Newswire

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.

by Garry Leech

Over the past five years Colombia has achieved impressive economic growth as foreign investment has increased dramatically. According to most analysts, it is the policies of President Alvaro Uribe that have created the security conditions required by foreign companies to operate in the country. A significant portion of Colombia's economic growth has resulted from investment in the country's extractive sector, reflecting the confidence of foreign investors in the capacity of the Colombian military to safeguard their operations in the country's rural conflict zones. However, analysts who praise the Uribe government for Colobmia's economic growth often ignore the fact that the enhanced security provided by the Colombian military has been achieved through an increase in human rights abuses perpetrated against the rural population.

Following a State Department request, the U.S. prosecutor asked that all drug charges against Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera be dropped. This follows two mistrials where American juries failed to convict Colombian rebel, Palmera. The Bush Administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on two lengthy trials where the deck was stacked against Palmera. Professor Palmera is an important negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

By Mick Kelly, Fight Back News

Washington, D.C. - In stunning defeat for the Bush administration, the attempt to frame Colombian rebel Ricardo Palmera on drug trafficking charges ended with a hung jury in Federal Court here, April 21. With the jurors unable to agree, Judge Royce Lambert declared a mistrial.

Ricardo PalmeraDear Colombia Action Network supporters,

Many members of the Colombia Action Network have been part of a solidarity campaign in support of Ricardo Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary on trial in the U.S. under "terrorism" laws. We protested and picketed outside the courtroom many times, and sat in on the proceedings, showing our support for Palmera.

Yesterday Ricardo Palmera was sentenced to serve 60 years in jail in a U.S. maximum security prison under "special administrative measures". Palmera's trial is a political one, part of the broader Bush strategy of criminalizing any and all national liberation movements. Social revolution equals terrorism; while self defense against the terror of the Colombian oligarchy becomes a crime.