Month of February, 2007

Imelda Daza-Cotes recently completed a national speaking tour that included a
stop in Minneapolis. Once a political activist and elected official in
Colombia, Daza-Cotes was targeted by a murderous campaign that wiped out the
Patriotic Union, a leftist political party that rose to prominence in the
1980s. She fled to Sweden where she’s been living in exile since 1989. On Feb.
13, Daza-Cotes addressed an audience of 40 people at Spirit of the Lakes Church
in Minneapolis to discuss her experiences, as well as the extradition and trial
of Colombian rebel Ricardo Palmera and U.S. intervention in her homeland.

Washington DC - Sonia, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. government, was found guilty in a U.S. Federal Court here, Feb. 20. Sonia’s trial is part of a Bush administration plan to criminalize Colombian freedom fighters.

Sonia, whose full name is Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, is a soldier for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a woman of high moral character. A poor peasant who joined the revolution to end poverty and oppression in Colombia, she is now awaiting sentencing. Her whole life has been dedicated to changing society and to ending poverty and misery.

We recieved this denunciation from FENSUAGRO (the national campesino union).
The Colombia Action Network's delegation last summer was hosted by
FENSUAGRO.

Meredith Aby
Colombia Action Network
www.colombiasolidarity.org

AFTER PRESIDENT ÁLVARO URIBE VÉLEZ MADE UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIMS AGAINST SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS, THREATS HAVE INCREASED

Two days after President Álvaro Uribe Vélez accused politicians who had
demobilized from M-19 as “terrorists dressed in civilian clothes”, several
social, labor, university and alternative press organizations received an

Please join the U.S. Office on Colombia, Witness for Peace, the Washington Office on Latin America , Amnesty International and many more as we call on Congress to create a new policy on Colombia and as we commemorate those killed in the San Jose de Apartado massacre.

Ecuador will intercept any aircraft from Colombia or the United States that enter the country's air space, the country's President Rafael Correa told media on Wednesday.

At about 10:30 a.m. on 10 February we learnt of the contents of an envelope thrown by unknown persons under the door of the offices of ASTDEMP trade union, which functions as the Santander regional headquarters for the (trade union federation) CUT. The office is at floor 2, No 14 – 09, 42nd Street, Bucaramanga. The envelope contained the following threat against members of SINALTRAINAL who work in the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Bucaramanga.

With no evidence and only the testimony of U.S. government paid informants, Colombian revolutionary “Sonia” awaits a jury’s verdict here in Federal Court. Sonia, whose full name is Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, is a peasant rebel who joined the fight for a free, just and independent Colombia. A nurse with the 30,000 member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Sonia was extradited to the U.S. in violation of Colombia’s sovereignty.

This is significant because Colombia had agreed a month or more ago to stop spraying and then violated the agreement with Ecuador. A conscious decision by Colombian President Uribe and his U.S. handlers who direct the chemical spraying as part of Plan Colombia. The spraying is meant to harass and test the new Leftist President Correa in Ecuador. Ecuador's President is taking the case to the World Court. Someone has to put manners on President Uribe and his U.S. handlers.

in solidarity, Tom Burke, CAN

In a speaking tour organized by the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, Professor Daza-Cotes will travel to the U.S. to talk about fellow professor and political prisoner Ricardo Palmera. She will speak about U.S. intervention in Colombia and her own journey, as Colombian military death squads tortured and murdered those around her, from liberal politics to more radical views. Ms. Daza-Cotes was forced into exile in Sweden around the same time Ricardo Palmera decided to join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

A top U.S. official said Wednesday that America supports the military rescue of three
kidnapped U.S. defense contractors in Colombia, even as families of other hostages say such an operation could endanger the lives of their loved ones.