A Letter from Colombian Political Prisoners

More than 7500 political prisoners of war in Colombia have a long history of struggle and resistance inside the prison walls. We are a product of the social and armed conflict that rages in our country, between the putrid oligarchy who wages war to protect the interests of the exploiting class, and the diverse social sectors (students, workers, peasants, natives and insurgents) who struggle for emancipation. Because we want to be free, we are victims of assassinations, disappearances, displacement, and mass arrests.

A counter-insurgency plan – dubbed Plan Colombia – designed by the CIA and DEA, make extradition a weapon used to dismantle and uproot freedom fighters. The most vile frame-ups have been used against freedom fighters like, SIMON, SONIA, IVAN. They have already been tried by North American courts. Three other comrades, NELSON , EFRAÍN Y ÁLVARO, have been summoned by the Imperial North, in spite of the Colombian Constitution and international treaties that stipulate that no national can be extradited for political crimes.

Prisoners are held in maximum security penitentiaries in Colombia built with money provided by Plan Colombia and directed by the USA’s Prisoner Bureau. These prisons are veritable concentration camps where we feel we have been extradited, since each prison is like a piece of the Empire on our own territory.

Despite the on-going repression, we, the political prisoners, have managed to develop our political and organizing work with the help of social sectors on the outside who denounce the injustices of what we live through on the inside. From our jail cells, we continue to struggle for another world which is possible.

Collective of political prisoners of Palo Gordo penitentiary Giron
Santander North Colombia

Check out the Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie
(www.pasc.ca) for more information.