The Breaking Down the Walls Campaign and the Ties of Dignity Foundation send this URGENT ACTION so that the Colombian government will guarantee human dignity and the right to life, integrity and personal security of political prisoner NORBEY TRIVIÑO, according to the following:
BACKGROUND
1.On April 29, 2012, around noon, NORBEY TRIVIÑO, who is being held in Patio 7 of La Dorada (Caldas) Maximum Security Prison, was a victim of physical aggression with a weapon by other inmates, resulting in serious injuries.
2.The health status of the victim is unknown, as are the reasons for having a weapon in a maximum security facility.
WE HOLD THE COLOMBIAN STATE AND THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE
This aggressive act is the responsibility of the Colombian State, the head of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPEC), and the national government, for breaching international humanitarian law that requires all states to ensure political prisoners are held in special institutions (apart from the general prison population).
INPEC denies the existence of political prisoners, at the direction of the national government, which obligates them to be held alongside prisoners associated with paramilitarism and common crimes, demonstrating the absence of guarantees to protect the rights to life and personal security of political prisoners.
At the same time, the presence of arms inside prisons is forbidden and is the responsibility of INPEC, particularly in maximum security prisons, where prisoners’ rights are restricted. In this case, the application of restrictions was insufficient to protect the life and personal security of political prisoner NORBEY TRIVIÑO.
DEMANDS
1.The Colombian State must establish special institutions for the retention of political prisoners, according to the norms of humanitarian and human rights law.
2.The Public Defender and Attorney General of Colombia must urgently verify the state of health of political prisoner NORBEY TRIVIÑO and demand that INPEC guarantee his human dignity and rights to life, integrity and personal security.
3.Investigations must be undertaken to determine responsibility, and punish the prisoners responsible for the attack, as well as the guards that may have let it happen.
CALL TO SOLIDARITY
We ask all media, national and international human rights organizations, social movements and those in solidarity to spread this urgent action and support our demands by sending letters to the following Colombian authorities:
As you know Lilany Obando who visited Victoria twice has been released from prison. But she is still on trial & is in great danger. PLEASE READ THIS STATEMENT & THEN USE THE SAMPLE LETTER which follows (sent to us by a UK support group) AS A GUIDE TO WRITE YOUR OWN LETTER TO THE COLOMBIAN AMBASSADOR IN OTTAWA.
At 8.30pm on 1st March 2012, Liliany Obando, Colombian trade unionist, academic and human rights defender, was freed after being detained for more than 3 years and 6 months in Buen Pastor Prison, Bogota. Liliany had been held in “preventative detention” since 8th August 2008 falsely accused of“rebellion” on the basis of evidence ruled inadmissible in a separate case. Her legal process suffered severe delays incurred by the authorities and the Colombian legal period for pretrial detention expired in April last year. Ms. Obando’s legal team repeatedly filed for her release on this basis, and on 29th February 2012, the Superior Tribunal of Bogota finally upheld their appeal. Despite her release, the spurious legal case against Ms. Obando continues. Her security situation also remains of utmost concern, as she has received several threatening phone calls, has been under constant surveillance by unidentified men and continues to be branded a terrorist. In particular, an El Tiempo newspaper article on 1st March describes her as “Liliany Obando of the FARC”, an allegation which puts her life in grave danger. Twenty nine trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia in 2011 and six so far this year – help us make sure it does not happen again.
TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT LILIANY OBANDO, Colombian trade unionist and former political prisoner.
I am writing to ask for the urgent protection of Ms. Liliany Obando, Colombian academic, trade unionist and human rights defender and to an end to the false accusations against her.
Ms. Obando was detained for more than 3 years and 6 months in Buen Pastor Prison Bogota, without being convicted of any crime. On 1st March she was released from prison, however a spurious legal process continues and her security situation remains of utmost concern: she has received death threats,has been under constant surveillance by unidentified men and continues to be branded a terrorist. In particular, an El Tiempo newspaper article on 1st March describes her as “Liliany Obando of the FARC”, an allegation which puts her life in danger. Former political prisoners have been assassinated in recent years so I ask you to ensure she is protected urgently.
Colombia remains the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist, with 29 assassinated in 2011 and six so far this year. Your government claims to be committed to improving human rights. If this is so, at the very least the state must provide measures for Liliany and other human rights defenders and trade unionists whose lives are in danger. The Colombian authorities must also put an end to the false legal cases and imprisonment.
I look forward to progress in this matter,
Yours sincerely,
DEATH, CANADA, MINES & MEXICO
Written by Terry & Gerd
Monday, 19 March 2012 16:20
Local human rights activists reporting from Mexico We had hoped to meet community activists opposing the destruction of their community life and environment by a Canadian mining company. The activist we planned to meet, Bernardo Vasquez Sanchez, was killed last night, March 15, 2012, and his brother and cousin were wounded. This mine, locally called Trinidad, is operated by Minera Cuzcatlan, a subsidiary of Canadian Fortuna Silver mines. It is in San Jose el Progreso, in the Ocotlan Valley, south of Oaxaca For more information about this tragedy see:
According to this website, the mine achieved commercial production in September 2011. In 2011, the mine produced 490,555 ounces of silver and 4,622 ounces of gold. For 2012, San Jose is expected to produce 1.7 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold. The company has initiated plans to expand mine and processing plant treatment capacity and when completed, San Jose is expected to annually produce approximately 3.2 million ounces of silver, 25,000 ounces of gold, or 4.6 million silver equivalent ounces. Life of mine average cash operating cost, net of by-products, is estimated at US$7.84 per silver equivalent ounce. This is not the first death of a community activist opposed to the operation of this mine. Another community leader was killed & one injured in January, 2012. Globally, Canadian mining companies are accused of bribing local politicians and officials in order to operate without proper community consultation and without social or environmental concern. As a result, local activists are killed and injured, and many more are subjected to threats and beatings. Please write to express your concern and shock about these deaths and attempted deaths to: Ralph Rushton, Fortuna Silver Mines Corporate Office, Suite 650, 200 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 3L6. T: .604.484.4085 & to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Also to: The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway. Phone: (613) 995-0183 Fax: (613) 996-9795 E-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Please forward this call for urgent action to others who would respond as well.
Colombia trade unionist released on bail
Written by Carlos Flores
Monday, 19 March 2012 16:36
Victory! Colombian Political Prisoner Liliany Obando to Be Freed on Thursday, March 1st, after 3 1/2 Years of Incarceration on False Evidence
by James Jordan,
Alliance for Global Justice National Co-Coordinator
Liliany Obando outside prison gates
The International Network in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners (of which The Alliance for Global Justice is a co-founder) has just received the wonderful news that labor activist, human rights defender and Colombian Political Prisoner Liliany Obando will be released on bond tomorrow from the prison where she has been held for three years and seven months on charges of "Rebellion".
Liliany Obando was arrested August 8, 2008 while serving as the Human Rights Coordinator for FENSUAGRO, Colombia's largest organization of peasant farmers and farm workers unions and associations. She was apprehended while finishing a report about the more than 1,500 Fensuagro members who had been killed by Colombian military and paramilitary troops over its first 30 years of existence. She was detained on the basis of evidence allegedly obtained from computers that "miraculously" survived an attack against a FARC encampment across the border from the Colombian Department of Putumayo, in Ecuador. That camp was not a camp carrying out aggressions, but was involved in negotiations toward the release of FARC captives Ingrid Betancourt and three US citizens. The Uribe administration had learned that the camp had had back-channel talks with members of the US State Department. The attack, ordered by then-Defense Minister and current Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, was widely considered to be an attack on hopes for a peace process itself.
Evidence said to be contained in the computers was not credible. The international police agency INTERPOL said that the sources of files the computer contained could not be authenticated. The chain of custody of the evidence was broken and unaccounted for several times during the first days it was seized and at least two Colombian law enforcement personnel testified that the files had been manipulated. Charges against Obando were made on the basis of copies of emails said to have been found on the computer. However, Police Captain Ronald Hayden Coy Ortiz, who oversaw the initial investigation testified in court that the computers contained no email records.
Nevertheless, Obando's case was stretched out over more than three years without resolution. Even when the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the evidence against her was inadmissible, she continued to be jailed
But even if the Supreme Court, Interpol and the government's own witnesses could be ignored, an international campaign for her freedom could not. After years of friend of the court statements signed by such notable supporters as Prof. Noam Chomsky, Sanctuary Movement founder and former President of the Presbyterian Church Rev. John Fife, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin and others, petitions, letters, emails, demonstrations, phone calls and delegations on her behalf, Liliany Obando is finally looking forward to being united with her two children and other friends and family--and to her freedom. It is no mistake that her release was announced concurrent with a major conference in support of the more than 8,000 Colombian political prisoners: the Colombia Behind Bars Forum, with guests from around the world, including representatives of the INSPP and AFGJ. This is yet another example of the power and influence of international pressure!
Press conference
Nevertheless, all is not settled regarding Liliany's case. The court process has not been suspended and she still could be sent back to jail. Further, political prisoners released into the general public are often at risk of violence in the first days, weeks and months following their liberty.
I spoke today to Liliany at the Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd) Women's Penitentiary just moments after receiving the news. I was so happy, overjoyed I could barely contain myself. Lily greeted me, "You heard the good news?" Yes, of course, I'd heard it. I asked her how she was feeling, and she said, "I have mixed emotions. I want to leave, but I don't want to leave the other political prisoners behind. We have to keep working until all the political prisoners are free."
Yes, that is the Liliany Obando that so many of us have come to know, love and look up to. Never tiring of the struggle for peace, justice and human and labor rights, the day she entered the prison she started collecting the testimonies of other political prisoners and organizing on their behalf. From within the jail cells, Liliany proposed the establishment of the International Network for the Political Prisoners and always insisted that we not only advocate for her freedom, but for the freedom of all her comrades deprived of liberty. And she insisted that we not just advocate for the freedom of the political prisoners, but for peace in Colombia.
From the beginning, the INSPP has insisted that a first step toward a real and just peace in Colombia will begin with a humanitarian exchange of Prisoners of War, and with the immediate freedom of all of Colombia's Prisoners of Conscience and Prisoners Due to Judicial Set-ups.
Today there are many indications that a legitimate peace process could be ready to begin in Colombia. The recent announcements that the FARC would release all their current military prisoners met with the release of Liliany are significant. But international pressure must not let up! Now is the time to demand the freedom of all Colombia's 8,000 political prisoners and, more, for an inclusive peace process based on dialogue and negotiations, and without unrealistic pre-conditions. And for us in the US, we must demand an end to our country's sponsorship of war and repression in Colombia, including our funding and restructuring of Colombian prisons where political prisoners are concentrated under harsh conditions.
But as we vow to continue this struggle...let us also take a moment to celebrate this great victory. As Liliany once told me, "By day we struggle, by night we dance!
As a high profile political prisoner, Liliany Obando is under the threat and risk of violence and there has been a request for international accompaniment for her during her first days of freedom. AFGJ and the INSPP are preparing for the possibility of traveling to Colombia to help provide protection. There is also a need to raise more than $3,000 to cover her bond payment.
El 31 de mayo del 2010, el ejército israelí atacó a la Flotilla de la Libertad, mientras esta trataba de llevar ayuda humanitaria a la Franja de Gaza, Palestina. Nueve Internacionalistas fueron asesinados y más de 54 heridos a bordo del buque insignia Mavi Marmara. Lara Lee filmó el ataque israelí contra el Mavi Marmara, y su video fue el único que escapo la confiscación por parte del ejército israelí. Este documental, narrado por un sobreviviente del asalto, esta basado enteramente de fragmentos de la filmacion de Iara Lee
[Agradecimientos especiales a MARCOS CASTANEDA de RadioChile FM - Radio Nuevo Mundo por la narracion]
Chilean Navy defeated by Canadian public opinion
Written by Arturo Pratt
Monday, 15 August 2011 00:26
Protest in Vancouver, La Esmeralda
Protest in Victoria, La Esmeralda
Thank you to all the good people in Victoria and Vancouver who
contributed to defeat the Chilean Navy's agenda in Canada.
St-Pierre, Éric with Emerson da Silva, Mathieu Lamarre, & Barbara Sandlands. Fair Trade: A Human Journey. 2009. Les Éditions de l’homme. Montreal, Canada
Review by Theresa Wolfwood with photos from the book
“Today neoliberalism and its Holy Trinity – deregulation, innovation and globalization – are facing a crisis, and we are finding out that the trendy notion of ‘sustainable development’ is... an oxymoron. The time is ripe to rethink our way of doing things and fight the spread of individualism and consumerism... Fair trade proposes an alternative based on the ideas of social justice, product quality and respect for the environment...Its aim is to encourage involvement and solidarity...This book is a sign of hope that another world is possible.” From the preface by D’Francisco Van der Hoff Boersma, an early founder of fair trade.
This beautiful publication is more than a coffee table book; it is all about the coffee we put on that table - and 11 other major agricultural products available in Canada that are sold as ‘fair trade.’ It also includes handicrafts and soccer balls in its stories. Every product is highlighted by its history and means of product, personal stories of farmers who grow fair trade and statistics giving the conventional and fair trade production, prices and importers; all illustrated by wonderful and vivid images of workers and their lives. My only regret about this very comprehensive and well presented book is that fair trade Palestinian olive oil and the role of conflict in agriculture were only mentioned in passing. Maybe in the next edition of this impressive work.
Book Review: Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary
Written by Theresa Wolfwood
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 21:36
Hooks, Margaret. Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary 1993. Pandora, HarperCollins Publications, London UK
Review by Theresa Wolfwood
Tina Modotti came from a poor family in Italy to the USA: her beauty and strong character lead her into a modelling and acting career. She became a model, mistress and assistant of USA photographer, Edward Weston. Together they went to Mexico; she fell in love with that country and stayed after he went home and became an amazing photographer in her own right – first with photos of flowers but soon her political convictions moved her to social documentary photography.
Stories and photos by Theresa Wolfwood I have been fortunate to meet and hear three strong Latin American women speak about their struggles; of course, they mean not their individual problems, but the struggles of women and everyone working for justice in their region. Behind every successful social and political transformation are hundreds of determined women, connected and committed to their work. And if there is anywhere in the world we can look for inspiration and example for our much needed social change, it is Latin America.
Miles Litvinoff and John Madeley.50 Reasons to Buy Fair Trade2007 Pluto Press.UK
“The mainstream trading system is failing the poor. Fair Trade offers partnership in place of exploitation.”
Theresa Wolfwood
Beyond the general response when people ask why one should support fair trade – something that I usually sum up as a better life for producers and an opportunity for consumers to challenge the bottom line mentality of ruthless global corporations, this useful volume offers some very specific reasons and specific details of more general reasons.
We are based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
For more information on joining CASC, why not come to one of our monthly meetings? They are held at 7:30 pm on the first Wednesday of every month at 1923 Fernwood Rd, in the upstairs meeting room around the back of the building. Meetings are open to everyone.
Contacting us
To receive more information on CASC events and actions, sign-up for the eVoz email newsletter. Email: cascvictoria(at)shaw(dot)ca and ask to be added to the eVoz list.
CAFE SIMPATICO is back the last FRIDAY in September. Fully renovated 1923 Fernwood
Review by Theresa Wolfwood with photos from the book
