Colombia

[blindpig]

FARC reiterates its committment to Peace

The 4th of this winter month reminds us of our Commander Alfonso Cano, sacrificed on a day like today six years ago.

At that time, efforts were progressing at an accelerated pace to enter into a formal peace dialogue with the national government, despite which -and as he himself announced several times- the adversary decided to throw his corpse on the table in an unnecessary gesture of arrogance.

Five years later, as proof of the absurdity of the order to take his life, the FARC signed the Final Peace Agreement at the Colón Theater, precisely with the same President Juan Manuel Santos, in a gesture that filled the country with hope. The applause of the international community was unanimous. Colombia became an example for the world. Fire and death had been replaced by civilized formulas of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Just a few days later, the Congress of the Republic, in a gesture that gave it honour, endorsed by an overwhelming majority what was agreed in accordance with the provisions of the previous ruling of the Constitutional Court. For the first time in the last sixty years, Colombians have felt a happy Christmas coming and a new year that promised prosperity for all.

Since then, almost a year has gone by in which the guerrilla put all its efforts to honour its word. Today we are a legal political party, which completely left weapons aside and is preparing for its first participation in electoral politics. Thirty of our former guerrillas have been killed by bullets, as have several of their relatives, in a wave of violence that is already accounting for more than 150 social leaders killed in the last two years.

Our willingness aims to full compliance with what has been signed: we are convinced that Colombia deserves this opportunity. We are aware of the difficulties of various nature that the national government is going through, which have complicated, more than worryingly, the implementation of important issues such as the special circumscriptions, our political participation and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, among many other issues.

Everyone is aware of the existence of economic and political sectors that are totally opposed to the effective achievement of peace in our country. History will finally put them in their place. But there is also another accumulation of forces that refuses to continue living in that old nation marked by hatred and fear. It is to this side of the nation that we direct our call. A large part of this patriotic mission resides in the Congress of the Republic, in high government and in the Courts.

Strikes and peasant and indigenous mobilisations put forward the insistence of the forgotten country for the urgency of implementing the Havana Agreements, generating an environment of economic and social instability. The reincorporated guerrillas themselves are surrounded by material and legal insecurities that warn of future complications. Unaddressed social injustice overwhelms and moves to nonconformity and protest. Timely implementation would put an end to so much anguish.

Days and weeks of momentous decisions that can elevate Colombia to a higher level are coming, in which agreement and progress will replace uncertainty and frustration. We cannot remain impassive before such a perspective. Churches, trade unions, social and popular organisations, students, women's organisations, academics, youth, political parties that dream of a different country, common people, we all have to pronounce ourselves.

The only truly true formula that will open the door to a better future for all is the implementation of the Havana Agreements. It sets out on the road to the solution of grave social defects, initiates the democratisation of political life, guarantees justice to the victims, incorporates the historically excluded into national life, closes the doors to crime and opens the way to life and liberties. Colombia cannot afford silence.

The People’s Revolutionary Alternative Force, FARC, calls upon all living forces of the country to express peacefully but forcefully their will for peace.

Streets, squares, work and study centres, parks, temples, theaters, forums, every possible scenario must be used to save the homeland and future generations.

Let’s gather, march, raise our voices and encouragement to prevent the horror from overtaking Colombia again.

National Political Council
People’s Revolutionary Alternative Force

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc ... peace.html

Italics added

somehow it seems they've gotten something backwards. If they got the kind of support that this tocsin demands they should just call a general strike and be done with the whole shootin' match. But then, if they had that support they wouldn't have to sue for peace. Not good.

[Dhalgren]

how can one negotiate with these beasts?

Simple answer is, you can't.

[blindpig]

Two men waving at police car. Photo Credit: Juan Pablo Rueda Bustamante / El Tiempo

100,000 indigenous people join national strike and the repression continues

Posted Nov 03, 2017 by Eds.

Originally published: The Dawn News by Consejo Regional Indigena del Cauca -CRIC (October 30, 2017)

Colombia is in an environment of almost permanent mobilization of social and political movements due to the government’s failure to follow through on the agreements it has made in different spaces of negotiation, its continued campaign of violence against members of social movements, and its silence in the face of renewed paramilitary violence in the territories of Colombia.

The social movement Marcha Patriotica has been mobilizing in a national strike for the last 9 days in key regions like Cauca and Catatumbo and up until now has received no firm response or show of will from the National Government. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia entered into a Minga of Resistance on monday October 30, 2017 and reported that there are over 100,000 indigenous people mobilized across the country. Below is a communique from the organization reporting its motives for the mobilization.

At the same time, the repression from the National Government has only increased. Every day more social leaders and demobilized members of the FARC are assassinated and the organizations involved in the mobilizations have reported constant attacks and intimidation from the law force and its repressive anti-riot squad -ESMAD-. Despite the repression, the organizations maintain their mobilizations in the streets and continue to demand that the National Government follow through on its agreements.

Indigenous Organizations Begin Minga of Resistance
Beginning on October 30, 2017, more than 100 thousand indigenous people from Cauca, Huila, Valle del Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, Tolima and the Association of Community Councils from the North of Cauca –ACONC– will rise up with dignity to demand respect for the territory and fulfillment of the agreements.

The indigenous people and authorities, have called a meeting with the National Government lead by President Juan Manuel Santos on November 1 of the current year, in the sector Monterilla, in the Caldono Reservation, Sa’th Tama Kiwe territory so keep their word with the indigenous movement of Cauca, with other indigenous regions, and social sectors like the afro descendants of the country. It is evident that in the indigenous, afro descendant and peasant territories they are in a critical situation due to the high level of infringement on collective and human rights of the communities in the territories.

The selective assassinations, threats, and persecution to the traditional authorities, leaders, indigenous organizations and social sectors, do not stop in the territories by paramilitary groups like “Aguilas Negras” (Black Hawks). On October 26, 2017 a pamphlet began to circulate on social media that directly accuses indigenous leaders of Cauca of being part of the guerrilla or the dissenting faction of the FARC. The death threats are directed towards AIDA QUILCUÉ VIVAS of the indigenous movement of Cauca that is currently representing CRIC as the human rights representative in the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia -ONIC-, FELICIANO VALENCIA indigenous nasa leader from the north of Cauca, ALVEIRO CAMAÑO indigenous leader of Cauca, FABIÁN MULCUÉ indigenous leader of Cauca, HERMES PETE traditional authority of the Belalcazar reservation, in Páez municipality, Cauca who suffered an assassination attempt on October 13, 2017. In the pamphlet they are all declared military targets for the sole reason of defending the fundamental rights of the indigenous people of Cauca and Colombia.

Due to these terrible incidents the indigenous community will be demanding that the National Government provide guarantees for the protection of indigenous authorities and leaders, like essential mechanisms of protection to people that are in a situation of physical and cultural extermination as it is mentioned in the Auto 004 Plan of Protection.

The mandate of the XV Congress of the CRIC held in Rioblanco, Sotará in June of this year, the indigenous communities and people declared that “we do not want more agreements, it’s time for them to be fulfilled” and in the Board of Directors meeting of CRIC held on October 2 and 3 of this year, the 125 authorities ratified the decision, and that is why we are mobilizing in an indefinite way along with other indigenous regions and afro descendant communities in the country so that the National Government keeps its word with concrete actions in the territories.

In the Resistance Minga for the territory, dignity and the fulfilling of the agreements, we will come together as men, women, students, youth, elderly, indigenous security, sons and daughters of the earth, everyone and each one with a stick (the traditional and symbolic tool of the autonomous indigenous security, guardia indigena) and the red and green flag, with pain and anger for our fallen comrades taken by the hands of the government for the sole reason of defending our land, our platform of struggle and the principles of unity, land, culture and autonomy. We are coming together to defend life, mother earth and every being that inhabits this earth.

We sing songs, chants, we will dance showing that in our communities there is no more fear and that the love for life, is what brings us together today in the struggle and resistance. From today Sunday October 29 of this year, the indigenous people, communities and authorities, will be traversing roads and highways to come together in the minga that started October 30 in Southwest Colombia.

Tomorrow there will be a press conference from 8:30 in the central offices of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca -CRIC- where the Senior Council of CRIC will speak about the reasons behind these days of mobilization and demands of following through of the agreements by the National Government.

We call on you to participate in this great Minga of Resistance for the territory, dignity and fulfillment of the agreements. Lets join together in one voice, one song of dignity.

https://mronline.org/2017/11/03/100000- ... continues/

[blindpig]

Former guerrilla threatened to death

Another case of harassment and threats against former guerrillas has been reported.

The Red de Comunicadores Populares del Sur has denounced threatens to kill former guerrilla Ramiro Durán, spokesman for the political party People’s Alternative Revolutionary Force in Huila.

The army was allegedly responsible for the threats made when Ramiro participated in a meeting with the community of Piedra Pintada, Vegalarga, rural area of eastern Neiva.

According to the first reports, men of the National Army broke into the meeting, attended by over 70 people from the region, many of them accompanied by their minor children.

According to the complaint of the ex-combatants, the meeting began around 9:00 a.m. today, on Monday, November 7, when the National Army troops entered pointing their guns at all the attendees.

"The order is to kill him [Ramiro] because he is a dissent" was the justification that a corporal of the National Army gave to the delegation of former FARC guerrillas.

The documents of Ramiro Durán and his entire security scheme were withheld. The community surrounded the former guerrilla and took him to a local house.

People were expecting the arrival of the institutions is expected that would guarantee the return of the former guerrilla to Neiva.

It is to underline, says former guerrillas that the delegation that carries out the tasks of pedagogy for peace had indeed informed the National Police about their displacement to the area and the development of the meeting.

http://farc-epeace.org/background/item/ ... death.html

[blindpig]

Political prisoners attacked in La Picota prison

Legal Brigade Eduardo Umaña Mendoza filed a complaint with Brigadier General Jorge Luis Ramírez Aragón, Director General of the National Penitentiary and Prison Service - INPEC - against the Prisoner of La Picota and the Guard of INPEC for the events of Friday 10 November.

Dozens of political prisoners were injured after an assault by guards who had searched the cells in the early hours of the morning.

Uldarico Flores, Director of the Brigade, after an emergency visit to the jail, said: "Political prisoners at Patio 4 told us they were brutally assaulted, beaten by guards. The result of the action was over 70 wounded, punished and isolated by various prisoners, in addition to the destruction of their belongings. "

In the complaint, the Legal Brigade underlines that aggressions such as this violate the Constitution as well as the human rights of the people.
The FATC political prisoners have said that guards have destroyed medicines for sick prisoners, in addition to personal belongings.
A working table to establish responsibility and clarify the dynamics of the attack will be organized by the Brigade, which also stated that it will denounce the event to the peace-keeping nations and the UN.

http://farc-epeace.org/processo-di-pace ... icota.html

Google Translator

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[blindpig]

Simon Trinidad, a Trophy by way of extradition

“You never abandon your comrades”
Fidel Castro

By: Liliany Obando[1], [2]
Translated by: Marie France Arismendi - LACASA
Colombia, October 28th, 2017

Based on the case of extradition to the United States of rebel leader RICARDO OVIDIO PALMERA PINEDA- his birth name- also known as SIMON TRINIDAD within the insurgent movement and member of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army - FARC-EP, we wish to present an overview of the many dimensions of the practice of extradition as a tool used under the logic of the enemy’s criminal law, used against national sovereignty and to persecute political opponents.

As activists and human rights defenders many of us have denounced and rejected this practice because we think it violates human and political rights and goes against the free self-determination of peoples.



• Extradition: a tool of the ruling powers

Extradition is a feature of institutional criminal law. It’s a mechanism of judicial cooperation subscribed or agreed to between states, under which “a competent state asks another state to surrender an individual, accused or convicted, who finds him/herself on its territory, with the purpose of criminally prosecuting said individual …”[3]

But extradition is also clearly an instrument of power by which the dominant country imposes its will over the subordinate one. This is shown in the lack of reciprocity between the petitioning country, e.g. the one actively exercising extradition and the country that surrenders its citizens in a mere passive way.[4]

This is what usually happens with the Colombian extradition treaty- the United States is the country to which the majority of Colombian citizens are being extradited to, but there is no reciprocity of practice with our country when United States citizens commit crimes on our soil.

This situation is what makes it even more difficult to resort to instruments like humanitarian law or other types of repatriation for our citizens, because it has to be done at the request of the Colombian state who is the entity that authorizes extradition of our compatriots and therefore should be the one to ask for their repatriation.

For repatriation to be possible it is important to, first, make people aware that extradition goes against national sovereignty; then you have to convince civil society organizations, human rights defenders, friends and family members of the extradited individuals to actively pressure the government and to demand that they be judged, if need be, in their own country.

One of the conditions provided by the extradition treaties, by international human rights law and by our own political charter and criminal law is that individuals accused or convicted of political offences (rebellion, sedition, and uprising) and other related crimes cannot be submitted to a process of extradition. However, the Colombian state is using very dubious agreements with the United States and a series of illegal judicial methods to, on more than one occasion, extradite to the United States individuals that have been investigated or sentenced for political crimes.

A feature of judicial cooperation, extradition is in fact exercised as a political tool that is not neutral and offers no guarantees. On the contrary, it has been turned into a weapon of political persecution, of judicial incompetence, of rights violation and impunity toward the victims. In Colombia, extradition is used against the political opposition as a persecution tool in the perverse logic of the enemy’s penal legal system.

American lawyer Mark Burton who has assisted Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad during his sentencing phase, sustains the following:

“There is a clause in the extradition treaty… it says that extradition is prohibited in political cases… but many of the cases that are sent (to the United States) are political.” [5]



Shamefully, it has also occurred that the insistence on extraditing our citizens to the United States has been more the product of scheming and pressure on the part of some Colombian authority than a petition from the Northern country. This is the case that we wish to deal with in this paper: the fabrication of the extradition to the United States and later conviction to 60 years in jail, on trumped up charges, of Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda -Simon Trinidad.

• Extradition: a weapon of political persecution

One of the conditions provided by the extradition treaties, by international human rights law and by our own political charter and criminal law is that individuals accused or convicted of political offences (rebellion, sedition, and uprising) and other related crimes cannot be submitted to a process of extradition. However, the Colombian state is using very dubious agreements with the United States and a series of illegal judicial methods to, on more than one occasion, extradite to the United States individuals that have been investigated or sentenced for political crimes.
A feature of judicial cooperation, extradition is in fact exercised as a political tool that is not neutral and offers no guarantees. On the contrary, it has been turned into a weapon of political persecution, of judicial incompetence, of rights violation and impunity toward the victims. In Colombia, extradition is used against the political opposition as a persecution tool in the perverse logic of the enemy’s penal legal system.
American lawyer Mark Burton who has assisted Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad during his sentencing phase, sustains the following:
“There is a clause in the extradition treaty… it says that extradition is prohibited in political cases… but many of the cases that are sent (to the United States) are political.” [5]

• Extradition violates victims’ rights

The extradition of compatriots is also used as a mechanism to silence the voice of the extradited person and it gravely harms the right of victims to seek the truth, justice, reparations and non-repetition. A case in point was the extradition to the United States of paramilitary leaders during the Uribe government, so that the truth they knew was never going to be revealed to their victims or to the country in general.

simon 2

Also, extradition is a power tool that is not reciprocal, as we can see with the so-called “diplomatic immunity” in which a servile state like Colombia concedes to countries like the United States, and to its citizens, especially its military and contractors (mercenaries) who are also performing military tasks- and operate on Colombian soil what is tantamount to complete immunity even if they have committed all kinds of violations against the civilian population without any repercussion.

American lawyer Burton confirms this:
“… There is total impunity because Colombia has signed a treaty (in which) American soldiers are kept out of Colombian jurisdiction… even if they’re committing crimes… They justify this saying… that the American soldiers need to be free to perform their war duties…” [6]

• Extradition does not guarantee the human and legal rights of Colombians

The legal instrument of extradition, once adapted to the standards of international justice and of each country, must guarantee to the individuals subjected to it some sine qua non conditions such as: the petitioning state must have jurisdiction in order to ask for the extradition of a person and give evidence that the alleged crime was committed on its soil; Double indictment which requires that the offence for which the person is being extradited be established in the legal framework of both states; non bis in idem principle which guarantees that the person will not be judged twice for the same offence; The minimum standard of the offence, which prohibits extradition for minor offences; The nature of the offence which clearly provides that extradition cannot be granted for political or related offences; The respect for due process ; The validity of the petition; Respect for the dignity and human rights of the person; and the right to not be sentenced to penalties greater than those provided by the Criminal Code of Colombia.[7]

But in many cases of Colombians who are extradited to other countries, these conditions are far from being met, as in the case of Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad.

The conditions of his extradition do not meet these standards nor do they meet the international legal norms of human rights, or the minimum international norms for the treatment of detainees, and they do not even meet the standards of Colombian criminal law or its political charter.

The case of Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda – Simón Trinidad

The civilian life of Ricardo Palmera
Ricardo Palmera was born in a wealthy family in the city of Valledupar, Cesar, in northern Colombia. As a result, he was able to attend university and graduated as an economist. He was a university professor and a bank manager, leading an ordinary life as a married man with children.

But the turmoil of Colombian political life and the difficult conditions in which the majority of the people were living soon moved the sensitivity of a humanist like Ricardo Palmera who thus started his political involvement, first in center left organizations such as Causa Comun and then with the Union Patriotica

Simon Trinidad the insurgent
A wave of threats, persecution and assassinations soon swept over the fledgling Union Patriotica and this harsh reality moved Ricardo Palmera to take up arms, exercising his right to rebel, which is a crime in Colombia, and get involved with the FARC-EP guerrilla. That is when he adopted the nom de guerre of Simon Trinidad.

During his life as an insurgent, Simon Trinidad stood out as a political leader, an ideologue more than a military man. He never held a position in the high command of the FARC-EP, known as the Secretariat, nor in the Central Chiefs of Staff committee. However, because of his political skills, he became a member of the negotiating team during the peace process of El Caguán, between the above guerrilla and the government of Andres Pastrana Arango (1998 – 2000).

The capture
It transpired that at the beginning of 2004, while performing a task for his organization, Simon Trinidad found himself in Quito, Ecuador, to make a high level contact with the United Nations which could have facilitated a humanitarian exchange of prisoners, some under the control of FARC-EP and others who were jailed by the Colombian state.

It was there that American and Colombian intelligence agents captured Simon Trinidad in a coordinated operation. He was then deported to Colombia by the Ecuadorean government

The ruling government of Alvaro Uribe Velez, who was behind the capture of Ricardo Palmera-Simon Trinidad, immediately asked for his extradition to the United States. But due to the absence of charges against him by the American government- he had never committed any criminal act on American soil- and due to the lack of compliance with several of the conditions required by an extradition treaty, e.g.: jurisdiction, double indictment, nature of the offence, due process and validity of the petition, the American government abstained at first from requesting his extradition.

This situation was revealed in one of the famous cables disclosed by WikiLeaks where the American ambassador to Colombia at the time, William Wood, affirms:
“High ranking officials from the Colombian government, including president Uribe, have asked the United States to consider requesting the extradition of Palmera.

Obviously, they prefer seeing him locked up in an American jail rather than prosecuted in the unreliable Colombian justice system. The request has a note of urgency on their part. However, Palmera does not face any criminal charges in the United States at the moment. The embassy is not aware of any pending investigation against this well-known narcoterrorist by official agencies in the US.[8]
Due to this first obstacle, Ricardo Palmera spent the first part of 2004 in a Colombian jail while the Uribe government, with the cooperation of then Attorney General Camilo Osorio, fabricated a false case of drug trafficking against Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad in order to remove him from the domain of political “offender”.

This is how in November of the same year, the Supreme Court of Justice approved his extradition and immediately after Uribe’s presidential sanction, he was finally extradited to the United States on December 31st of 2004.

The trials against Simón Trinidad in Colombia and the United States
In the United States, Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad faced several trials with the assistance of the state appointed lawyer Robert Tucker since he could not even count with the help of a trusted lawyer, a violation of due process.

Four of these trials were for drug trafficking charges and there were others where they could not present any evidence and he was acquitted.

Afterwards he had to face new trumped up trials, with unreliable witnesses and testimonies of deserters they brought from Colombia. They made up new charges, such as conspiracy to take hostages, for which he was finally convicted and sentenced to 60 years in jail. They made him responsible for the alleged kidnapping of the three military contractors or American mercenaries, Thomas Howes, Keith Standell and Marc Gonsalves, employees of Northrop Grumman[9] ,the third most important military defense contractor in the US, who at the time worked for the Pentagon.

These contractors were indeed detained by the FARC-EP after their plane crashed while engaged in aerial intelligence gathering over the Caquetá region, which was under FARC control in the year 2003. But Simon Trinidad never operated in that area and never had any responsibility in this event. They made him responsible by invoking the so-called chain of command and argued that Trinidad was part of the Central Chiefs of Staff and its maximum governing entity, the Secretariat, which was not true either.

According to lawyer Burton:
“He faced four trials and… several charges, in one trial he had five charges and in the other, three or four…but he was convicted on only one charge: CONSPIRACY, and here in the United States this charge is wide-ranging and it is well known to be often used by the government to involve people in crimes, offences… The evidence I have seen against him was not strong… it was weak… It is very unjust because they brought witnesses of doubtful honesty from Colombia, who had deserted from the insurgency in order to lie or say things that were not true during his trial…”[10]

In Colombia, the legal persecution against Ricardo Palmera-Simon Trinidad has also been considerable. He is facing several charges[11]. According to the lawyer who advises the FARC, Diego Martinez, there are more than 170 legal cases against him, which could not follow their legal course because, among other things, Palmera was only allowed to appear at a few hearings, in a virtual manner, from the ADX jail in Florence where he is being held.

On October 24th, 2017, a commission composed of Colombian officials and parliamentarians visited Simon Trinidad at the US prison so that he could voluntarily sign a document requesting to be included in the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz - JEP [12], which was created within the framework of the Havana peace process between the FARC-EP guerrilla and the Colombian government, so that he could close the cases that are pending against him in Colombia.

In the meantime, Ricardo Palmera-Simon Trinidad continues to be detained at the ADX prison in Florence, Colorado, serving his unjust sentence, which, given his age, is becoming a life sentence, hoping that other legal, political and humanitarian alternatives might succeed in getting him repatriated to Colombia.

Detention conditions at ADX Florence, Colorado
The ADX prison, located in the desert of Florence, Colorado, is one of the jails where there is the least respect for international norms of dignity and respect for human rights toward the detainees. It is also known as the “supermax” for its harsh conditions and there is where Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad is being held captive

Of the 13 years that Ricardo Palmera has spent at this prison, 11 have been in solitary confinement, which is a serious violation of his human rights, given the effects that such a prolonged confinement can have of the mental and emotional health of a person.

On this issue, lawyer Burton said [13]:
“…He is subjected to infrahuman conditions… He’s been alone for almost 11 years… international norms state that a person should not be in solitary confinement for more than 60 days because this harms the mind and the soul of a person. Many people go [crazy]… with many psychological problems…”

Aside from being denied contact with any other person during this first long period of detention, Simon was confined in a wing with other prisoners who were deemed to be very dangerous.

He was denied access to books or newspapers; he was denied the right to learn English, the language of the country holding him captive; he cannot watch television; they took away his glasses; he was denied proper medical and dental care; he did not have access to his files in order to prepare his defense in the cases pending against him in Colombia; one of his Colombian lawyers, Ramiro Orjuela, was denied a visa to go visit him in the US; he could not see the sun and therefore never knew whether it was day or night; he was heavily shackled every time he had to be taken to some procedure within the prison, or to one of the scarce virtual hearings he was allowed to attend; they even confiscated some cards he used to play solitaire, etc.,

“In May 2013, ADX Florence was ranked #1 as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States, in the opinion of Mother Jones magazine”, says Wikipedia.

At one of those hearings which was video recorded, the world was able to see the extreme security and confinement measures [14] that Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad must suffer in the “supermax”, the maximum security prison where he is held. In the video, you can see how he is shackled from the waist, feet and hands and they put a high voltage electrical device on one of his legs for maximum restraint.

Simon Trinidad [15] denounced this in a message to one of the judges in the city of Neiva in Colombia:
“I am not guaranteed the right to defend myself. I am not allowed to send documents to my lawyer or to the judges in Colombia where I have to prove my innocence; my comrades have to denounce this before the government delegation in Havana. They don’t even allow me to talk to the CICR.”

During the peace talks in Havana, his comrades in the cause, the FARC-EP, intensified private initiatives, with the knowledge of the Colombian government, in order to obtain the repatriation of Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad. For that purpose, they also named him, at the outset, as one of the spokespersons of the FARC-EP peace delegation at the negotiating table, but in vain; toward the end of the Obama administration it was hoped that he would get a pardon, but this was also impossible; there were petitions to improve his detention conditions, according to international standards for the treatment of detainees. Until now, the only thing that has been gained in his favor is minimal changes in his detention conditions. On the other hand, the Colombian state, which is the main culprit in the unjust conviction of one of its nationals on American soil, is washing its hands and has not even remotely tried to obtain the repatriation of Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad.

¿Why a campaign for the liberation and repatriation of Ricardo Palmera – Simon Trinidad?

Simon is a trophy for the underground state that is the American intelligence services and for the Colombian government. They have tried to defeat and break him morally and through him they wanted to teach the then insurgent forces of the FARC-EP a lesson, but their attempt has failed. His life history, his commitment to struggle and resistance in spite of a long, twisted and unjust detention in an American prison make Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad a symbol of dignity and serenity for revolutionaries all over the world.

We can’t abandon him now.

We cannot allow him to die in an American prison. We just can’t! It is a moral imperative to seek his release and repatriation because in the words of Fidel Castro “You never abandon your comrades” [16].


There are other examples like the 5 Cuban heroes, of Oscar Lopez, the Porto Rican, of Angela Davis, Nelson Mandela, Mumia Abu-Jamal and others. They show us that solidarity and political pressure are crucial and that positive results can be obtained. We are in debt with Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad. He also deserves a grand national and international campaign that reflects his revolutionary stature.

Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad needs a multitude of people and organizations, at the national and international levels, to make an effort to use all strategies available in order to create greater international awareness in support of his cause and thus finally obtain his liberation and repatriation.

Simon is also the symbolic figure through whom we can make many other political prisoners visible, among them Sonia and Ivan Vargas and dozens of social prisoners who were torn from our soil under the hateful, anti-national extradition measure.

We need Ricardo Palmera -Simon Trinidad back in our country, free and able to contribute with his intelligence and commitment to the construction of a national peace, a complete peace.
Ricardo Palmera Pineda -Simon Trinidad, with your great example of dignity and resistance, you are not just a militant of the FARC, you are our own Mandela, the National Hero of a whole nation.

Notes:

[1] Paper presented at the “Seminario – Encuentro sobre la situación de los (as) presos políticos y sociales, derecho a la rebelión y política criminal”, Bucaramanga, Colombia, octubre 28 de 2017. Véase una primera versión de este documento: Obando Liliany. Los Dilemas de la extradición en Colombia, pgs. 128 – 140. En: La Extradición en Colombia. Instrumento Represivo y Mecanismo de Impunidad. Editores, Corporación Equipo Jurídico Pueblos. Campaña Por la Soberanía No a la Extradición. Colombia, Primera Edición, agosto de 2015, ISBN: 978-958-59108-0-5.
[2] Sociologist, human rights defender, member of the Campaña Simón Libertad, (Facebook: Simón Libertad).
[3] Sebastián Zuleta H. Colombia y la extradición: ¿quo vadis? Fundación Ideas para la Paz. Dossier No. 3/22 de diciembre de 2010. Bogotá, Colombia, p.1.
[4] Sebastián Zuleta. Colombia y la extradición… p.1.
[5] See: entrevista con Mark Burton http://www.inspp.org/news/political-pri ... ark-burton
[6] In: http://www.inspp.org/news/political-pri ... ark-burton
[7] See: Op. Cit. Sebastián Zuleta H. Colombia y la extradición: ¿quo vadis?...
[8] Wikileaks: http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2004/01/04BOGOTA85.html, first published and translated to Spanish by lawyer and political analyst Juan Carlos Vallejo in: Colombia: destapes del poder oligárquico en las notas de ANNCOL in: http://otramiradadelconflicto.wikispace ... allejo.pdf. For a well documented follow up of the Ricardo Palmera – Simón Trinidad case, see from same author: Apuntes sobre el caso de Simón Trinidad, in: http://guerrillaviaweb.blogspot.com.co/ ... d.html?m=1
[9] See: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman
[10] file:///C:/Users/Noel/Desktop/SIMÓN%20TRINIDAD%20UN%20TROFEO%20VÍA%20EXTRADICIÓN.docx" See: http://www.inspp.org/news/political-pri ... ark-burton

[11]In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2QugY5DLX
[12] In: http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/s ... paz/544823
[13] "http://www.inspp.org/news/political-pri ... entrevista HYPERLINK "http://www.inspp.org/news/political-pri ... ark-burton
[14] In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe4jdNLLpGU
[15] See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZioCjxYZKzQ
[16] Taken from an article by lawyer and political analyst Juan Carlos Vallejo, ¿Al hombre de hierro lo abandonaron?, febrero 28 de 2017, https://aun-persisten.blog/2017/02/28/a ... andonaron/

http://farc-epeace.org/background/item/ ... ition.html

like I been saying, ya just can't trust the bastards except to be sure that they are bastards.

[Dhalgren]

like I been saying, ya just can't trust the bastards except to be sure that they are bastards.

You can count on the imperialists to BE imperialists. This whole business makes no sense to me.

[blindpig]

like I been saying, ya just can't trust the bastards except to be sure that they are bastards.

You can count on the imperialists to BE imperialists. This whole business makes no sense to me.

I can only guess that they believed they have such support, especially as the 'peace party', that the Right would invite general revolt if it 'took advantage'. The Right and the government have shown little good faith, the peasantry and indigenous people have shown support but so far the urban centers have not. The petty booj are concentrated there and ain't no support from them, for general and particular reasons. It might be simply a very bad decision with a dash of idealism.

[blindpig]

Open Letter to the UN General Secretary

Bogotá, Colombia, 16 november 2017

Mr. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, New York, USA

Dear Mr. Secretary General:

I convey to you the affectionate greetings of our political party PEOPLE’S ALTERNATIVE REVOLUTIONARY FORCE, born following the development of the Havana Agreements, signed between the Colombian government and the former guerrilla movement of the FARC-EP, and near to the celebration of the first year from its Final signature at the Teatro Colón de Bogotá.

My purpose in personally addressing you, is to express not just our concern, but our highest alarm for the way the Colombian State is behaving as to the implementation of the agreements. As you are aware, Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, your Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs, has recently ended his visit to Colombia, where he was able to personally verify the State's non-compliance with the agreements.

In the act with which he closed his visit to our country, Mr. Feltman warned about the UN concern about three key issues, namely: the state of members of the FARC reincorporation, the security situation in the former areas of conflict and legal uncertainties for members of the FARC, as a result of delays in the approval of key legislation regarding political participation, as well as because judicial review in progress.

Surely Mr. Feltman will inform you in detail, so I will focus exclusively on the last concern expressed, since on the night before the end of his visit to Colombia, two things happened: the sentence C-17 of 2017 of the Constitutional Court (declaring the Legislative Act 001 of 2017 that created the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition), and approval by the Senate of the Republic of several articles of the statutory bill on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which as a whole constitute open violations of the Final Agreement, of which Mr. Feltman could not learned in depth, and which now I will explain in summary:

Although the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Colombia declares the aforementioned Integral System to be in accordance with the Constitution of the country, it adopts resolutions that modify in their essence key points of the Final Agreement:

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace was conceived and adopted in the Agreements, as a system of justice of an exceptional and transitory nature, by means of which not only the termination of the conflict was sought, but also the end of the impunity that has characterized the system of traditional justice in Colombia. That is why its absolute independence from ordinary justice was consecrated.

The aforementioned Court sentence eliminates such independence, and even subordinates the JEP to the decisions of constitutional and ordinary judges, in fact killing its essential character. Evidence of this can be seen in what has been decided in the matter of conflicts of jurisdiction, decisions of guardianships and disciplinary regime of the magistrates who are members of the Special Jurisdiction.

Regarding the National Constitution, the Havana Agreement accepted the constitutional right for the Presidents of the Republic, but now the Court extended that privilege to the trial of civilian State agents, that is, to ministers, congressmen, prosecutors, prosecutors, and governors, thus creating a body of untouchables by justice, among which are included the third parties responsible for serious crimes, who cannot be called to answer for their actions before the JEP.

It is thus clear that a jurisdiction that had for its object the prosecution of the most serious crimes committed by all those directly or indirectly involved in the conflict, was now reserved for the exclusive trial of FARC-EP former guerrillas, which evidences a manifest violation of what was agreed between the parties, showing furthermore the absolute disdain for the victims of the crimes attributable to those now protected by the Court.

While it is true that the ruling of the Court enables in general terms the political participation of former guerrillas, it introduces a series of conditionalities not provided for in the Final Agreement, whose failure to act in the fortuitous event, would result in the loss of special treatments, benefits, waivers, rights and guarantees, as the case may be.

It is advisable to warn that rights and guarantees, in any legal regime in the world, are born of constitutional and legal provisions, and therefore can not be eliminated except by rules of that category, in no case by judicial decisions. Extradition of FARC-EP former guerrillas was expressly prohibited by a Legislative Act declared enforceable and is therefore a right, a guarantee that can not be reversed eventually by the judges, as it was dangerously established between the lines in the Court's decision.

I would like to draw your attention, Secretary General, to the fact that through Legislative Act 02 of 2017, declared enforceable by the Constitutional Court itself, all the authorities and institutions of the State were obliged to faithfully comply with the content of the peace agreements, which amazingly is now ignored by the same Constitutional Court in its recent ruling.

Even more surprising in a negative sense, is what was voted by the Senate of the Republic on the night of November 15 on the matter of the statutory law on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.
It should be noted that the JEP is already part of the National Constitution by virtue of the legislative act 02 of 2017, declared enforceable by the aforementioned ruling of the Court.
What corresponds to the Colombian Congress is to issue the statutory law that regulates what he himself elevated to constitutional norm, in accordance with what was agreed in the Final Peace Agreement.

But abusing ostensibly of its mission, the Colombian Senate has proceeded to pervert what was approved in Havana and in the Legislative Act. In these, a procedure was contemplated for the selection of the judges that would integrate the JEP, for whose designation the international body of very high qualities that was integrated, had to take into account that the candidates fulfilled the same requirements to be magistrates of the Colombian high courts.

Having made the choice, and lacking only the formal take over of the chosen ones, the Colombian Senate introduced a series of inabilities and incompatibilities to be a JEP magistrate, such as the exclusion of those who in the exercise of their activity as human rights defenders have acted judicially against the State, which reveals the premeditated intention to prevent the take over of the majority of those appointed, in an act that only shows the intention that only the defenders of state impunity can be magistrates.

In the same way, concealed in the limited participation in politics of the former guerrillas of the FARC, the Senate approves that the politicians of the traditional parties condemned of links with paramilitary groups of assassins, will be able to aspire freely to political exercise and therefore to present themselves as candidates for public corporations and then take possession, in an infamous consecration of disconcerting impunity.

For physical issues of time, of the previous events, which took place in barely twenty-four hours in our country, your Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs did not manage to appear, despite his interest in recording the concerns of the UN for the way in which the Final Agreement is being implemented.

When we inform you directly of the seriousness of what happened, we invoke the intervention of the United Nations and its Security Council, in analogy to what Mr. Feltman expressed about our political participation:

"Failure to comply with this essential commitment, after the handing over of weapons, it would have very serious repercussions for the process and would not be understood or accepted by the international community."

Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry (Timoleón Jiménez)
President of the People’s Alternative Revolutionary Force

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/ne ... etary.html

First tragedy.....

[blindpig]

Open letter to the President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos
Written by Rodrigo Londoño



Open letter to the President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos
"Save the Peace." Open Letter from the president of the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common to the President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos.

Sir:

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS CALDERON

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

Palacio de Nariño, Bogotá.


Mr. President, I

send you a patriotic greeting, accompanied by the hope that the marvelous dream of peace for our country will finally be able to nest and spread throughout Colombia.

I will begin by referring to your words on the night of November 14. Before his vehement call to the Congress of the Republic, he said something completely true, "Caring for peace, building peace, consolidating peace, is the best inheritance we can leave to our children and to future generations." In that we agree fully.

I could even tell him that these others also impressed us, "As I said to Timochenko the first time I saw him: possibly I will never agree with his way of thinking but-if they leave their weapons and commit themselves to the truth and to the victims- It would make me kill so they can express their opinions freely in the forums of democracy. "

We are not going to ask you to offer your life as a guarantee of compliance with what was agreed in Havana and finally signed in Bogotá, it is not about that, Mr. President. But we do want to ask you to devote your attention to answering our alarms for what was presented with the Constitutional Court ruling and what was approved on the night of the 15th by the Senate of the Republic.

More than concerns, the members of the new party born to political life as a result of compliance with everything agreed in Havana, we are alarmed to a maximum degree, not only by the breaches by the State in multiple agreed upon matters, but above all because of the audacity with which different institutions have been acting in open contradiction with the Final Agreement, to the point of modifying it in essential aspects.

Proof of this are the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court and the vote taken in the Senate on the night of last 15, demonstrating an open will to impose its criteria, in a kind of extemporaneous and unilateral renegotiation of what much effort caused us to agree in five years of intense debates in the Table of Conversations.

Rather than stir up publicly in a letter, we are very interested in talking with you, Mr. President, personally, in the shortest time possible, in order to address the issues that deeply affect us and the effective consolidation of peace in the country. Someone said that fifty percent of what is done in the Mesa de Quito is the fulfillment of what was agreed with the FARC by the Colombian State. I do not think it is very wrong.

Allow me therefore to ask you, in the most respectful, but sincere way, to hold an urgent meeting that will allow us to find the formula to take care of, build and consolidate the peace that we sealed with so many difficulties in the Havana Agreements. Temporary winds blow over the Colombian peace process and we consider it urgent to find them reasonable departures.

Needless to say, you have my total disposition to travel to where you consider it necessary.

Sincerely,

RODRIGO LONDOÑO ECHEVERRY

President of the COMMON REVOLUTIONARY ALTERNATIVE FORCE (FARC)

http://www.farc-ep.co/comunicado/carta- ... antos.html

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