“Simon, we will drag you from the shadows and return you to freedom and life"

Colombian revolutionary Simón Trinidad turned 75 on July 30, during his 21st year as a prisoner of US imperialism. Once a valuable thinker and peace negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), four sham trials based on bogus charges saw a US federal court sentence him to 60 years in a Supermax prison. The following message was issued by the Simon Libertad International Campaign.

While it brings joy to celebrate his life and unbreakable spirit, it also deeply saddens the heart to reflect on the long absence of the son, father, brother, friend and comrade.

For 22 years, he has been deprived of his freedom. Twenty-one of those years have been spent in one of the most impenetrable maximum-security prisons in the United States: the Supermax, or “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” in Florence, Colorado.

In the US, Simón has been denied his most basic rights, including access to a trusted lawyer during his trial. Even so, he managed to prove before the jury of conscience that he was innocent of the drug trafficking charge for which he was illegitimately extradited from Colombia on December 31, 2004, ignoring his status as a political prisoner.

When that fabrication collapsed, the authorities charged him anew: “conspiracy to detain three US citizens.” These were the three “contractors,” Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Tom Howes, whose aircraft crashed in an area then under the control of the FARC-EP guerrilla movement, while carrying out aerial intelligence operations in Colombian territory.

Although the three contractors were held by the insurgency, Simón Trinidad had no direct or indirect involvement in the incident. Nevertheless, he was sentenced in the United States to 20 years in prison for each of the contractors.

In prison, his conditions are extreme. According to his US lawyer Mark Burton, “since arriving in the United States, Simón Trinidad has been subjected to inhumane treatment.” He has been held under an extreme regime called Special Administrative Measures (SAM), which severely restricts his contact with the outside world, allowing only rare, heavily monitored calls and visits from a few relatives and his lawyers.

Simón has been kept for years in solitary confinement, in an underground cell– day and night – under a white light, with-out knowing whether it was dawn or dusk. Neither he nor his few visitors are allowed to transmit messages from third parties, nor is he permitted to receive correspondence.

Since 2016, he has been allowed to spend two hours at lunch with three other prisoners, to receive some books, and to watch television. His legal case in the United States, Burton notes, “was closed in 2012, and there are very few chances of reopening it, because under the laws here, it is very difficult. There are some legal avenues, but also political ones. That is why we need your support for Simón’s release.”

Thus, Simón Trinidad is serving a 60- year sentence for crimes he did not commit. He is a war trophy, the result of the hatred of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Vélez and the US empire against the rebel organization FARC-EP, which signed a peace accord in 2016.

Humanitarian repatriation and freedom for Simón Trinidad

The Simón Libertad Campaign expresses gratitude and appreciation for all expressions of solidarity from popular, social, faith-based and humanitarian organizations, and political parties and individuals who have spoken out in support of Simón. It also calls for continued united and coordinated efforts, together with his legal team, to achieve better results, leading to his humanitarian repatriation and freedom.

In this regard, Eduardo Vásquez of the Communist Party of Ecuador stated: “It is necessary to strengthen solidarity with Simón Trinidad, a tireless fighter for peace. It is vitally important that organizations join the campaign for the liberation of our comrade, who represents a contribution to peace and justice in Colombia.”

The Communist Party of Mexico reaffirmed this position, stating: “The freedom of Simón Trinidad is a fundamental issue, especially now that a peace process has developed in Colombia. We believe that throughout this process it was demonstrated that the accusations against Commander Simón Trinidad are baseless, that he is a revolutionary in the truest sense.

“Therefore, it is an act of injustice that he continues to be imprisoned. Like many organizations from different countries, we believe Simón Trinidad should be returned to Colombia to rejoin, with all his characteristic energy, the people’s struggle for a new Colombia.”

Solidarity from all corners of the world

Thousands of messages have been sent to Simón Trinidad from different parts of the world. Here are some of them: “Compañero Simón, from a Buenos Aires that has been battered more than ever lately, I don’t know if I should say ‘Happy Birthday,’ I don’t know if the word happy even applies. I only use it based on the conviction that they have not been able to break you. So, I wish you the best life. possible, the least harsh. A huge embrace, a Bolivarian embrace.” (Nechi Dorado, Argentina)

“A revolutionary greeting, Simón. In your lifetime of militant struggle, I recognize the tireless and unwavering effort to change this profoundly unjust situation and to someday turn it around. Through these 21 years of prison resistance, you have taught us that it is possible to endure and that it is possible to overcome, that no walls or underground prisons can stop hope when it is firm and revolutionary.”(Joseba, Euskal Herria)

We want to embrace Simón with a transcendent love: the revolutionary who had the courage to renounce his class privilege for the cause of an impoverished people; the rebel of iron convictions and deep sensitivity, whom not even the long years of imprisonment in the empire’s prisons have managed to break.

To him we say: “We will tear you from the shadows, we will return you to freedom and to life.”