We reject the campaign of criminalisation and persecution against Marco Antonio Sosa González

The organisations below are signing to reject and denounce, before the national and international communities, the grave situation of persecution and harassment against Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez on the part of State Intelligence bodies and the National Police.

We reject the campaign of criminalisation and persecution against Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez. The organisations below are signing to reject and denounce, before the national and international communities, the grave situation of persecution and harassment against Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez on the part of State Intelligence bodies and the National Police.

Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez is a member of the Black Cross Anarchists, a group of libertarian character that has done important work in the promotion and defence of human rights, including denunciation activities, protest and solidarity with political prisoners. Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez has been unconditionally committed to the construction of spaces for the promotion and diffusion of campaigns against the brutality of the police (especially in relation to the homicide of Nicolas Neira by the Anti-disruption Mobile Unit-ESMAD-that occurred on 1st May 2005) and against the multi-nationals responsible for violations of human rights in the country, among other activities.

As a direct result of his involvement in such activities, Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez has been a victim- for several years- of persecution, threats, hostility and maltreatment by agents of the state that belong to intelligence bodies (DAS, SIJIN) and the National Police, and actually various strands of the media, principally City News, in an irresponsible manner that has led to a campaign to discredit and criminalise him, putting at risk his personal security and integrity.

Events

Last May 1st, in broad daylight, Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez travelled from the place where he met the group marching until Simon Bolivar Square, when a civil servant of the Government Secretary sought his presence and collaboration with a small group of protesters that he met surrounded by ESMAD.

Standing there Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez talked with civil servants of the Government Secretary and the Public Defence Counsel, including General Rodolfo Palomino of the National Police, in order to guarantee the correct treatment of the protesters. General Palomino promised to permit the exit of the latter, once they had left the Palace of Justice. However, as Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez has explained in a communication, while they were there, during this process of mediation and collaboration the protesters were provoked and attacked by agents of ESMAD.

Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez appealed for an explanation to the General as to what was happening, but he received no response from anyone. Subsequently, he was detained and transferred to Station XVII, situated in the Candelaria district, along with one of his comrades, without any indication why. Once they arrived there, the police argued that they were detained "because they were at the point of participating in the disturbances" that had been taking place in the centre of the city.

Once Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez arrived at the holding cells of the Police station in Candelaria, one of the agents attacked him brutally with punches against him, leaving him incapacitated physically for seven days. Subsequently, General Palomino arrived at the station and ordered his release. However, while in the process of actually leaving, this same officer in an exalted tone publicly signalled him out as a person who exercised a depraved leadership and was responsible for the disturbances that had taken place that day and who was "subverting the city".

With these unfounded allegations on the part of the National Police, is summed up the campaign to discredit and criminalise Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez, undertaken by some parts of the media, among them "City News", transmitted daily on the channel City TV. Here, on May 2nd, they broadcast a report, characterised in a sensationalist tone, without any rigorous investigation, the null and void confrontation of the participants and the total absence of political clarity in where they signalled Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez as the "leader" and "principal organiser" of these disturbances that took place in the centre of the city, violating his intimate right in showing publicly his personal details through the screen of a computer belonging to intelligence bodies in where they had these registered in great detail. At the end of the report, it said that Sosa along with other activists were to be "tried" by the authorities, reducing him to the rank of a criminal and putting his personal security at risk.

We demand and invoke the respect of different political and cultural expressions, and as activists for human rights, we express our solidarity with Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez and reject emphatically the calumny and the campaign of criminalisation against him, carried out publicly in a manner very irresponsible by sections of the media.

We put the responsibility with the Colombian state at the head of the National Police and the Intelligence bodies DAS, SIJIN, DIJIN- and the lack of journalistic responsibility of City News, for whatever attempt against the personal integrity of Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez that may take place.

We call on the national and international communities to demand that the Colombian Government put an end to this unjust persecution, the campaign being carried out to discredit Marco Antonio Sosa Gonzalez, who for sure has had to leave the country on many occasions and who actually cannot move around freely in fear of his security and personal integrity.

Organisations signed:

-Legal Corporation for a Valid Humanity
-Foundation Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners
-Collective Corporation of Lawyers "José Alvear Restrepo"
-National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE)
-Grúpa Fréamhacha / Grupo Raíces (Ireland)