Close Colombia’s La Tramacúa, US Funded and Designed Prison
By the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ) February 2015
The
Alliance for
Global Justice (AfGJ) recently received encouraging news--that Colombia's
Constitution Court has demanded that the federal penitentiary in Valledupar,
Colombia - "La Tramacúa" - be closed by October 2015 if the terrible
conditions and regularity of abuses committed there are not brought to an end.
However, since that decision was rendered, the abuses and inhumane conditions
have persisted.
AfGJ recently sent
the statement included below to Colombian and US authorities. We are pleased to
let you know that the Ombudsman's office of the national government has
responded and agreed to look into the concerns we raised, including that they
will undertake a visit of verification.
We believe this is a
winnable struggle that can be an important step toward the larger efforts to
end the model of mass incarceration in Colombia,
the United States and around the world. The US is building prisons and/or
advising prison systems in at least 25 countries. This whole effort is
something we call "prison imperialism", and it started in Colombia
with the construction of La Tramacúa.
We are therefore asking two things:
1) That our supporters sign a petition calling for the immediate
closure of La Tramacúa (see below)
2) That peace and
justice organizations write solidarity statements calling for La Tramacua's
closure. If possible, write statements in Spanish with an English translation,
and send to james@afgj.org .
You can find an
English translation of AfGJ's statement on La Tramacúa here.
Petition to Close La
Tramacúa:
CLOSE LA TRAMACUA, COLOMBIA'S FIRST PRISON FUNDED
AND ADVISED BY US GOVERNMENT! At La Tramacua, temperatures get as high as 105
degrees, with no form of cooling, but prisoners are granted access to
water only 10 minutes a day. Toilets are frequently nonfunctioning and
open sewage has been observed running by the kitchen. Fecal contamination of
food has been documented by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and
other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Inmates are often
subjected to harsh punishments, even torture, especially political prisoners
and prisoners of war. La Tramacua was built with US Federal Bureau of Prisons
and USAID funding as part of an effort to restructure the Colombian prison
system. We call on the Colombian government to immediately close La
Tramacua. We call on the US Congress and White House to investigate abusive
conditions allowed to flourish at La Tramacúa and
other penitentiaries that are funded by US tax payers and advised by US government
agents. |