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Icardo Palmera, better known by his nom de guerre, Simon Trinidadleader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), was kidnapped in an operation coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency, and carried out by Colombian and local security apparatus, in Quito, Ecuador, on the 2nd January 2004, to be immediately deported to Colombia, and extradited to the United States, by the government of Álvaro Uribe, on December 31 of that year. It should be noted that his presence in Ecuador was due to tasks he carried out as a peace negotiator, in a failed prisoner exchange.
In the US, Simon Trinidad He faced, in several trials, accusations of drug trafficking, which could not be proven and were withdrawn, although finally the courts of that country sentenced him to 60 years, for the charge of conspiring to kidnap three Americans, military contractors of the Northrop corporation. Grumman, who, by the way, carried out an espionage mission supervised by the Southern Command and financed by the so-called Plan Colombia, which formed a core part of the US counterinsurgency strategy, under the pretext of the fight against drug trafficking. These mercenaries were captured when their plane made an emergency landing in FARC territory, while flying through the Caquetá region, where Simon Trinidad It never operated, nor was it responsible.
During these two decades, Simon Trinidad has been held in a maximum security prison in Colorado, known as the Rocky Mountain Gannet
in a small solitary confinement cell, with the light always on, without access to reading, and without the possibility of writing, receiving or sending mail. Independent journalist Tanya Núñez points out that after “years of isolation, recently, Simon He was granted permission to interact with other prisoners and exercise outside his cell for a couple of hours a day. Still, their conditions can only be described as undignified, torturous and completely unjust” (https://acortar.link/x6zv6D).
Based on this background, it is to be celebrated that the American Coordinator for the Rights of Peoples and Victims of Political Imprisonment launches an international campaign to demand that the governments of the United States and Colombia repatriate Simon Trinidadbefore the end of President Joe Biden’s term on January 20, 2025. In an open letter addressed to the two leaders, signed by more than 300 people and human rights organizations from around the world, it is requested that take the pertinent and necessary legal measures to repatriate Ricardo Palmera to Colombia, as soon as possible, so that he can participate in the development of the Total Peace Plan. That until Palmero is repatriated to Colombia, he be allowed to participate in virtual sessions with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (bit.ly/bringsimonhome)
Quite rightly, Jorge Enrique Botero, who writes a book with the significant title an iron manmaintains that Simon Trinidad He is one of the most outstanding Colombians of the 20th century, because in this era it is not easy to find a person who abandons all the comforts of stratum 6 in exchange for being faithful to his ideas.
. Indeed, Ricardo Palmera’s family origins are from a wealthy and politically influential sector, graduating as an economist and working as a university professor for nine years, and a bank manager in Valledupar, northern Colombia, before joining the FARC. His humanistic nature, the political and social circumstances of the time and the enormous inequality and corruption that he witnessed working at the Banco de Comercio in Valledupar, prompted him to become politically active in left-wing organizations and defend peasants and the working class. It was in 1987, after witnessing the murder of most of his friends and comrades within the left-wing political party, Unión Patriótica, that Palmera, under threat himself, decided to leave his family and career and join the rebel guerrillas in the mountain, adopting the new name
(https://derechosdelospueblos.net/).
Having participated in January 1999, as a federal deputy, in the peace talks in El Caguán, Colombia, during the government of Andrés Pastrana, together with the endearing Carlos Payán, then senator, meeting on that occasion the legendary commander Manuel Marulanda, Fixed Shotand Raúl Reyes, an important guerrilla negotiator killed in a bombing of his camp, I consider that the initiative for the liberation and repatriation of Simon Trinidadwill be very important to achieve peace in that brother country, so torn by centuries of wars and bloody armed conflicts.
