16 May 2011 | News | Human rights | Social activists at risk
The other hostages
In Colombia there are 7,500 prisoners held under terrible conditions
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The release of prisoners by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian Army’s purportedly successful expeditions are widely covered by the national and international media. But little is being said in Colombia about the situation of 7,500 political prisoners, who in most cases are only detained for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They could also be accused of their commitment. Many of these prisoners are students, peasants and trade union leaders who are abandoned in the overcrowded Colombian jails. Yuli Enriques of the Fundacion Lazos de Dignidad and the campaign Traspasa los Muros (Cross the walls), said in an interview with the Alternative Press Network of the South West of Colombia, published on Mas Voces.
Lack of health care, constant harassment by the prison guards, lack of legal guarantees and torture are some of the conditions experienced every day by these political prisoners.
Colombian organizations that demand the release of the political prisoners will organize a national meeting on June 4 and 5 called “Long live the butterflies”.
“It is important that the Colombian society not only knows that there are persons deprived of their freedom in our country’s rainforests, but also that there are 7,500 people abandoned in the Colombian prisons and we should demand the enforcement of their rights”, said Enriques.
Many of these prisoners are serving sentences of up to 40 years in jail, since they have several ongoing trials, which are usually classified as rebellion, sedition or riot. The Colombian human rights organizations prefer to talk about political prisoners of conscience who have been victim of judicial set-up.
The leader of the campaign Traspasa los Muros explained that many of the detainees were actually part of the insurgency, but many others were just leaders with a strong popular influence.
“The counter-insurgency policies have affected thousands of Colombian civilians”, warned Enriques, who claims amnesty and pardon for the political prisoners as the only possible way of reaching a “broad democratic agreement”.
