The following article by James Jordan is from Fight Back! News:
Alliance for Global Justice volunteer, Raquel Mogollón, was in attendance at the trial of political prisoner Liliany Obando Aug. 4 in Bogotá, Colombia. Based on her eyewitness report, the hearing revealed manipulation of evidence behind the charges being brought against Obando.
The following article by Angela Denio is from Fight Back! News:
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. Continue reading
James Jordan speaking in Haiti. (Fight Back! News)
The following article by Tom Burke is from Fight Back! News:
The U.S. government is stepping up its surveillance and harassment of U.S. activists in an attempt to intimidate them and dampen their spirits for the change we believe in. International solidarity activist James Jordan was returning from a two week trip to Haiti, on Jan. 7, five days prior to the terrible earthquake disaster. When his flight touched down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, flight attendants called out for “James Patrick Jordan” and asked him to come to the front of the airplane. Homeland Security came on board the airplane to escort him off.
Posted in Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Colombia, Haiti, Imperialism
Tagged Alliance for Global Justice, Bruce Nestor, Campaign for Labor Rights, Chuck Kaufman, Colombia, ELN, FARC, FENSUAGRO, Fight Back!, Haiti, Homeland Security, James Jordan, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Liliana Obando, National Lawyers Guild, political prisoners, repression, School of the Americas, surveillance, Tom Burke, U.S. Bureau of Prisons
The following commentary by James Jordan is from Fight Back! News:
Bogotá, Colombia – Liliany Obando is powerful. She is one thousands of Colombian political prisoners. For a year now, I have known Liliany through letters. We finally met face-to-face on three occasions, during a delegation sponsored by the U.S.-based Campaign for Labor Rights and the Colombia Action Network. I represented the International Network in Solidarity with Colombia’s Political Prisoners.
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.
Angela Denio in the Colombian countryside
The following article is from Fight Back! News:
Colombia: Eyewitness report from solidarity delegation
By Angela Denio
In August, a delegation of U.S. students, trade unionists and anti-war activists traveled to Colombia to meet with leaders in the struggle there. The Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights, two grassroots organizations here in the United States fighting against U.S. intervention in Colombia, hosted the trip.
“I knew what I heard in the U.S. media about the benefits of U.S. tax money and aid to Colombia was true only for the rich. I wanted to see for myself what the reality is for Colombians,” said Jeremy Miller, a member of the Colombian Action Network when explaining his decision to go on the delegation. Members of the Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights arranged meetings with peasant, indigenous and student groups, as well as with political leaders, unions, political prisoners and families of Colombians killed or imprisoned by the government.
Posted in Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Colombia, Imperialism, Labor Movement
Tagged Angela Denio, Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Campaign for Labor Rights, Colombia, Colombia Action Network, death squads, FENSUAGRO, Jeremy Miller, Labor Movement, Sarah Buchner, solidarity, Students for a Democratic Society, Trade Unions
The following article is from the Fight Back! News Service:
Podcasts from the SOA protestCharla Schlueter Kosta Harlan Meredith Aby Angela Denio Doug Michel |
Columbus, GA – Over 20,000 people from across the country flooded Fort Benning on the Nov. 22-23 weekend, calling for the School of the Americas (SOA), a U.S. military training institute that trains Latin American soldiers in ‘counter-insurgency’ techniques, to be shut down. During the vigil to honor the memory of the thousands of men, women and children that have been tortured, kidnapped and murdered by SOA graduates, six people, in an act of civil disobedience, crossed onto the military base and were arrested. They face up to six months in federal prison for taking action to close down the SOA – the ‘School of Assassins.’
Throughout the weekend, groups that organize in solidarity with Colombia emphasized the need for people in the U.S. to take action to stop the U.S. government’s support for war and repression in Colombia.
Colombia is particularly affected by both the SOA and U.S. foreign policy. Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country. Under aid packages such as Plan Colombia, Colombia receives billions of dollars from the United States. It is no coincidence that Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere, with over 40 Colombian trade unionists killed this year alone. Continue reading
Posted in Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Colombia, FRSO, Ricardo Palmera
Tagged Angela Denio, Charla Schlueter, Colombia Action Network, Doug Michel, FARC-EP, FENSUAGRO, FRSO, Kosta Harlan, Latin America, Liliana Obando, Meredith Aby, podcasts, School of the Americas, sds, Students for a Democratic Society
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter from Liliany (Lily) Obando who is a Colombian trade union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and agricultural workers federation in Colombia. She writes academic papers and makes documentary films about the struggles of Colombian campesinos. On Aug. 8, Lily was arrested and imprisoned by the ‘anti-terrorism unit’ of the Colombian National Police. She has been charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities.” Her story is tragically familiar in a country where thousands of trade unionists have been threatened, arrested or killed by the U.S.-backed Colombian government. The following letter will be read from the stage and at the Fight Back! forum on Colombia at the School of the Americas demonstration in Fort Benning, Georgia Nov 21-23 by speakers for the Colombia Action Network.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following announcement for a forum that will take place at the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning, Georgia on Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m., in the Convention Center, Room 213. Click here for PDF flyer for the event.
Click the above image for full-size PDF of flyer.
Year after year, U.S. military and economic aid helps support a corrupt, narco-trafficking government that rules through repression and fear. Despite death threats, kidnappings and intimidation, a broad mass movement is organizing for justice and equality. Come hear from activists who traveled to Colombia and met with students, trade unionists and peasants organizing for peace and justice.
Kosta Harlan of Fight Back! newspaper will moderate. Meredith Aby of the Colombia Action Network will discuss the indigenous highway protests and the peasants and workers’ movement. Aby will also discuss the imprisonment of Lily Obando from the peasants union FENSUAGRO. Angela Denio of National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera will speak about Mr. Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. government. Doug Michel of Students for a Democratic Society will talk about meeting with the student movement in Colombia, the need for solidarity and bringing political exile Imelda Daza-Cotes on a speaking tour in the United States.
This is an open letter written by Colombian political prisoner Liliana Obando. For more info on the campaign for her freedom, see the Colombia Action Network website and the other articles about Liliana Obando on this website.
Open letter by Liliana Obando
A new witch-hunt against the Political Opposition in Colombia
Women’s Prison, Bogotá, Colombia. September 3, 2008
As at no other time in the life of the nation, the loss of credibility of public institutions now has a direct correlation with the mafia style of governance.
Para-politics is the crime of bribery that favoured Uribe’s re-election; it is the links between government officials, the district attorney office and State security with the cartels of the paramilitary mafia; the failed “process” of demobilization of the paramilitaries and the strange extradition of paramilitary bosses closing off the possibility of knowing the truth demanded by their victims; the repeated attempts of the government to undermine the autonomy and the independence of the justice system particularly, the Supreme Court of Justice; the politicization of the office of the Attorney General in favour of the government; the military incursions outside the national territory and the unfortunate diplomatic handling of matters with the progressive governments of the region. These are just some elements that provide evidence of the lack of governability in the country and call into question the existence of real democracy. Continue reading
The following article is from Colombia Journal.
Liliana Obando
On August 8, 2008, film-maker, academic, unionist and women’s rights proponent Liliana Patricia Obando Villota was arrested and detained by a special wing of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Colombian National Police and the Criminal Investigation Directorate (DINJIN) under the direction of the National Prosecutors Office. She has been charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities.” The primary grounds for Obando’s incarceration is that she allegedly worked to obtain funding earmarked for Colombia’s largest rural-based labor organization FENSUAGRO, but instead delivered the collected finances to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—an armed movement listed as a foreign terrorist organization in the United States, Canada and the European Union. The accusations against Obando are suspect due to the fact that no material evidence has been found to support the charge.
The only “proof” presented by the State against Obando is purely speculative as it was retrieved from FARC computers captured following an illegal air-raid and ground assault against an insurgent encampment on March 1, 2008 in Ecuador. Interpol confirmed that the Colombian State’s Anti-Terrorism Unit manipulated tens of thousands of files from these seized FARC-EP databases. Continue reading
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