We Demand Once Again the Freedom of Prisoners for Fighting

Those detained for fighting during the 2021 uprising in Colombia feel abandoned by the current government, which promised to release them. Several facts illustrate the plight of them and their families, hence their just claims.

Non-compliance led to widespread discontent. And the question that arises is, why has the government of Gustavo Petro not kept the promises of liberation, made on different occasions? It is important to analyse the overall and developing facts in order to understand why it has not been possible to release the detainees.

Summary of some cases, based on reports made available by fellow detainees themselves

Juliana Higuera gives a good summary, she is a human rights defender, she was prosecuted by the national strike of 2021, she is a member of the campaign Objetivo Libertad, an organization that accompanies and advises the collective Jonathan Sabogal, who has led four hunger strikes in the Palmira – Valle prison.

First case: Since September 23, 2022, already 14 months in detention at the time, Sergio Andrés Pastor, sent a letter in which he greets the president, the Historical Pact and the congressmen, and points out that “they are just a group of bureaucrats with enormous salaries“, he also says: “I want to be very punctual with this: where is the word? Where are the promises? They forget that the left is in power thanks to the youth and partly to the sacrifice of the members of the FIRST NATIONAL LINE. Of the dead, the disappeared, the tortured, the exiled, the young and finally us, the political prisoners”. On December 14, the government stated through Minister Néstor Osuna that Sergio Andrés Pastor, an activist of the Resistance Portal at the Americas Portal in the town of Kennedy, “will not be a peacemaker, sentenced to 14 years in prison, for torture he does not embody a promoter of reconciliation.” That is why Sergio’s claim in one of the paragraphs of his letter is correct: “We know that your priority is focused on achieving total peace, but you forget about us, those of us who took to the streets because of the subjugation of so many governments that have led us to inequality and now you want to negotiate with drug traffickers, armed groups, criminal gangs and other criminal organizations. So what? Where do we meet? Where is the group that unarmed and peacefully fought in the streets against the ESMAD that left so many young people without eyes and without dreams?

Second case: At the end of 2022, shortly after taking office, President Gustavo Petro said that hundreds of young people detained for the protests would be “released before Good Night. ” To this end, it established the Peace Voices provided for in Law 2272 of 2022, which aims to establish peace policy as State policy and to identify members of social organizations deprived of their liberty as possible spokespersons. Before the end of 2022, the government appointed 17 spokespersons from Medellín, Bogotá, Popayán and Cali. Later, in January, Interior Minister Alfonso Prada assured that they had identified 280 potential cases that met the defined criteria. Of the persons appointed as spokespersons, only four regained their freedom on account of that figure. Faced with this initiative, the institutions of the bourgeois state, dominated mainly by the mafia bourgeoisie, stepped forward and so the Constitutional Court on November 30, 2023, almost a year after the Petro government passed the law, practically annulled the law, ceasing to be an option for those facing legal proceedings associated with the popular uprising. In ruling C-525 of 2023, he stated that persons deprived of their liberty could not be released from prison with the aim of being declared spokesmen for peace. One day after the Court‘s ruling, on December 1, the prosecutor at the time, Francisco Barbosa, announced the reactivation of the arrest warrants against the four people named as spokesmen who had been freed and who are from Bogotá and Bucaramanga.

Third case: Non-compliance with agreements to the Jonathan Sabogal collective. This case illustrates the constant struggle of the comrades in Palmira prison, who have had to go on four hunger strikes to be heard. The particular unease is because the negotiating table with the government has no continuity and the individual agreements remain in promises and their situation is forgotten. They state that: “We don’t understand how what they call ‘priority’ is left as a relegated theme and publicity horse when it’s needed. We do not understand that in order to enter into a dialogue (which is now abandoned) we have had to go through three hunger strikes in our already unworthy and deplorable conditions to which we are subjected and subjected“, reads the statement issued.

In the fourth hunger strike, they emphasize several problems pointed out by the detainees, such as imprisonment without fair trials, the persistence of the former Esmad (Mobile Anti-Riot Squad) and impunity for violent actions by individuals identified as “paramilitaries” against the demonstrators (they refer to the case of paraco Andrés Escobar). He is still at large, even with evidence of videos firing pistols at protesters during the 2021 strike.

The comrades also report that the fourth strike took place from 1 to 9 April this year. On the government side, they sent a commission of officials, agreeing to resume the so-called Mesa del Estallido, a contribution to peace and social justice, and promising to reactivate it «at the head of the Ministry of the Interior, with the permanent participation of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Equality and that all the necessary formalities and steps be taken to comply with what was agreed today.

Fourth case: the death of 4 detainees, although special reference is made to Jeison Alejandro Losada as a political prisoner for fighting and a member of the Jonathan Sabogal collective. Jeison died on Monday, May 20, 2024 due to an intoxication and although the Accidental Commission that monitors the situation of the youth of the popular uprising requested the transfer of Valentina Losada to attend the funeral of her brother to bid him a final farewell since she is detained in Jamundí prison, the transfer was denied because INPEC staff were not available.

General conclusions

1) The so-called government of change does not have the power of the state, and the summary presented shows how the bourgeoisie, which does have the power, blocks or nullifies all attempts to contribute to the liberation of the fighters. The Constitutional Court, the Attorney General‘s Office, Congress, the Attorney General‘s Office and even INPEC itself are opposed to the freedom of the fighters.

2) Another big problem of the government is conciliation with the enemies of the people through its so-called national agreement, when the bourgeoisie does not let any of the reforms pass, or anything that means benefiting the people. This shows that the Petro government is weak because it tries to reconcile the interests of exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. Their promises remain in demagogic speeches.

3) More than 90% of the prisoners for fighting are released not because of the Petro government, but because of the same circumstances of the judicial proceedings, since the measures of detention have been revoked and the terms have expired. But this has nothing to do with any work of the national Government or any achievements they have generated. What has been received from the Government has remained mere rhetoric. Although narratively claims to support and be of the First Line, the reality is that the comrade fighters continue to be detained.

Immediate demands on the Petro government

1) Although they repeatedly announce the release of prisoners, that is not true. Moreover, it was not just a question of freedom, but of the closure of judicial proceedings. All the fighters continue with the open trials and some are already facing convictions, which does not mean that they are guilty or that they deserve to be in prison, but is a strong demonstration of the criminalization of social protest.

2) Let the dialogue table not remain a mere formality, since it has not been treated with the priority it deserves, understanding, on the one hand, that it is a national table, which has transcendent characteristics in relation to the criminalization and repression of social protest.

3) That they do not continue to criminalize the fighters, so that there are real guarantees for social protest and the defense of rights. Evidence of this is that it continues to be criminalized, persecuted and repressed, and there has been no change in this regard.

4) The dismantling of ESMAD, which continues to violate and brutally repress popular movements and sectors. They just changed his name.

Finally, from the Workers Revolution we invite the Colombian people to promote a campaign of solidarity with the prisoners to fight

The campaign would include the following activities:

1) A permanent denunciation, through the alternative media, of the abuses and humiliations that occur against the comrades.

2) Collection of resources through solidarity contributions from different organizations, production of T-shirts, production of a brochure that collects the historical memory of their struggle.

3) That the People‘s Assemblies have as a priority the immediate release of prisoners for fighting.

It is important that the people resume their unity and organized struggle, that through a platform of demands be organized into the People‘s Assemblies, independent of class, state and government, since it is the people who have power, if they unite and organize for struggle.

Freedom now! for the prisoners for fighting!

source: https://revolucionobrera.com/actualidad/presos-4/