Friday, May 12, 2017
Manuel “Tirofijo” Marulanda: Colombia’s legendary guerrilla leader remembered
https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2017/05/manuel-tirofijo-marulanda-colombias.html
Manuel “Tirofijo” Marulanda: Father of the FARC.
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Manuel Marulanda with Alfonso Cano. |
In an open letter we ask Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to order his government to release political prisoner David Ravelo. We invite individuals and organizations to endorse the letter. To do so, please send a name, city, state or province, and country to W.T. Whitney at: atwhit@roadrunner.com. The letter and names will be delivered to Colombian officials in mid-January.
- T. Whitney Jr. prepares this letter which is a project of The North American Committee for the Defense of David Ravelo. In 2012 the Committee sent a solidarity delegation to Colombia on Ravelo’s behalf.
The Honorable Juan Manuel Santos
President, Republic of Colombia
Dear Mr. President,
Sir, those who sign this letter hold that the case against prisoner David Ravelo (cédula de ciudadanÃa 13.887.558) collapsed long ago under the weight of lies and a quite illegitimate prosecution.  With respect, we ask that you instruct your government to release Mr. Ravelo from prison. We point to a long, unvarying record of injustice against Ravelo.
David Ravelo was arrested September 14, 2010 in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Charged with plotting to murder municipal official David Núñez Cala in 1991, he is serving an 18 – year term. Appeals have failed. His case is now before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Ravelo, we think, is emblematic of thousands of political prisoners in limbo now as Colombia implements its peace accord. Imprisoned combatants and civilian political prisoners may soon be eligible for amnesty. Ravelo needs to be one of them.
Barrancabermeja, Ravelo’s native city, produces 60 percent of Colombia’s oil products. In the late 1980s the Patriotic Union (UP) electoral coalition entered local politics. Soon David Ravelo was a UP member of Barrancabermeja’s city council and a UP delegate to the Santander Assembly. At the time, however, killers were targeting UP activists in Barrancabermeja, and nationally.
Charged with rebellion in 1993, Ravelo went to prison for 27 months. Â By the late 1990s, paramilitaries controlled the city and its surroundings. They massacred 36 Barrancabermeja inhabitants on May 16, 1998 and 17 more on February 28, 1999.
In Barrancabermeja, Ravelo was a labor organizer, community educator, and journalist. He is a longtime member of the Colombian Communist Party’s Central Committee. Barrancabermeja’s Catholic Diocese honored Ravelo in 2008 for his 30 years dedicated to defending human rights. In response to paramilitary violence, he founded and directed the CREDHOS human rights organization. Many CREDHOS leaders subsequently were killed or threatened.
Ravelo in 2007 circulated a video, viewable here, showing President Alvaro Uribe socializing with Barrancabermeja paramilitary leaders in 2001.  The U.S. government, Colombia’s military ally, had complained about Uribe’s ties to paramilitaries. We suspect that the video, embarrassing to President Uribe, provoked his taking action against Ravelo.
Persecution, lies, and vengeance
Colombia’s government in 1999 convicted paramilitary leaders Mario Jaimes MejÃa (alias “Panadero’) and Fremio Sánchez Carreño for organizing the two Barrancabermeja massacres. Each received a 20 year sentence. Having accused them, David Ravelo played a role in their downfall.
From Itagüà prison, paramilitary leader Roberto Pérez Ãlzate “gave the order,†says Ravelo, for Jaimes MejÃa “to take revenge and accuse David Ravelo Crespo and José ArÃstides Andrade†of murdering David Núñez Cala in 1991.
Jaimes confessed to organizing the massacres of 1998 and 1999 in order to qualify for the Justice and Peace Law of 2005. According to that law, paramilitary leaders telling the truth and demobilizing troops would serve eight years in prison. In 2008 Jaimes confessed to the Núñez Cala murder and named Ravelo and ex- congressperson ArÃstides Andrade as accomplices. He claimed they attended a meeting in Barrancabermeja where the murder was planned. Again, accusations against Ravelo would ease his entry into the Justice and Peace program.
Jaime’s paramilitary associate Fremio Sánchez also confessed to the massacres and to his role in the Núñez Cala murder. He too implicated Ravelo and ArÃstides Andrade in order to qualify for Justice and Peace.
Jaimes MejÃa was a FARC member when he killed Núñez Cala; only later would he join the paramilitaries. Accusing Ravelo of ties to the FARC, he showed investigators a 1985 photo of Ravelo attending a peace meeting with FARC leaders at a forest encampment. Authorities had used the old photo to put Ravelo in prison in 1993. Ravelo went free when the “Ravelo†in the photo was shown to be someone else, a journalist.
In the clutches of the law
The prosecution and trial of Ravelo revealed terrible procedural failings. The court, for example, accepted Jaimes MejÃa’s accusation – a lie – that Ravelo and Andrade participated in a murder. Colombia’s Attorney General on August 20, 2014 charged him with lying, and a judicial unit specializing in false witnesses is investigating. Between May 26, 2015 and October 27, 2016, however, six scheduled court sessions were canceled.
Further, the prosecutor in Ravelo’s case, William Pacheco Granados, is a criminal. As a police lieutenant in 1991 he arranged for the “forced disappearance†of a young man. A military court convicted him; he spent a year in prison. Law 270 of 1996 prohibits anyone dismissed from “any public office†or convicted of a crime from joining “the judicial branch.†Now Pacheco Granados faces civil prosecution for murder.
And, the criminality of Ravelo’s accuser, Mario Jaimes MejÃa, seems limitless. Jaimes arranged for journalist Yineth Bedoya to be kidnapped before she was to interview him in prison in 2000. She was beaten and raped. Jaimes received a 28 – year sentence.
There’s more: Jaimes MejÃa bribed fellow prisoners to testify that Ravelo and ArÃstides Andrade attended the meeting where the murder was planned. Jaimes used prisoner Fremio Sánchez to recruit them, according to witnesses at Ravelo’s trial. Prison officials facilitated meetings to enable Jaimes and Sánchez to conspire against Ravelo.
And, none of Ravelo’s 30 defense witnesses were allowed to testify during the trial proceedings. Prosecutor Pacheco closed his pre-trial investigation without hearing testimony as to Ravelo’s innocence.
And, four weeks elapsed between Ravelo being convicted and the actual announcement of his conviction on December 11, 2012. This “flagrant violation of due process†delayed preparations for Ravelo’s appeal.
Lastly, the atmosphere surrounding Ravelo’s trial was grim; “family members and members of Ravelo’s CREDHOS organization continually suffered paramilitary death threats and harassment while the trial was in progress.â€
Ravalo summarizes: “[T]he paramilitaries had ‘reasons’ for wanting to eliminate me. That’s why … they tried to assassinate me physically, but didn’t succeed. They decided to eliminate me judicially, and for that they implemented ‘the judicial façade,’ using the lie as their favorite weapon. It’s clear, therefore, that the truth is the first victim of war.â€
Friday, October 14, 2016
On the developments in Colombia and the peace agreement
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/latam/20160927/1045734393/un-farc-colombia-ceasefire.html
ΔευτÎÏα, 22 ΑυγοÏστου 2016
Alexandra Nariño, a Dutch FARC rebel speaks about Colombia’s War and Peace
GRANMA: Colombian government and FARC-EP reach transcendental jurisdiction agreement in Havana
The Colombian government and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed here today to create a Special Jurisdiction for Peace and an Amnesty Law, which represent the greatest progress made thus far in the peace talks
Author: Granma
September 23, 2015 19:09:32
The Colombian government and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed in Havana today, September 23, to create a Special Jurisdiction for Peace and an Amnesty Law, which represent the greatest progress made thus far in the peace talks.
At the negotiations table in Havana, where Cuba and Norway serve as guarantors of the process, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, and FARC Comandante Timoleón Jiménez, leaders of the two sides, received the agreement document from the President of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers, Raúl Castro Ruz.
President Santos spoke to those present thanking Raúl and the Cuban people, as well as the government of Norway, for their commitment to peace. He additionally thanked Venezuela and Chile for their contribution accompanying the dialogue.