INSPP statement on escalation of political arrests and prisoner abuses in Colombian prisons
17th February 2011
Liliany Obando
The International Network in Solidarity with Colombia's Political Prisoners (INSPP) is deeply troubled by a recent series of political arrests and fatalities under questionable circumstances in Colombian prisons. Already in the first month of 2011, there have been at least two such fatalities and four arrests of student and labor activists. The administration of President Juan Manuel Santos speaks about improvements in the human rights situation in the country, but the indications are otherwise.
On January 13th, the poet, university student and cultural activist Angye Gaona was arrested in Bucaramanga with no explanation nor formal charges filed. On January 17th, student activists Julian Andoni Dominguez and William Rivera Rueda, also a member of the Informal Workers union, were arrested in Bucaramanga. Again, no explanation was given and no charges filed. Another arrest that occurred on the 17th, in the city of Medellin, was that of Aracely Cañaveral Velez. For the past twenty years, she has been a leader in labor organizing for the Garment Workers, Textile and Informal Workers unions. Cañaveral is the sole provider for a minor-age child and elderly mother. The day following her arrest, she was moved to a prison 703 kilometers from her family and charged with conspiracy to commit assault and drug trafficking.
On January 18th, the INSPP learned of the death of political prisoner Jose Albeiro Manjarres Cupitre due to terminal cancer of the stomach. Manjarres was an inmate of the US funded and designed Palogordo prison in Girón--part of the "New Penitentiary Culture", a US-Colombian project to redesign maximum and medium security prisons. Despite legal petitions and a hunger strike by fellow prisoners to get Manjarres adequate treatment, the circumstances of his illness and death are tantamount to torture. The prison refused to provide adequate diagnosis and treatment for Manjarres, although he began suffering severe abdominal pains in July, 2009. Instead, prison health contractors told him he had "acute gastritis". He did not learn the full extent of his condition until December 17th. Even then, he was not taken to a prison equipped with proper hospice facilities and treatment for pain, dying instead in the hospital wing of La Modelo prison.
The INSPP also learned of the suicide by hanging of Leandro Salcedo on January 21st. Salcedo was being held at La Tramacúa prison, the first of the prisons built as a part of the "New Penitentiary Culture". La Tramacúa is infamous for its terrible conditions, including limiting of inmate access to running water for only ten minutes a day and repeated findings of fecal contamination of prison food. Salcedo had been held in solitary confinement for nine months, 24 hours a day, with no access to sunlight and in temperatures regularly reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit). Some inmates in La Tramacúa have been held in solitary confinement for as long as two years.
With more than 7,500 political prisoners, Colombian prisons are increasingly functioning to crush political dissent and to serve as a theater of war. Political prisoners are being moved from special units into the general population where they are singled out for violence by paramilitary gangs and prison guards. Since the beginning of the "New Penitentiary Culture", prison capacity has been increased by 40%. At the same time, the number of provably arbitrary political arrests has risen by 300%--cases later thrown out of court for lack of evidence, usually after an average three years of incarceration.
The INSPP calls on the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate conditions in Colombian prisons and the treatment of political prisoners. We call on the Colombian government to:
1) Stop the torture, abuse and neglect of political--and all--prisoners.
2) Segregate political prisoners into separate units for their protection.
3) Stop all politically motivated arrests.
4) Negotiate for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners of war as a first step toward dialogue for peace.
5) Free all Prisoners of Conscience and Political Frame-ups immediately.