(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The following statement was issued on Sept. 21 by the Colombian political prisoners of the Ninth Tower, Penitentiary of Valledupar-Cesar "La Tramacua"

The political prisoners of the Ninth Tower call on the national and international community to turn their eyes toward the penitentiary of Valledupar, better known as LA TRAMACUA. In this penitentiary we are some 103 women (political and social prisoners) who are "deposited" arbitrarily, confronted with high temperatures and a shortage of potable water, privations and punishments that worsen our incarceration.

     This past September 2nd, 2009, psychiatric ward inmate Alexandra Correa, who was for 19 months punished with solitary confinement, receiving, in handcuffs, one hour of sunlight daily, did not resist the pressure and outrage and ended her life by hanging herself in her cell.

     In order to prevent her companion and partner, Tatiana Pinzon, from also committing suicide, since she was facing the same punishment as Alexandra, our human rights representative, Esmeralda Echeverry, cited on the radio station W-FM the response of the Director for the National Institute of Penitentiaries and Jails (INPEC, by the Spanish initials), Dr. Teresa Moya Suta, on learning of the imminent possibility of the suicide: "let her kill herself, I assume the responsibility." To see this discovered publicly, the director of INPEC retracted [her statement] and ordered the transfer of the inmate, Tatiana Pinzon, but also took unjust retaliation against our human rights representative who was removed from said representation.

     As political prisoners, we denounce the abuses and the outrages that INPEC commits against the inmates, to such point that in the towers for the men, the guards wear hoods in order to beat them with complete impunity.

     WE DEMAND:

1. That guarantees are offered to the human rights representatives for the inmates so that they can fulfill their functions without the possibility of retaliatory measures taken against them.

2. The closure of the women's tower, since it is truthfully a repository for persons for whom their most elemental rights as women and other fundamental rights are not recognized. The Ninth Tower designated for women was opened on the pretext of being able to remove Sonia, a guerrillera of the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army) who was later extradited to the United States, to internal exile.

3. An end to the continued violations of human rights against the persons deprived of liberty in the penitentiary of Valledupar-LA TRAMACUA.

4. That the Colombian state's organs of control in the matter of human rights verify such condition of things and take the corresponding measures in order that so many outrages to our human dignity cease.

     We make a call to the families of the prisoners [male and female], to national and international human rights organizations, and to the academic and university community in order that:

1) They join us in denouncing the alarming situation of human rights violations of the prisoners of the penitentiary of Valledupar-LA TRAMACUA.

2) They become permanent observers of the conditions of the prisoners in different Colombian jails, especially the penitentiary of Valledupar that has become a true centre of punishment.

3) They join us in the revision and elaboration of a Colombian penitentiary and jail policy that offers a just exit to our problem through conditions of clear respect for our dignity and human rights.

4) They send communications of support and demands to the following authorities of the Colombian state:

President of the Republic, Alvaro Uribe Velez, Palacio de Narito, Carrera 8 No.7-2, Bogota, Fax: +57.1.337.5890 / 342.0592, e-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co

Presidential Program of International and Human Rights, director Carlos Franco, e-mail: cefranco@presidencia.gov.co

Asesor Fernando Ibarra, tel: +57.1.336.03.11, fax: +57.1.337.46.67, e-mail: fibarra@presidencia.gov.co

National Ministry of Courts, Diagonal 22B (Av. Luis Carlos Galan No. 52-01) Bloque C, Piso 4, Bogota, Colombia. fax: +57.1.570.2000 (extension 2017), e-mail: denuncias@fiscalia.gov.co or contacto@fiscalia.gov.co

Attorney General Alejandro Ordonez Maldonado, Carrera 5 #15-80, Bogota. Fax +57.1.342.97.23; e-mail: cap@procuraduria.gov.co, quejas@procuraduria.gov.co; y webmaster@procuraduria.gov.co

Nacional Public Defender, Volmar Antonion Perez Ortiz, Calle 55 #10-32, Bogota, Fax +57.1.640.04.91, e-mail: secretaria_privada@hotmail.com; agenda@agenda.gov.co.