Duque and the oligarchy attempting to tighten its waning grip on power, the Colombian Supreme Court re-issued the order to arrest of Jesus Santrich for extradition for the well-documented bogus drug charges. The JEP capitulated, stating that once Santrich re-entered armed conflict, he lost the benefits of transitional justice.

The stage was set and Santrich knew it. The day before the ambush of rifle fire and grenades, the FARC-EP published Santrich’s comments about the gutless betrayal the Colombian elites in service of their imperial masters in the U.S. “In my view, all these sheep of neocolonialism should be ravaged. Let the devil come and choose.”

It is clear that the Colombian oligarchy and U.S. imperialism needed Santrich dead in order to save face from the embarrassing corruption scandals between narco-financial elites and the DEA. Moreover, it continues to prop up two lies convenient for the maintenance of U.S. imperial power in South America: that the FARC are associated with drugs and that Venezuela harbors terrorists. For that, Colombia once again violated Venezuelan territorial sovereignty by conducting an illegal military operation inside its borders. In the last few years, Venezuelan intelligence has uncovered the clear connections between Bogota-Miami-Washington for the coordination of destabilization attempts through assassination attempts, criminal cartels and small-scale invasions.

In their statement the day after the assassination, on May 18, the FARC-EP wrote, “Santrich died free, free how he wanted. Free dreaming of a New Colombia with complete peace with social justice, democracy and a life of dignity for Colombians.”

#Colombia #JesúsSantrich #Americas

Milwaukee, WI – On the sunny afternoon of May 10, members of the Milwaukee’s Colombian community, activists and supporters gathered at Walker’s Square Park on the Southside to demonstrate solidarity with the people of Colombia in the wake of the violent repression. Nearly 40 people joined the protest, including members of the Red Condor Collective, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, The People’s Revolution, and Our Wisconsin Revolution.

On April 28, most sectors of Colombia began a general strike in response to anti-people measures put forward by the right-wing, U.S.-backed government of Ivan Duque. Unions, social justice groups, indigenous organizations and others joined together to fight back. As a result, the Colombian state has mobilized against its people, murdering dozens, disappearing others, and injuring hundreds in the span of less than two weeks. Police, military, and paramilitary have united in opposition to the Colombian masses. Afro-Colombians and indigenous people have been particularly targeted, as have union members.

“The U.S., in any place they’ve had their hands in, places like Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, we see the same exact shit happening. We see police violence is being exported. We’re seeing the ‘War on Drugs’, which has messed up Colombia the same way it messed up Black communities across the U.S.,” said Omar Flores of FRSO. “We also see a cracking down on unions. Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist because they get killed off so often. That kind of violent anti-union sentiment was born and bred right here in the U.S.”

Flores went on, “So it’s important that we’re here because it’s clear we have the same exact enemy: the terrorist U.S. government. We all need to unite against them.”

Other speakers highlighted the similarities between the fight against police and other state-sanctioned violence against the people from Milwaukee to Cali (Colombia), where alone there have been 35 civilian deaths at the hands of police, military and paramilitary forces since April 28.

The weapons being used by Duque’s far-right government can be traced directly back to the U.S., and specifically to political actors like current President Joe Biden. The U.S. government tried to couch their support for Colombian death squads in ‘War on Drugs’ rhetoric, but 20 years of history tells a different story. The riot police murdering people in the streets today are directly tied to this policy.

“The riot police in Colombia would not exist if not for Plan Colombia that gave $9 billion to the Colombian military. This is what birthed ESMAD,” said Aurelia Ceja, the chair of education for the Milwaukee Alliance. Ceja noted that the U.S. and its political tools “will mobilize against the working class of any country for the sake of profit margins over people. Today we stand here knowing that this is not just Colombia’s fight, but our responsibility as well.”

The commitment to solidarity by the people at the rally and during the march afterward was strong. There is no resolution to the current crisis forthcoming, but the Colombian people are resolved to fight it out until they are victorious.

#MilwaukeeWI #AntiwarMovement #Colombia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #RedCondorCollective

Fight Back! is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Free Simon Trinidad. Simon Trinidad is a prisoner of the U.S. empire who has done nothing wrong, only struggled to free his country.

The Committee to Free Simón Trinidad condemns police murders and violent repression of protesters by the Colombian government. In the last ten days, Colombian police and military forces killed at least twenty-six protesters in the streets protesting higher taxes and government cutbacks. Backed by the U.S. government and President Biden, nobody will be prosecuted for these police killings and political repression.

On April 28, 2021, Colombian social movements, students and labor unions began marching in the streets to protest the Duque government’s attempt to impose a regressive value added tax (VAT). VAT targets basic goods and service and penalizes workers, peasants, students and small business owners who are suffering from sky high unemployment due to economic crisis and the COVID pandemic.

Peaceful protests took place in cities all across Colombia, but rather than listen to the people and engage in dialogue, the Colombian government of President Ivan Duque sent paramilitary police and the army against protesters. These forces attacked protesters in Cali, Bogotá, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, and other cities all across the country.

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. The U.S. government spends billions on war and repression and operates seven military bases.

The Duque regime withdrew the regressive tax, but the protesters are pushing forward determined with broader demands. One demand is that President Duque comply with the Peace Agreement of 2016 that was negotiated with the FARC. Duque’s government is failing to abide by the peace accords and has undermined the special peace court (JEP), failed to implement agricultural reforms, and failed to re-incorporate a large number of political prisoners. The Colombian government has also failed to protect participants in the peace process. Two hundred and forty-six former FARC combatants have been assassinated by death squads.

The Colombian government has made no effort to reincorporate the Colombian champion of peace and former FARC peace negotiator Simón Trinidad. Trinidad is a political prisoner held by the United States government. Simón Trinidad should be freed as his presence in Colombia would reinvigorate the peace process. We call on all friends of peace and justice to work for Simon Trinidad’s repatriation.

Victory to the Colombian National Strike! FREE SIMON TRINIDAD!

#UnitedStates #FARCEP #Colombia #RicardoPalmera #PeoplesStruggles #SimónTrinidad #PoliticalPrisoners

Fight Back! interviews Mark Burton, attorney for Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad who is a political prisoner held by the U.S. government. Simon Trinidad, also known as Ricardo Palmera, is a good man who has done nothing wrong. His only crime is to fight for the freedom and independence of his own country, taking the side of Colombian workers and peasants. Due to U.S. government repression, we are unable to interview Simon Trinidad directly. Check out the campaign to Free Simon Trinidad at http://freesimontrinidad.org.

Fight Back!: Who Is Simon Trinidad?

Mark Burton, Esq.: Simon Trinidad is a historical figure who rose to be an important spokesman for peace for the FARC-EP in Colombia. Simon began his career as a banker and an economics professor in his home Department of Cesar, Colombia. In the 1970s and 1980s he became very interested in the struggle for peace in Colombia and joined the political group Causa Común and then joined the Patriotic Union (Unión Patriótica). A campaign of genocide against the Patriotic Union began in 1986 and Simon was threatened with death. After some colleagues were assassinated, Simon fled his home and joined the FARC-EP. In the FARC he became one of their principal spokespersons for peace.

Fight Back!: Why is he imprisoned in the Florence Supermax prison in Colorado?

Mark Burton, Esq.: Prisoners who are considered enemies of the state are often sent to the penitentiary Florence ADX, popularly known as Supermax, as the prisoner’s ability to communicate with the outside world is tightly controlled. In general, prisoners are cut off from contacts outside the prison. Simon was sent there after his conviction in Washington D.C., where it took the government four trials to convict him of one count of conspiracy. The rightist forces were unable to silence Simon through assassination, but the Colombian and American governments have been able to silence him by imprisonment in Supermax.

Fight Back!: A British judge recently ruled to not extradite Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, because he might be imprisoned in the Supermax prison in Florence. What are conditions like there?

Mark Burton, Esq.: For the prisoners who are under a SAM, the Special Administrative Measure, like Simon, they generally pass 23 hours a day in a 3.5 by 2-meter cell. Normally the prisoners are allowed a television, but, apart from approved family members and lawyers, they have no contact with the outside world. They are generally allowed three phone calls a month to the approved persons on the government approved list of contacts. Simon is under a SAM but is now in the step-down program that allows him access to three other prisoners for two hours a day He is still unable to communicate with the world at large. Even for prisoners who are not under a SAM in Supermax, communication is tightly controlled.

Fight Back!: What efforts are being made to free Simon Trinidad?

Mark Burton, Esq.: Simon was never an item on the agenda of the peace talks in Havana, Cuba but there were efforts, both diplomatically and informally, to free him. Some members of the FARC-EP, particularly Iván Márquez, who was the leader of the FARC-EP’s peace delegation, made diplomatic efforts to free Simon with the Colombian and U.S. governments. Iván Márquez met with John Kerry in Havana, Cuba in 2016 and thought he had some sort of commitment to free Simon, but was later disappointed when Simon was not freed.

Since that time, there have been numerous calls for Simon’s freedom from popular movements in the United States and internationally. Simon will ask the new Biden administration for executive clemency and this will give the new administration an opportunity to right this historic wrong.

Fight Back!: Will having President Biden in office offer new possibilities?

Mark Burton, Esq.: There is certainly hope that the Biden administration will have a different approach to Colombia than the outgoing Trump administration. However, this hope should be approached with some caution. Joe Biden was one of the promoters of the notorious Plan Colombia which led to an intensified war in that country. It should also be noted that his foreign policy team is largely made up of persons who served in the Obama administration. Obama had the perfect opportunity, during the peace talks, to free Simon Trinidad and failed to do so.

On the other hand, there are reports that the Biden team is very unhappy with the current Colombian president Ivan Duque, who openly supported Donald Trump and whose ambassador to the United States, Francisco “Pacho” Santos, actually campaigned for Trump among the Latino community in Florida, interfering in the internal affairs of the United States. There are reports that Duque has called Biden five times and each time Biden has refused to talk to him. Many in Colombia hope that this unhappiness with Duque may turn into more U.S. support for the implementation of the peace agreement, which has languished under Duque, and there could possibly be some benefit for Simon.

#UnitedStates #InJusticeSystem #Colombia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalPrisoners #SimónTrinidad #FuerzasArmadasRevolucionariasDeColombiaFARC

Chicago, IL – Prominent Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel and 43 other human rights activists from 18 countries have written to President Donald Trump asking him to free Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad.

Perez Esquivel, a writer and painter, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his opposition to the Argentinian military dictatorship (1976-83), which tortured him and held him without trial for 14 months.

Simon Trinidad, a Colombian citizen and a peace negotiator for the FARC, has served 17 years at the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado where he is unable to receive visitors or mail. He celebrated his 70th birthday this past July.

The letter asks President Trump to pardon or commute Trinidad’s 60-year sentence, stating that it took U.S. prosecutors four trials and three hung juries to convict him. The letter goes on to say, “Freeing Trinidad and allowing him to return to Colombia, would advance the peace process.”

The letter finishes by saying that releasing Trinidad “would be a real gesture of peace” which “most all the people of Latin America would applaud.”

The National Committee to Free Simon Trinidad has posted the full text of the letter on its website here and here on Facebook.

The committee is asking everyone to telephone the Pardon Attorney’s Office at the Justice Department at 202-616-6070 ext. 4 on Thursday January 14, saying, “Free Simon Trinidad.”

Contact for more info: SimonTrinidadLibre@gmail.com or www.freesimontrinidad.org

#ChicagoIL #Colombia #PeoplesStruggles #RicardoPalmera #SimónTrinidad #PoliticalRepression #Americas

Caracas, Venezuela – 60 international observers of the Venezuelan election were stuck at the airport December 8, for a flight to Mexico. The flight kept getting delayed and delayed. After six hours of waiting, people were sleeping on the floors, tables and couches. Then the head of Conviasa’s national flights spoke to the observers in the airport and said that Venezuela asked Colombia permission to have observers fly over Colombia to return home. Colombia approved it. Two hours before the flight was going to leave, they denied the flight route. He said, “This has happened many times. They do this to try to control us.” He told us that this is part of blockade and is a form of oppression, and that they suffer under these attacks every day. “As observers, you should show the world the oppression and how the blockade affects us.”

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #Colombia #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following declaration demanding the release of Ricardo Palmera (Simon Trinidad). Freedom Road Socialist Organization is one of the signers.

The Communist Parties and Workers signed by this declaration, we demand from the Government of the United States of America the immediate repatriation and release of political prisoner Ricardo Palmera Pineda, better known as Simon Trinidad in his militancy in the insurgent organization FARC-EP.

Simón Trinidad was captured in January 2004 in Quito, Ecuador, while advancing contacts for future peace talks. It was immediately handed over to the Colombian government who mined him to the US government as a war trophy of “Plan Colombia”.

Simon Trinidad, sentenced to 60 years in prison on the false and manipulated charge of “terrorist conspiracy,” remains held in USP's federal high-security prison Florence ADMAX, better known as Supermax, in strict solitary confinement.

The Communist and Workers' Parties and revolutionary organizations, signatories, declare that:

1. Simon Trinidad is a political and war prisoner. After the signing of the Havana Peace Agreement, between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP insurgency, he should have been released and repatriated.
2. Due to its interference and intervention in Colombia's internal affairs and its military and intelligence activity in Colombian territory, which uses it as an aircraft carrier in the region, the US Government is the main part of Colombia's social, political and armed conflict.
3. Simon Trinidad, who has just turned 70 years old and more than 15 years imprisoned in solitary confinement, must be released immediately, for his firm commitment to peace.
4. We are committed to supporting, participating and promoting solidary actions with Simon Trinidad until we achieve the just goal of his release from the prison that keeps him truly abducted.

We recognize in Simon Trinidad an entire communist, who despite the harsh conditions to which the American imperialists subject him, stands firm in his convictions. Simon Trinidad is one of thousands of communists and revolutionaries imprisoned around the world, so our commitment and revolutionary ethics is for their liberation.

Freedom for Simon Trinidad!

August 9, 2020

PROMOTED BY COMMUNIST PARTY BRASILEIRO (PCB) COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PEOPLES OF SPAIN (PCPE) COMMUNIST PARTY OF VENEZUELA (PCV)

Solidnet Parties signing the joint statement

1. Communist Party of Albania
2. Communist Party of Australia
3. Communist Party of Belgium
4. Brazilian Communist Party
5. New Communist Party of Britain
6. Socialist Worker's Party of Croatia
7. Communist Party In Denmark
8. German Communist Party
9. Communist Party of Greece
10. Palestinian People's Party
11. Paraguayan Communist Party
12. Philippine Communist Party (PKP-1930)
13. Communists of Serbia
14. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
15. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
16. Communist Party of Turkey
17. Communist Party of Venezuela

Other Parties signing the joint statement

1. Partido de la Liberación (Caba) (Argentina)
2. Partido Comunista de Gran Bretaña (Marxista-Leninista)
3. Partido Comunista de Chile (Acción Proletaria)
4. Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic
5. Iniciativa Comunista (España)
6. Unión Proletaria (España)
7. Partido Comunista Obrero Español
8. Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France
9. Agora Galiza – Up
10. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (USA)

#UnitedStates #FARCEP #Colombia #RicardoPalmera #PeoplesStruggles #SimónTrinidad #PoliticalPrisoners

The National Prison Movement (Movimiento Nacional Carcelario) and other prisoner rights groups called a demonstration in Colombian prisons on March 21, to protest the lack of protection against the COVID-19 virus and the general lack of decent healthcare in the Colombian prisons. Twelve Colombian prisons answered the call for a ‘cacerolazo,’ a protest where one bangs on pots and pans to make enough noise so that the protest is heard.

The protest in the prison Carcel Nacional Modelo de Bogotá began at 9 p.m. on March 21. The prisoners were mostly on lockdown in their cells and began banging on their pots and pans and chanting, “If the virus enters here, we will all die.” Rather than negotiate or open a dialogue, the prison called in armed guards who immediately began firing tear gas canisters at the prisoners, most of whom were locked in cells with poor ventilation. They then started firing their rifles at the prisoners. At the end of this attack 23 prisoners were killed and another 85 injured. The human rights organization Fundación Lazos de Dignidad called this massacre a “state crime.”

Colombian prisons are infamous for overcrowding, poor hygiene and lousy medical services. There are some 120,000 prisoners in Colombian prisons and it is estimated that there is an overcrowding rate of 54%. Included in this prison population are around 1500 political prisoners who, three and a half years after the signing of the Colombian peace agreement, remain imprisoned. Many of these political prisoners qualify for release and a referral to the special peace court (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz). Due to government inaction, these prisoners remain incarcerated and one of them, a FARC political prisoner, was killed in this massacre.

Meanwhile, the Colombian political Simón Trinidad, unjustly imprisoned in the United States, languishes in long term isolation in the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Despite the fact that Trinidad is a key spokesman and symbol for peace, there is no evidence that the Colombian government has taken any action to involve him in the Colombian peace process.

#Colombia #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Americas #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalPrisoners #COVID19 #NationalPrisonMovementMovimientoNacionalCarcelario

In a video released on August 29, 2019, Iván Márquez, former lead peace negotiator for the FARC-EP in the peace talks in Havana, Cuba, announced that a sector of the FARC party (name of the successor party to the FARC-EP that was founded after the signing of the peace agreement in 2016) were returning to the armed struggle under the banner of the revolutionary guerrilla organization the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia- Ejército del Pueblo). Iván Márquez read the FARC-EP’s new manifesto dressed in military fatigues surrounded by armed companions, including the famous FARC-EP commanders El Paisa and Jesús Santrich. The manifesto was read by Márquez with large, colorful FARC-EP banners in the background, and was filmed in the Inírida forest that is in a remote area of Colombia that borders both Brazil and Venezuela.

Márquez referred to the renewed armed struggle as “the march of the humble, ignored and unappreciated Colombia, towards the sparkling hills of the future.” In the manifesto Márquez made it clear that the return to the armed struggle was sparked by the “treason of the state” and its undermining of the Peace Agreement. The manifesto related the fact that over 500 social leaders and 150 ex-FARC-EP combatants had been assassinated since the signing of the peace agreement. Márquez spoke of a litany of actions and inactions that the Colombian government had committed that undermined the Havana Peace agreement, including the fact that Colombian government had failed in its promise to protect its citizens and to dismantle paramilitary death squads. According to Márquez, the treasonous behavior of the Colombian government forced the revolutionaries to “return to the mountains.”

In the manifesto, the FARC-EP stated that once again they would be the protectors of the environment, LGBTI people, workers and peasants. Márquez made it clear that he would seek to coordinate military activities with the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), a guerrilla group that entered into peace negotiations with the Colombian government but never reached an agreement, and the so-called FARC-EP dissidents, who are members of the FARC-EP that never demobilized nor disarmed after the signing of the peace agreement.

Márquez looked forward to a government of a “grand coalition of forces for life, social justice and democracy, that will bring about a coalition for a new peace dialogue.” This leader envisioned “peace for the Colombian people, peace for neighboring countries, peace on the military bases that will not aim its cannons against [Colombian] communities.”

The reaction from the Colombian government was swift. Ivan Duque, the ultra-right president of Colombia, ordered his attorney general to seek arrest warrants for Márquez and his companions in the video. The FARC party called Márquez’ call to arms a “delirious mistake” and vowed to keep working towards the fulfillment of the peace agreement.

Other revolutionary organizations, however, praised the FARC-EP’s call to arms. Rafael Uzcategui, the general secretary of the Patria Para Todos party of Venezuela, welcomed the “sovereign and dignified decision to return to arms” in the face of the “criminal” Duque government that has disowned the peace process. Comandante Uriel of the ELN, in a short video clip addressing Jesús Santrich, stated that the call to arms was “better late than never – we swear to achieve victory!”

In the backdrop of the FARC-EP video there appeared several pictures of heroes of the Colombian guerrilla movements, including Simón Trinidad. Simón Trinidad has been languishing in the Florence, Colorado Supermax prison after having been extradited to the United States in 2004, convicted on trumped-up charges, and sentenced to 60 years. Many believe that if the Colombian government really wanted to show their commitment to the peace process, that it should begin efforts to achieve the repatriation of the Colombian hero Simón Trinidad. This action would engender enormous confidence in the flailing peace process.

#WashingtonDC #OppressedNationalities #FARCEP #Colombia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino