Month of January, 2008

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.

A director of Colombian military intelligence and another officer implicated in a series of false attacks and a bombing that killed a civilian and injured 19 soldiers in Bogotá in 2006, attended the US Army School of the Americas, an examination of records shows.

The CAN is circulating the following statement from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, and urges all who are able to protest Ricardo Palmera's sentencing on January 28 in Washington DC.

We demand freedom for Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera. The U.S. imprisonment and trials of Ricardo Palmera are a violation of the sovereignty of Colombia. Palmera has done nothing wrong. To the contrary, he is a freedom fighter in the service of the people of Colombia. Palmera fights against the corruption and terror imposed on his country by President Bush and those dreaming of U.S. empire.

Amid the jubilant press reaction to the freeing of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, Hugo Chavez has made the surprising annoucement, almost immediately ratified by the Venezuelan congress, that the FARC-EP is a legitimate belligerent force, and not a terrorist group.

As U.S. lawmakers are busy focusing on domestic politics and the U.S. presidential elections in November, major multinationals like DHL and business groups like the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) are anxious to see Congress move on free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.