The jailing and repeated postponement of trials of Liliany “Lily” Obando tells the story of a powerful woman. She is dealing firsthand with the extreme repression facing many Colombians who oppose the government. In Colombia there are over 7000 political prisoners. Colombian trade unionist Liliany Obando was arrested in the summer of 2008. Her arrest came during a string of attacks by the Uribe government targeting leaders of Colombia's growing struggles for social change.

Obando is a typical Colombian. She has taken up the challenge to fight for the rights of the people – the ones who don't matter to the rich in charge in Colombia and their puppeteers here in the U.S. government. Through her work with FENSUAGRO, a Colombian union, Obando championed the rights and welfare of Colombian farmers and rural wage laborers. Her work was transparent and legal under Colombian law, but Liliany Obando now sits in prison.

In Colombia dissent is dangerous. This is especially so for FENSUAGRO, as Colombia's largest peasant and farm worker federation. “We consider our struggle a just and important struggle. We fight for farm workers in defense of life, land and territory,” explains one of the union's leaders. The union fights for farmers because they have learned repeatedly that the Colombian government will prioritize the rights of multinational corporations over the rights of a Colombian farming community. Their organization teaches organic growing practices, seed preservation and union organizing.

In their many years of struggle FENSUAGRO became a strong union, a union that has saved communities, changed lives for the better and that brought the voice of rural workers to the ears of all of Colombia. For the work that they do, their members and supporters are abducted, detained, arrested and murdered. FENSUAGRO is the most targeted union by military and paramilitary violence in Colombia.

“Lily's trial has everything to do with her work with FENSUAGRO,” says James Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice. “The Colombian government is trying to destroy the union. The war in Colombia is built around driving farmers off their land and of course the union is at odds with that goal.” Obando is charged with rebellion. This is a charged linked with the Colombian government's claim that she raised money for Colombia's growing insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP).

The charge of rebellion is a non-specific charge used in the country to imprison student, union and social justice leaders, often for years at a time. The government uses these long imprisonments as an attempt to cripple a growing movement. “It's a consecutive process of arrests. They can imprison 20 people in jail for two or three years and only after that length of time are the prisoners released because there is no evidence against them. By then they've already arrested another 20,” further explained the FENSUAGRO leader.

This concept is certainly clear in the Obando trial. Her trial only began after a year of imprisonment and since then she has faced constant postponements. “Basically she's dealing with a system and, in particular, a judge who has shown himself overly lenient towards the military and paramilitaries but with Lily, won't even consider routine home detention and presents a court process that is constantly delayed”, stated Jordan.

Jordan continues, “Lily spends a day or two in court and then waits weeks and weeks in prison for another session while members of the military are being released after 90 days for not yet having been brought to trial. The military officials – who everyone knows are responsible for the massacre in Mapiripan- the judge is just letting them walk.” In Obando’s most recent two-day session on Feb. 15 and 16, her trial was again postponed for another two months. This has happened repeatedly over the course of seven months since the trial was scheduled to begin. The constant rescheduling is an exhausting process to put Obando through, it makes it difficult for Obando’s supporters to attend the court sessions, and furthermore, makes home detention and ever more reasonable request.

“Of course they're not going to be fair,” stated Jeremy Miller. Miller traveled to Colombia as a representative of the Colombia Action Network this past summer and met with Obando in prison. “Lily's trial is another attempt by the Colombian government to criminalize any dissent. We have to remember too that this is also a fight for the sovereignty of Colombia. The U.S. is trying to build seven military bases in Colombia and has always intervened in Colombian affairs for their own interests. They've spent $7 billion trying to control people in Colombia. Lily is a threat to the rich because what she is doing is right. She stands for the truth and for justice. They're scared of her and the people like her because they are losing their battle.”

Supporters of Liliany Obando all over the world, including trade unionists in Canada and Australia as well as Latin America solidarity activists in the U.S., have been targeted for interrogation and harassment. This is in addition to the ongoing intimidation Obando herself deals with every day. In Colombian prison, Obando faces misrepresentation of facts, outright lies, coercion from guards, the theft and mistreatment of personal belongings, as well as the threat of being moved to another prison.

“Despite everything, Lily's spirits remain strong”, reports Jordan. “She continues to organize from the prisons and to fight for the rights of all political prisoners. In the face of everything she has not backed down, nor given in to the false claims against her. She's a fighter. She's an inspiration.”

The next session of Obando’s trial is scheduled to begin April 22 and 23. To donate to Liliany Obando’s legal defense send a check or money order made out to the “Alliance for Global Justice” to AFGJ, 1247 E Street SE, Washington, DC 2003 with “Lily Obando Defense Fund” in the memo line.

#Colombia #BogotáBDC #ColombiaActionNetwork #LilianyObando #Americas

Fight Back! Forum at the SOA: No to U.S. Intervention in Colombia!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Howard Johnson Presidential Room

1101 Veterans Pkwy, Columbus, GA

No To US Bases In Colombia!

Close the School of the Americas!

Free Lily Obando!

The US is expanding its dirty war in Colombia. Training death squads at the School of the Americas is a big part of that, but there is more. The Pentagon will soon occupy seven bases in Colombia, adding to the $7 billion spent on a war against the Colombian people over ten years. US troops will increase to 1400, with 600 US mercenaries fighting in the counter-insurgency war. The US will pour $46 million into the Palenquero base alone for “refurbishing”. This is bad news for the Colombian people who live under a corrupt and criminal government led by President Uribe. It is also bad news here at home too, as we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—as well as a health care crisis, a housing crisis, and two ongoing US occupations. Why is the White House escalating the war in Colombia instead of seeking peace? Our HOPE is for peace with our neighbors, not more US bases! We want CHANGE, not more US intervention!

The fact is that the US Empire is in decline and is losing its grip on Latin America. Throughout the region, people’s movements are sweeping into power, with democratic, reform minded, and socialist leaders. Militarizing Colombia is central to US plans to stop this progressive wave and reverse it. However, Plan Colombia, the current US war plan, is failing. Plan Colombia is aimed against the most powerful revolutionary group in Latin America—the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The FARC organizes poor peasants and the disenfranchised to defend themselves against the rich Colombian elite and to take back their country from US corporations. Inside Colombia, the revolution, both armed and unarmed, is deepening and spreading, even reaching the cities. In the face of this, the White House and Congress are siding with the wealthy land owners and big corporations by funding and supporting Colombia’s corrupt government—nearly tripling the Colombian Military in ten years. The new US bases will clearly threaten Colombia's neighbors too.

Colombian Death Squads – “Made In America”

Colombia sends more soldiers to the School of the Americas than any other country in Latin America. Colombia also has the highest number of human rights abuses. The Pentagon directs the Colombian Military and their training at SOA, and gives the nod to their death squads. Colombia's former top general, Mario Montoya trained and instructed others at the SOA. Montoya along with two other Colombian generals and 24 Military officers were forced to resign last year due to the “false positives” scandal – they “hired” unemployed men in the cities, shot them dead in rural areas, and then dressed them in FARC uniforms to claim success against the revolutionaries. We say, “Close the SOA!”

Free Lily Obando

Liliani “Lily” Obando is a political prisoner of the Colombian government. Unfortunately, Lily's story is all too familiar—she works as union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and farm worker federation. She produces documentary films and writes about the struggles of those who work the land. Here films show that in Colombia, there are more displaced people – around four million, than in Iraq. It is outrageous! Thousands of labor unionists and other activists are routinely assassinated and threatened by death squads. Coca-Cola, Drummond Coal, and Chiquita Banana are all known for funding death squads.

Like many unions and other groups, FENSUAGRO is heavily repressed. The Colombian Army and their death squads killed 1500 members of FENSUAGRO over the past 30 years. Counting 450 murdered since President Uribe took over in 2002. Lily Obando was about to release her study of these assassinations when Uribe ordered her arrest in August 2008. Besides assassinating popular leaders, arrest and detention is the new tactic of the reactionary government. Liliani Obando is charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities”. Despite the danger, Lily is willing to challenge the injustices that are imposed by the US supported war in Colombia. Now Lily is fighting for the rights of women prisoners. Since her imprisonment, Lily’s two young children and her elderly mother barely scrape by. We demand “Free Lily Obando!”

Speakers Include:

• James Jordan from the Campaign for Labor Rights
• Angela Denio from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera
• Sarah Buchner from Students for a Democratic Society
• Jeremy Miller from the Colombia Action Network
• Kosta Harlan from Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#ColombusGA #ColumbusGA #Colombia #NationalCommitteeToFreeRicardoPalmera #ColombiaActionNetwork #SchoolOfTheAmericas #LilianyObando #Americas

Yo soy un hombre bastante alto, y Liliany es relativamente bajita. Sin embargo cuando la conocí, fui enrollado por uno de sus abrazotes- un abrazo que muestra un corazón y coraje muchas veces más grande que su tamaño. Liliany está en el cárcel, acusada de “rebelión.” Aunque sea encarcelada, todavía sigue organizando; colectando los testimonios de otros prisioneros políticos y recomendando un intercambio humanitario de prisioneros entre el gobierno Colombiano y las guerrillas cómo el primer paso hacia la paz.

Liliany fue la primera persona detenida por el proceso “FARC-política,” que es usado en contra de los académicos, sindicalistas, y otros que simpaticen con la oposición. Recientemente, Miguel Ángel Beltrán fue la segunda persona detenida y por lo menos doce otros han sido investigados cómo parte de este proceso. Liliany y Beltrán son sociólogos. Liliany también trabajó cómo consulta para Fensuagro, el sindicato de granjeros y campesinos más grande de Colombia. Liliany fue detenida en la misma semana en que ella publicó un reportaje hablando de los asesinatos de más de 1,500 miembros y lideres de Fensuagro en los últimos 30 años.

El proceso llamado “FARC-política” está basado en supuestos correos electrónicos y archivos en Word hallados en la computadora y discos duros externos atribuidos a Raúl Reyes, el segundo comandante de FARC-EP, que fueron incautados en desarrollo de una operación militar realizada ilegalmente por el estado colombiano y EEUU en territorio ecuatoriano el 1 marzo de 2008, en la cual fue asesinado el guerrillero Raúl Reyes quien se hallaba en un campamento instalado para planear los detalles de liberación de prisioneros a cargo de las FARC-EP. El bombardero fue un grave ataque al proceso de paz.

La fiabilidad de esta 'evidencia' es completamente desacreditada. Las computadoras y discos duros estuvieron bajo el control de las autoridades Colombianas por diez días antes de ser entregadas a la agencia internacional de policía, INTERPOL. INTERPOL dijo que la evidencia no pudo ser autenticada y que el tratamiento “...no conformó a los principios reconocidos internacionalmente del tratamiento de la evidencia electrónica por las agencias del orden público.”

Las autoridades Colombianas afirman que los supuestos correos electrónicos hallados en las computadoras y discos duros extraíbles son la base de los cargos contra Liliany y otros, pese a que contradictoriamente el Capitán Ronaldo Hayden Coy Ortiz de la Policía Investigativa de Colombia dijo en frente de un tribunal que las computadoras no contuvieron emails, sino documentos del programa Word. Este tipo de documento es fácilmente manipulado. Cabe resaltar que el Capitán Coy fue la primera persona en tener acceso a las computadoras y supervisó su investigación inicial.

Por su parte, la detención del profesor Miguel Beltrán ha sido denunciada públicamente como un “falso positivo judicial”; en Colombia se empezó a hablar de “falso positivo” con el escándalo en el que resultaron involucrados mas de treinta oficiales militares Colombianos, acusados de ser responsables de la desaparición forzada y ejecución extrajudicial de casi 1,200 jóvenes Colombianos, a quienes inicialmente vestían con prendas militares y luego los presentaban ante la opinión publica como guerrilleros de las FARC-EP dados de “baja” en combate. Entre los militares investigados también se incluyeron altos mandos, muchos de ellos con el antecedente de haber estudiado en la Escuela de las Américas (de mala fama) en Columbus, Georgia EE.UU.

En realidad, la “FARC-política” es una “farsa-política”, que tiene dos propósitos; el primer propósito, obviamente es encarcelar, intimidar y reprimir la oposición política. El otro propósito es desviar la atención del escándalo “para-política.” Este escándalo militar conecta más que cien miembros del congreso y oficiales de la administración del Presidente Uribe a los escuadrones de la muerte. Ya están encarcelados 42 oficiales por su participación en los eventos que directamente resultaron en asesinatos, pero todavía muchos de los culpables siguen libre.

Como resultado de su asociación con el sindicato de los campesinos, Fensuagro, Liliany es especialmente vulnerable. La guerra en Colombia, apoyada por los EEUU, es un ataque en contra de las poblaciones rurales, especialmente dirigido a campesinos, indígenas, afro-colombianos, pequeños propietarios y cooperativas.

Los EEUU han dado más que $7 mil millones de dólares a Colombia en asistencia militar. También ha entrenado cientos de sus soldados en la Escuela de las Américas y ha indicado el camino a esta guerra. Sin embargo, el Plan Colombia es un gran fracaso, así que los EEUU tiene que pensar en otro plan de guerra. Los EEUU va a tomar control de y renovar siete bases militares nuevas en Colombia. Son noticias malas para los campesinos y trabajadores de Colombia que sufren la pobreza, miseria, y muerte por culpa del militar Estadounidense y Colombiano. También son malas noticias para los trabajadores de los EEUU que pagan la cuenta, quienes sufren la crisis económica más grave de los tiempos, mientras EEUU continúa empujando su tratado de libre comercio.

La guerra apoyado por los EEUU y el tratado de libre comercio de las Américas existen para beneficiar directamente corporaciones transnacionales cómo Chiquita Banana, Coca-Cola, Occidental Petroleum y Drummond Coal. Más de 4.5 millones de personas han sido desplazadas por culpa de la guerra Colombiana, apoyada por los EEUU. Familias enteras de campesinos componen 60% de los desplazados. Terratenientes ricos e inversionistas llegan para tomar esta tierra -hasta 6.8 millones de hectáreas de tierra han sido robadas-. En cualquier tierra ocurre tal desplazamiento, muy pronto la tierra es perdida a los interés grandes, cómo petróleo, minería, biocombustibles, y agricultura. El tratado de libre comercio con Colombia seria el gran premio de la política empresarial de robar la tierra y también legitimaria la continuidad de la guerra.

Liliany, es un blanco fácil por el trabajo que ha hecho para Fensuagro. Ella es acusada de reunir dinero para el FARC-EP bajo los auspicios del sindicato. Fensuagro ha sido señaldo falsamente cómo el frente de las guerrillas, y como consecuencia se ha visto el sindicato se ha visto afectado con el cierre de sus cuentas bancarias. Sin embargo, el dinero que reunió Liliany estuvo destinado al sindicato de fensuagro y no a la guerrillas, su único “crimen” ha sido promover la reforma agraria -para los campesinos- cómo la base de paz en Colombia.

Durante nuestra delegación, no solo visitemos a Liliany y las otras prisioneras, sino también a unos granjeros y reuniones de comunidades. Yo puedo decir, sin exagerar, que de todos los granjeros y campesinos que conocimos, cada uno había perdido un miembro de su familia o un amigo cercano cómo resulto de la violencia militar y paramilitar. Aidee Moreno, el director de derechos humanos para Fensuagro, perdió su esposo, madre, hermano, y sobrina en diez años cómo resulto de la violencia.

Es espeluznante darse cuenta de la cantidad de jóvenes que fueron asesinados, entre ellos niños, sólo para mostrar resultados de la política de seguridad democrática. Una noche, un líder de la cooperativa me invitó a mirar un video junto a él, fue un video horroroso que no quería mirar; sin embargo, vi el video, porque sentí que haciéndolo podría ayudar a romper el sentimiento de aislamiento que a ellos los invade ante esta situación. El video mostró dos jóvenes, un hombre y una mujer, los dos con menos de 18 años, que fueron asesinados de una dispara a la cabeza, lo que en Colombia se conoce como “el tiro de gracia”. Mostró los cuerpos y los miembros de la comunidad que llegaron inmediatamente después con su cámara, llamando a los oficiales del DAS (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) para investigar.

Tras la desgracia de los asesinatos, todo fue mostrado claramente. Los platos de comida que ellos habían estado comiendo fueron tirados a sus lados, los cuerpos fueron cómo una bola de una hoja de papel estrujada, desarmados, sentados acabando con sus cenas modestas. Lo único bueno es que por los menos estos asesinatos fueron mostrados al público y las victimas fueron reconocidos cómo tal, y no padecieron la desaparición forzada a la que muchos han sido sometidos para luego ser mostrados como “falsos-positivos”. Aun, nadie ha sido condenado por estos crímenes, aumentando la taza de impunidad que por asesinatos políticos supera el 95% de los crímenes.

Nos contaron muchas historias de tragedias parecidas. Cada día las vidas de gente inocente son destruidas cuando se asesina, se desaparece, se encarcela y se desplaza forzadamente.

En mi última visita a Liliany, yo fui en una “día de hombres visitantes” con dos de mis compañeros de la delegación. A principio, solo visitamos a Liliany, pero durante el almuerzo, juntamos las mesas en el cuarto común con otras detenidas y tuvimos una fiestita. Comimos y bromeamos juntos, jugamos y en al final terminamos bailando. (No bailo bien, lo cual les dio risa a la población general.)

Durante nuestra visita, yo vi a las prisioneras políticas de extracción campesina y a las activistas políticas disfrutar la velada a pesar de la represión. Fueron las personas más generosas y divertidas que he conocido. Cada sonrisa, cada buen rato que pasan es un acto de Resistencia, una victoria en contra de la represión- una negación de rendirse. Le pregunté a Liliany sobre el tema, y me dijo ella que tienen un dicho, “Por día, luchamos; por noche, bailamos!”

Las mujeres que yo conocí en la cárcel el Buen Pastor de Bogotá sólo son culpables del crimen de pensar distinto y de querer un país mejor. Claro, algunas fueron soldados de las FARC-EP, pero yo les miré directamente a los ojos, hablé con ellas, me reí con ellas y bailé con ellas. Estas mujeres habían visto bastante violencia y los asesinatos de sus familiares hasta el punto en que decidieron que tenían que luchar. Unas tomaron armas. Otras simplemente empezaron a organizar los sindicatos o manifestaciones, y otras movilizaciones para el cambio social.

Las presas bromearon preguntándonos cómo nos sentíamos rodeados por mujeres tan peligrosas cómo ellas, y la verdad a mi me gustó bastante, no vi en ellas ningún peligro, así que aprenderé bailar la próxima vez que vaya. Eso me enseñó el viaje, “luchar y bailar.” Yo quiero estar listo cuando venga la hora de bailar en los escombros del imperialismo de los EEUU mientras preparamos a construir el mundo mejor de que todos de nosotros soñamos y luchamos.

#Colombia #Labor #PoliticalPrisoners #LilianyObando #PresosPoliticos #Americas

A spirited picket line protested outside the Colombian consulate in Chicago Oct. 1. 30 students, solidarity and labor activists chanted in support of political prisoners held by the Colombian government of President Uribe. Passersby stopped to read leaflets and listen to chants of, “Free Lily Obando,” “No to U.S. bases,” and “The people of Colombia are under attack! What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” Chicagoans were joined on Michigan Avenue by activists from Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, California, Florida and Washington D.C. for this international day of action.

James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights, which organized the protest, said, “There are more than 7200 political prisoners in Colombia, most arrested on the basis of fabricated evidence. Lily Obando is one of those. Lily is a labor leader, sociologist and video maker about to expose the Colombian government's role in running paramilitary death squads. Death squads have killed hundreds of peasants and farm workers belonging to the largest agricultural union – FENSUAGRO.”

He concluded his speech saying, “Those arrested are union members, farmers, students, teachers and members of the political opposition. Repression in Colombia is paid for and overseen by the U.S. government in service to big corporations. We call on the U.S. government to stop supporting repression and war. We demand dialogue and a just peace.”

Banbose Shango of the National Network on Cuba spoke about U.S. hypocrisy: “Posada Carriles, an internationally known terrorist who bombed a Cuban airplane killing 73 civilians in 1976, is walking the streets freely in Miami, Florida. The U.S. government is protecting this murderer. In the meantime, five Cubans, who monitored the planned activities of these Miami-based terrorist groups, have been languishing unjustly in several U.S. prisons for the past ten years. When there is no justice, there is no peace. We oppose U.S. aggression towards Cuba and Colombia.”

Tom Burke of the Colombia Action Network spoke last, saying, “We protested the outrageous trials in Washington D.C. that imprisoned Ricardo Palmera and Anayibe 'Sonia' Valderrama, members of the FARC. Our protests exposed the Palmera trials as a sham put on by a declining empire. The U.S. is overreaching. Ricardo Palmera is now a political prisoner of the U.S. government held in total isolation in the Florence, Colorado Super Max. Professor Palmera's imprisonment is inhumane.”

Next Burke spoke of the recently announced plan to build seven U.S. bases in Colombia, saying, “The U.S. is losing its control over Latin America. 'Plan Colombia,' the U.S. counter-insurgency war is a failure. While the U.S. increases repression and terror in Colombia, the revolution, led by the FARC and other groups, is spreading and building. The U.S. is forcing dozens of Colombian military officers trained at the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia to resign. Some are going to jail for murdering 1300 or more poor workers and dressing them up in FARC uniforms. The U.S. is losing its war and U.S. bases will only bring more suffering to the Colombian people. In solidarity with Colombians, with Venezuelans, Bolivians and Ecuadorians – with all Latin Americans, we need to oppose the U.S. bases in Colombia. We do not benefit from the war and repression in Colombia. Only the rich do. No to U.S. bases!”

Organizers are making plans for more events to build for the Nov. 21 School of the Americas protests in Georgia. Similar protests to the Chicago event took place in Colombia, Australia, France, Mexico and Canada.

#ChicagoIL #Colombia #ColombiaActionNetwork #PoliticalPrisoners #LilianyObando #FENSUAGRO #CampaignForLaborRights #Americas

I’m a fairly tall man, and Liliany is relatively small. But upon first meeting her, I was engulfed by one of her bear hugs – hugs that show a heart and courage many times larger than her size. Liliany is in jail, accused of ‘rebellion.’ Yet even behind bars, she is organizing; collecting the testimonies of other political prisoners and advocating for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners between the Colombian government and guerrillas as a first step toward a just peace.

Liliany is the first person arrested through the ‘farc-politica’ process, which is aimed against unionists, academics and others aligned with the opposition. Recently, Miguel Angel Betran became the second person arrested and at least twelve persons have been investigated as a part of this process. Both Liliany and Beltran are sociologists. Liliany also worked as a consultant for Fensuagro, Colombia’s largest union of farmers and farm workers. Liliany was arrested the very week she released a report on the murders of more than 1500 Fensuagro members and leaders over 30 years.

The ‘farc-politica’ is supposedly based on emails and files culled from computers belonging to Raul Reyes, the second-in-command leader of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army). Reyes was killed by an illegal U.S./Colombian attack on a FARC-EP camp in Ecuador, on March 1, 2008. This camp was working out details of a planned release of FARC-EP held prisoners of war. The bombing was an attack on the entire peace process.

The reliability of this ‘evidence’ is thoroughly discredited. The computers were in the hands of Colombian authorities for ten days before being turned over to the international police agency, INTERPOL. INTERPOL said that the evidence could not be authenticated and that the handling “…did not conform to internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement...”

Colombian authorities cite emails from the computers as the basis for charges against Liliany and others. However, Captain Ronald Hayden Coy Ortiz of Colombia’s Investigative Police said in court that the computers contained no emails at all, only Word documents. Word documents are easily manipulated. Captain Coy was the first person to access these computers and oversaw their initial investigation.

Miguel suggests his arrest is a “judicial false positive.” This refers to the ‘false positive’ scandal that caused the downfall of dozens of high-ranking Colombian military officials – many who trained at the often-protested School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia. The Colombian military officials are guilty of kidnapping and killing nearly 1200 young Colombians, dressing them up in guerrilla clothing, and claiming them as FARC-EP fighters slain in battle.

The ‘farc-politica’ is really a ‘farce-politica.’ It serves two purposes, one obviously being to imprison, intimidate and repress political opposition. The other purpose is to divert attention away from the ‘para-politica’ scandal. The paramilitary scandal ties over 100 members of Congress and officials of Colombian President Uribe’s administration to the death squads. 42 are now in jail for participating in events that led directly to assassinations, but many roam free.

Because of Liliany’s association with the peasants’ union Fensuagro, she is especially vulnerable. The U.S.-backed war in Colombia is an aggression against rural populations – especially small and cooperative farmers and indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations.

The U.S. has given over $7 billion in military aid to Colombia, trained hundreds of its soldiers in the notorious School of the Americas and directs the Colombian military in carrying out this war. However, Plan Colombia is a big failure, so there are serious moves on for a new U.S. war plan. The U.S. is going to take over and rebuild seven new military bases in Colombia. This is bad news for peasants and workers in Colombia, who suffer poverty, misery and death at the hands of the U.S. and Colombian military. It is also bad news for working people in the U.S. who foot the bill, while suffering through the worst economic crisis in decades. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to push for a Free Trade deal!

Both the U.S.-backed war and the Free Trade of the Americas (FTA) deal are for the direct benefit of huge transnational corporations like Chiquita Banana, Coca-Cola, Occidental Petroleum and Drummond Coal. Over 4.5 million people have been displaced by the U.S.-backed war in Colombia. Family farmers and farm workers make up over 60% of the displaced. Wealthy landowners and investors move in to take this land – up to 6.8 million hectares of land have been swindled. Wherever such displacement occurs, the land is soon ceded to petroleum, mining, biofuel (African palm oil) or big agricultural (sugarcane) interests. Passage of an FTA with Colombia would be the crowning achievement of this corporate land grab and is the economic underpinning to the war.

Liliany is being targeted because of her work on behalf of Fensuagro. She is accused of raising money for the FARC-EP under the auspices of the union. Fensuagro is falsely portrayed as a front for the guerrillas and has already had bank accounts closed due to the case. However, the money that Liliany raised is traceable and never went into the hands of the guerrillas. Her real ‘crime’ is advocating for agrarian reform – land for the peasants – as a cornerstone for a just peace in Colombia.

On our delegation, we not only visited Liliany and other prisoners, but we visited two different farms and attended community meetings. I can say without exaggeration that of the many farmers and farm workers we met, every single person lost close family members or friends to military and paramilitary violence. Aidee Moreno, the human rights officer for Fensuagro, lost her husband, mother, brother and niece within ten years -three of the four within two years.

It is shocking to realize how many of those killed so randomly were youths…even children. One night, the leader of a cooperative asked us to watch a video with him. It was a grisly video I had no desire to see. We watched it, nonetheless, because we felt doing so contradicted some of the isolation he and community members must feel under such conditions. The video showed a young man and woman – neither beyond high school age – murdered by shots to their heads. The scene of the bodies showed community members, who assembled immediately with video camera in hand, calling on DAS (Administrative Department of Security) officers to come investigate.

The murder scene was shown in detail, before it could be changed, before two more young people could be dressed up and claimed as ‘false positives.’ The bowls of food they were eating were lying beside them, their bodies crumpled up where they had been sitting casually, finishing modest dinners. The only weapons anywhere near were the weapons the soldiers carried. The victory from all this was that these murders were made public for what they were and the victims not lost among the ‘false positives.’ However, no one was ever prosecuted for the crimes. The immunity rate for such political murders is over 95%.

We heard story after story of similar atrocities. Every day innocent lives are destroyed and families are ripped apart as farmers and farm workers and indigenous persons and Afro-Colombians are assassinated, driven from their homes, and/or placed under sudden and arbitrary arrest.

On my final visit to see Liliany, I went on the ‘men’s visiting day’ with two fellow delegates. At first, we just visited with Liliany, but around lunchtime, we went down to a common room, put our tables together and pretty much had a party for the rest of the visit. We ate and talked and joked together, played some games and finished the afternoon dancing. (I’m a pretty rotten dancer, which provided some genuine amusement for the general population!)

Throughout our visit, I saw prisoners, farmers and activists enjoying themselves, despite all this repression. These people were the most generous and fun loving people I’d ever met anywhere, hands down. Every smile, every good time they have is an act of resistance, a victory against repression – a refusal to surrender. I asked Liliany about this, and she told me about a saying they have: “Today we struggle, tonight we dance!”

The women I met at the Buen Pastor prison were there for no other ‘crime’ than thinking differently and wanting a better country. And some of them were, indeed, captured soldiers of the FARC-EP. I looked in the eyes of these women and talked to them and laughed with them and danced with them. These were women who had had enough of seeing their loved ones killed and their own lives threatened and who had come to a point where they were ready to fight back. A few took up arms. Others simply began to organize unions or demonstrations and other mobilizations for social change.

The women prisoners, or presas, joked with us, asked us how we liked “being surrounded by all these dangerous women?” I liked it a lot. And next time I come, I’m going to learn to dance. That’s what my trip to Colombia