Liliana Obando

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.