(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.)

By Kimball Cariou

The urgent appeal for solidarity issued on Sept. 21 by women political prisoners at the Valledupar-La Tramacua penitentiary is the latest expression of many years of resistance against the Colombian state's inhumane prison system.

     Back in 1997, prisons across Colombia were the scene of violent riots against overcrowding and the unfair judicial system. Some of the most serious incidents, involving killings and hostage-takings, occurred at the Valledupar district prison in the department of Cesar and at Popayan prison.

     The situation deteriorated as the so-called "war on drugs" and the US-driven "Plan Colombia" were extended. These strategies were intended to stifle popular discontent against the Colombian regime, and in particular to defeat the FARC-EP and ELN insurgencies in the country. When the regime found it necessary to expand the prison system, an agreement on "cooperation regarding prison improvement" was signed in March 2000 by the US ambassador to Colombia and the Colombian Minister for Justice. The regime turned to the U.S.-based National Institute of Corrections for technical assistance to tighten security.

     For example, the NIC was hired to help "upgrade" the Valledupar penitentiary. Modeled on a U.S. federal jail in Coleman, Florida, it can house up to 1,600 inmates. By 2002, Valledupar had achieved "ISO-9000 certification", making it a supposed model for the rest of the country's jails.

     But in reality, the new high-security units at Valledupar, Acacias and Girardot, costing over $4.5 million, were designed to increase repression and intimidation. These prisons were turned into "theatres of military operation", where civil authority is subordinate to military and police authority, and where constitutional human rights are persistently violated.

     Around the same period, the former government of Andres Pastrana and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) began a peace process in which both parties would release some of their prisoners of war. The FARC kept their promise by releasing an initial 50 prisoners, and then some 200 more as a gesture of commitment to the peace process.

     But the government released only 14 of the 50 sick prisoners initially agreed. Others were sent instead to the new high-security prisons, where they were shackled and put in almost permanent solitary confinement, without medical care. These prisons also had the highest concentrations of right-wing paramilitary inmates. As an article in CounterPunch magazine reported on Nov. 24, 2002, "The National Police, military Rapid Response Forces and the US-trained INPEC Prison Guard frequently parade through the corridors and cells where political prisoners are being held, making intimidating references to their murderous paramilitary house guests."

     The political prisoners in Valledupar faced regular torture and mistreatment, and denial of their right to contact with the outside world. Visiting family and friends were warned that they would be killed if they came back. Getting medical treatment required extreme measures such as slashing their wrists to attract attention.

     The worst sections of Valledupar included the cells of Tower One, 5th Floor, and Tower Five, Isolation and Special Treatment Wing, where humanitarian organizations were barred from conducting inspections.

     Prison guards at Valledupar have attacked journalists. On September 10, 2009, Luisa Alario Solano, a journalist for the daily Q'hubo, and Hernando Vergara, a photographer for the El Heraldo newspaper, were assaulted by INPEC guards in the emergency ward of the Rosario Pumerejo de Lopez hospital, where medical personnel were treating a Valledupar prisoner who had attempted to commit suicide.