Free Liliana Obando!

By James Jordan
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.

Obando is a sociologist, independent film maker and unionist who was arrested the very week she released a report on the assassination of more than 1500 members of FENSUAGRO, the largest organization of farmers and farm workers in Colombia. She was arrested on the basis of evidence the government claims was found in computers belonging to Commander Raúl Reyes, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP).

This flyer explains Liliany Obando's situation:
Free Liliany Obando - Colombian Labor Rights Activist, Independent Filmmaker, Sociologist ...And Political Prisoner! (pdf)

The petition to free Liliany Obando can be viewed and downloaded here: (doc)

The essay below was written by Colombian trade unionist, video documentary producer, and political prisoner Liliany Obando. Liliany wrote her "Reflections" with Mother's Day in mind. Like many organizers for social justice in Colombia, Liliany is imprisoned with little to no evidence. The US government is funding and advising Colombia's judicial system, but it has only worsened with time. The US government also continues to fund and direct the Colombian Military and their paramilitary death squads. Under the US "Plan Colombia", labor unionists are murdered every week, nearly 4 million Colombian peasants are displaced from their land, and 7000 political opponents of President Uribe are imprisoned. The CAN wants to thank James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights for translating the original Spanish essay. We demand "Free Liliany Obando!"

THE POLITICAL PRISONERS:
Political prisoners, a term that many Colombians are used to hearing but few acknowledge and many prefer to forget they exist. The political prisoners are those compatriots that for thinking differently are excluded and incarcerated for supposedly representing a danger to society. “Rebels”, “terrorists”, are a few of the names chosen by the Colombian government to call those people from different sectors of society and social classes who dare to think about a different type of country.

For years, we have seen how different sectors of society have been persecuted with different excuses--the fight against communism, against narco-trafficking, and now, against terrorism. First we were witnesses to the persecution and death of an entire political party, our UP (Union Patriotica*), then the repression against the campesinos for residing in rural areas where there was guerrilla activity and the government named them as “collaborators”, then against social activists, indigenous peoples and community leaders as well as students and teachers particularly those from public universities, (this is typical of fascist regimes).

In the following attached documents you will find testimony of Colombian political prisoners. They have been provided by Peace & Justice for Colombia

Colombian trade unionist Lily Obando is imprisoned based on phony evidence a court revealed last week. In another case, Colombian police investigator Captain Ronald Hayden Coy Cortiz admitted there were no emails found on the computers of Raul Reyes. Commander Reyes and 25 other members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed when Colombian troops under U.S.

Bogotá, Colombia, November 28, 2008 With much emotion and gratitude I received here in the jail a copy of your letters of solidarity and pressure on the Colombian Government that they return to me my liberty. Friends, the solidarity of comrades such as you, steadfast and defenders of the human rights and of the workers, is a great incentive for maintaining high morale in this condition as a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience to which this fascist government of Alvaro Uribe Vélez has subjected us.

The following article from Fight Back! Newspaper highlight some of the Colombia Action Network's activities at the School of the Americas protest at Ft. Benning. Members of the CAN gathered hundreds of signatures to demand Lily Obando's release, and distributed 2000 flyers with information about her struggle for justice. One of our national coordinators, Meredith Aby, spoke at two workshops to highlight Obando's case and the broader context of the assault on trade unionists, and the peasants and agricultural workers movement in Colombia; while Chapin Gray, an organizer with the Colombia Action Network in Alabama addressed the crowd of thousands on Sunday and urged people to join the cause to free Lily Obando.

Below is a letter we have received from Liliany (Lily) Obando who is in prison in Colombia for her political work. Lily is an organizer for FENSUAGRO, the peasant workers' union. She toured the U.S. for the Colombia Action Network in 2001. Chapin Gray will be reading this letter from the stage at the School of the Americas protest for the Colombia Action Network on Sunday.

http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article1521

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.

http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article1521

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.