Update from CAN: Activities at the SOA

1. Colombia Action Network and Campaign for Labor Rights workshop info at the School of the Americas
2. Fight Back forum at the School of the Americas – features 2 members from the 2006 CAN delegation to Colombia
3. CAN flyer for the SOA demanding the release of Liliana (Lily) Obando, FENSUAGRO organizer, who toured for the CAN in the US in 2001
4. Attached is the petition we will be circulating demanding Liliana Obando's release

1. Freedom for Lily Obando! Justice for Colombian Trade Unionists!
We demand the immediate release of Lily Obando, a leading woman trade unionist with FENSUAGRO (the largest peasant and agricultural workers' association in Colmbia). Lily is wrongfully imprisoned by the Uribe government with the backing of the Bush administration. The charges against Lily are outrageous! Human and labor rights are being violated due to U.S. intervention.
James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights (Alliance For Global Justice) recently returned from a visit to FENSUAGRO and interviewed Lily Obando's lawyer.
Meredith Aby of the Colombia Action Network brought Lily Obando on a speaking tour with solidarity activists and trade unionists in 2001 and visited FENSUAGRO in 2006.

2. Fight Back Forum on Colombia at SOA protest
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following announcement for a forum that will take place at the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning, Georgia on Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m., in the Convention Center, Room 201.
Join us for a forum to build opposition to U.S. intervention in Colombia!
Year after year, U.S. military and economic aid helps support a corrupt, narco-trafficking government that rules through repression and fear. Despite death threats, kidnappings and intimidation, a broad mass movement is organizing for justice and equality. Come hear from activists who traveled to Colombia and met with students, trade unionists and peasants organizing for peace and justice.
Kosta Harlan of Fight Back! newspaper will moderate. Meredith Aby of the Colombia Action Network will discuss the indigenous highway protests and the peasants and workers' movement. Aby will also discuss the imprisonment of Lily Obando from the peasants union FENSUAGRO. Angela Denio of National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera will speak about Mr. Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. government. Doug Michel of Students for a Democratic Society will talk about meeting with the student movement in Colombia, the need for solidarity and bringing political exile Imelda Daza-Cotes on a speaking tour in the United States.

3. Free Colombian Trade Unionist Lily Obando!
Liliana (Lily) Obando is a Colombian trade union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and agricultural workers federation in Colombia. She produces academic papers and documentary films about the struggles of those who work the land. On August 8, 2008, Lily was arrested and imprisoned by the "anti-terrorism unit" of the Colombian National Police. She has been charged with "rebellion" and "managing resources related to terrorist activities." Her story is tragically familiar in a country where thousands of trade unionists have been threatened, arrested, or killed by the U.S.-backed Colombian government.

A Pattern of Repression
Over the past 30 years, 1500 members of FENSUAGRO have been murdered by the Colombian army and paramilitary death squads. 450 have been killed since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002. Lily Obando was conducting a study of these assassinations at the time of her arrest. Now in prison, Lily's family is struggling to get by. She was the sole breadwinner for her two young children and mother. Despite the danger, Lily was willing to risk her life to challenge the injustices that are making conditions in Colombia even more desperate. There has been a 70% increase in forced displacement of peasants and indigenous people under Uribe's regime, and over 40 Colombian trade unionists have been killed this year alone.

"Plan Colombia" & U.S. Corporations
The targeting of trade unionists like Lily Obando happens as a direct result of U.S. military intervention in Colombia. Since 2000, the U.S. has given $6 billion in military aid to the right wing Colombian government. Supposedly enacted to combat drug trafficking, this aid package, called Plan Colombia, is actually used to wage war against those who challenge the interests of multi-national corporations. Therefore, anyone organizing for fair wages, human rights, or a new political system in Colombia is viewed as the enemy. U.S. corporations like Cincinnati-based Chiquita, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, and Drummond Coal in Alabama benefit from the repression of activists and have directly funded paramilitary death squads who kill trade unionists.

U.S. Military Intervention
The main purpose of Plan Colombia is to fund a U.S. counter-insurgency war against the oldest and largest rebel group in Latin America—the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Pentagon's Southern Command directs the war and knows they are fighting a large, strong, and determined revolutionary movement--both armed and political. Besides fighting the FARC directly, the Pentagon strategy involves attacking and terrorizing the unarmed peasants and workers who are mobilizing people to demand social change all over the country.

The Role of the SOA
Colombia currently sends more soldiers to the School of the Americas than any other country. The training they receive at the SOA leads to state terror upon their return. Colombia's top general, Mario Montoya, trained and instructed others at the SOA. This past month 3 Colombian generals and 24 military officers were fired for kidnapping homeless and unemployed men from cities, murdering them in rural areas, and claiming they were guerrilla fighters with the FARC. General Montoya was forced to resign because of this murder scandal. To restore justice and peace to Colombia, those responsible for these crimes must be held accountable and the SOA must be shut down!
What can you do to help Free Lily Obando?
1. Gather signatures to "Free Lily Obando" & mail the petition to us.
2. Bring a CAN or CLR speaker. We can educate Americans about Lily case & U.S. government support for war & repression in Colombia, including the murderers trained at the U.S. Military's "School of the Americas".
3. Organize support for Lily with resolutions from your student groups, anti-war coalitions, solidarity organizations, religious groups, and motions from local unions & international conventions.
Free Lily Obando! Close the School of the Americas! Stop Plan Colombia!
Campaign for Labor Rights www.clrlabor.org Colombia Action Network www.colombiasolidarity.org