Political prisoners between tortures and invisibility: ‘crime of rebellion’ for opposing capitalist monopoly
2012 BY AZALEA ROBLES FOR LA PLUMA, translation David A. LaPluma Team
In Colombia thousands of men and women are convicted of the “crime of rebellion” - established in the criminal code - and likewise convicted, by way of a wholly arbitrary extension, of “terrorism” [1], a conceptual category encompassing everything that upsets the Colombian state and big money in a looted nation which seeks to drown social unrest by killings and imprisonment.
Of the 9500 political prisoners held by the Colombian state, it is estimated that about 90% are civilians imprisoned for their political activities, their critical thinking, and their opposition to predatory environmental policies: trade unionists, environmentalists, teachers, rural leaders, academics, lawyers, doctors, human rights defenders...even artists are subject to legal persecution. In addition, it is well known that there is a social, political and armed conflict in Colombia and that, in that context, the insurgents incarcerated by the state are political prisoners of war, because their demands are above all political and because there is a war. But the Colombian state tries to blot out the sun with its thumb.
The existence of thousands of political prisoners is testimony to the repressive war unleashed by the Colombian state against social demands; and, as such, the demand for freedom for political prisoners is a core element in the building of true peace with social justice.
Capitalism in Colombia expresses itself with violent fits: the terror that accompanies the pillaging of resources for the benefit of big capital is applied in its starkest form against the population, with the goal of displacing large numbers of people from coveted regions and to bring an end to their demands. More than 5.4 million people are displaced and dispossessed of their lands in Colombia, where multinationals and large landowners monopolize the stolen lands, and where property titles are now legalized through fancy maneuvers protected by Santos’s land legislation which, as has been amply denounced by the communities, legalizes this theft.
Capitalism in Colombia expresses itself with violent fits: the terror that accompanies the pillaging of resources for the benefit of big capital is applied in its starkest form against the population, with the goal of displacing large numbers of people from coveted regions and to bring an end to their demands. More than 5.4 million people are displaced and dispossessed of their lands in Colombia, where multinationals and large landowners monopolize the stolen lands, and where property titles are now legalized through fancy maneuvers protected by Santos’s land legislation which, as has been amply denounced by the communities, legalizes this theft.
At a time when the contradictions within global capitalism are deepening to an extreme degree between capitalist accumulation and survival of the species, the repressive strategies developed in Colombia are also destined to be applied elsewhere in the region, a fact which constitutes one more reason - beyond ethical reasons - for solidarity with the Colombian people.
TORTURE: the killing of family members as a form of torture*
TORTURE: the killing of family members as a form of torture*
There is so much to denounce regarding the tortures, these aberrations committed against political prisoners which surpass one another in their horrors and which are committed under cover of ostracism and invisibility: for this reason solidarity with political prisoners should be put forth as a social priority. There are prisoners who spend years stuck in jail cells [2], where they suffer beatings, humiliations, and physical as well as psychological tortures. There are prisoners pushed towards death through the denial of medical attention [3], blind and limbless prisoners, paralytics, the terminally ill who live a permanent torture, denied even pain relieving medications and stuck in prison yards full of paramilitaries despite being totally defenseless. A telling case is that of the political prisoner Oscar Elias Tordecilla, who, with his arms amputated, also fell blind as a result of denial of necessary medical care, and was jailed in an extreme situation, purposely placed in a penitentiary without political prisoners, in a cell block full of paramilitaries, in violation of the ruling by the Institute of Legal Medicine (INML) and of international humanitarian law [4]. Likewise there are numerous political prisoners and prisoners of war who have suffered the murder of their family members because they have refused to play the role of false witnesses for the police in legal set-ups against farm leaders, labor unionists and social activists. One case of this type is that of the political prisoner Carlos Ivan Peña Orjuela. Carlos Ivan had been subjected to pressure by the judicial police of the SIJIN so that he would testify against farm leaders from Magdalena Medio. In the face of his refusal to collaborate in such legal framings, the police first disappeared and then killed his younger brother. And police later used a legal frame-up to jail the family member who cared for his six year old son while also threatening to kill the boy. The Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners denounces:
“(Peña Orjuela) was pressured to ‘cooperate’ or else ‘it would cost him dearly’ (...) SIJIN agent Juan Carlos Celis Torres made threats to legally frame his family and directly threatened his son, saying that his son could ‘all of a sudden go to bed but not wake up’. He gave him a deadline by which to become another of those many paid witnesses that abound in the Colombian judicial system”. [5] After the threats came more serious crimes: “the forced disappearance and murder of the political detainee’s younger brother (...) the kidnapping of Maria Yolanda Cañón, the family member who took care of his son. The political detainee proceeded to call Maria Yolanda’s cell phone, which was answered by SIJIN agent Celis Torres, who taunted him, warning him that if he insisted in refusing to ‘cooperate’ they would continue (...) In exact words : ‘I told you to cooperate and you didn’t want to cooperate and so the prosecutor had a little package and it fell upon me to go and capture it and I also have some other little packages over there as well’. The CSPP denounces the “illegal and vengeful acts by members of the judicial police to produce ‘results’ that ignore human rights and international humanitarian law. Practices consistent with the policies that have resulted in the extrajudicial killings known as ‘false positives’ and the large scale prosecution of an innocent civilian population, detained during the famous ‘mass arrests” [ibid].
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*To read more about the reality of the Colombian people and the issue of political prisoners in a integrated and contextualized manner visit:
http://azalearobles/blogspot.
NOTES
http://azalearobles/blogspot.
NOTES
Imagen Areito: www.areitoimagen.
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Azalea Robles, 2012
* Azalea Robles, a contributor to La Pluma
