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The frame-up of Ricardo Palmera
Berta Joubert-Ceci / Wednesday 25 October 2006
 

Ricardo Palmera, a peace negotiator from the FARC-EP (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces-Popular Army), is currently being tried in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., where he was extradited from his homeland on Dec. 31, 2004, on charges of kidnapping, terrorism and drug trafficking.

This is an important and crucial trial. It is the first of this nature, with an insurgent from another country being tried in criminal court in the United States. Although widely covered by Colombian and other international media, news of the case has been notoriously absent from the commercial media in this country, giving the impression that there is a media white-out.

The trial on drug trafficking will be a separate case that will be heard after the conclusion of the current case of kidnapping and terrorism.

The charges of kidnapping against Palmera—better known by his Simón Bolívar-inspired pseudonym “Simón Trinidad”—stem from a February 2003 incident in which a small plane flown by U.S. contractors/agents fell over territory controlled by the insurgents in Caquetá, in the south of Colombia. These contractors were among the many U.S. military or military-associated personnel sent by the United States to Colombia to fight against the insurgency under Plan Colombia. The agents—Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves—have since been kept captive by the FARC.

Trinidad was extradited to the United States place after Colombian President Álvaro Uribe issued an ultimatum to the FARC. With no possibility of negotiation, he unilaterally demanded that the insurgents release all captives by Dec. 30, as the only condition for annulment of the extradition order.

Trinidad is not charged with direct involvement in the kidnapping. Rather, the crime for which he is being tried under the new U.S. antiterrorism legal framework is “association.” He is charged with “conspiracy” to commit the crime of hostage taking. The Colombian government accuses Trinidad of trying to force a prisoner exchange using the three captive U.S. agents.

The fact is, however, that Trinidad had gone to Ecuador at the request of the FARC to contact James Lemoyne, a United Nations representative with whom Trinidad had spoken before, about possible peace negotiations with the Colombian government. This fact has been twisted into the accusation that Trinidad was pressuring the Colombian government to exchange the approximately 500 FARC prisoners in Colombian jails in return for the 60 or so captives of the FARC, including the three U.S. agents.

The meeting never took place since the combined action of the Interpol, CIA and the Colombian and Ecuadorian armed forces captured—or rather, kidnapped—Trinidad in Quito, Ecuador, on Jan. 2, 2004. He was then extradited to Colombia, where he remained in maximum security prison until Dec. 31.

There he faced 100 charges of terrorism, kidnapping, drug trafficking and rebellion that guaranteed 81 months in prison, according to his lawyer in Colombia, Oscar Silva. In fact Trinidad is being tried on these charges right now in Colombia even though he is not present, forbidden to be there by Thomas Horgan, the U.S. federal judge presiding over his case here.

The charge of terrorism is based on U.S. President Bill Clinton having designated the insurgent FARC as a “terrorist” organization in 1997. Therefore, Trinidad is now charged with aiding and giving material support to a “terrorist” group.

The trial

The opening date of the trial in Washington had to be postponed from Oct. 10 to Oct. 16 because the jury had not been selected on time. The jury of 12 regulars and three alternates is made up of eight women and seven men selected from a pool of 50.

Who is the judge? Judge Chief Judge Thomas Hogan was an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. Hogan has ruled on behalf of the FBI in several occasions. According to the Wikipedia, he “ordered Judith Miller of the New York Times jailed after she refused to disclose her confidential source to a grand jury and in May he “signed the search warrant authorizing the FBI to search the Capitol building offices of U.S. Congressman William Jefferson, the only such search in United States history.” He also ruled in July “that an FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman’s Capitol Hill office was legal.”

According to the website www.vetsforjustice.com, “He joined the ongoing conspiracy to hide the truth in Case 84-0399, a lawsuit filed by a 100% Service-Connected Disabled Combat Veteran against the Veterans Administration.”

His long instructions to the jury in the Trinidad case were very complicated and difficult to understand. This is a very difficult case as it is, with the jury having to understand Latin America, Colombia—jurors had to be shown a map so they could place that country, insurgency, U.S. foreign relations, and so on. The jury can take notes but must leave the notebook in the court before leaving. They will not have access to transcripts. The judge was very emphatic when he told the jury, “You have to rely entirely on the notes you take and what you hear.”

In order to get into the courtroom you have to go through two checkpoints with metal detectors. There had been rumors before the beginning of the trial trying to scare the public away, saying that the FARC would attempt to kill witnesses.

Trinidad is being held incommunicado. He has not even been allowed to choose his own lawyer. He cannot attend his trial in Colombia nor communicate with his relatives there.

He appeared very pale the first day in court. He was however dressed in a dark blue suit, without shackles. The last time he was in court he had been dressed in prison uniform, shackled and with no access to interpreters. This time there were three interpreters and Trinidad movingly thanked them with a big smile at the end of the hearing.

If convicted he could face the death penalty. However, because of the extradition agreement between Colombia and the United States, he could face a maximum penalty of 30 years since the death penalty doest not exist in Colombia.

When the defense presented its arguments, the prosecution objected twice, something that Paul Wolf, a lawyer in the audience, said it is very uncommon during opening statements. The first objection came when the defense presented some historical context, explaining how the FARC had attempted to participate in national political life through the formation of the Patriotic Union. This development was very successful in gathering support and representatives in government, but the Colombian government bloodily betrayed its promise of protection and security for the UP members, ending in the assassination of thousands of UP members including presidential candidates.

The prosecution’s second objection came when the defense started to mention the violence from the state, the use of the so-called U.S. private contractors and the bombing of civilians as happened in Santo Domingo in the Arauca region.

A bomb explodes in Bogota

For several weeks the Colombian people and the relatives of those held by the insurgents, including the mother of captive presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, were very attentive and their hopes rose with the possibility of peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC. Because of internal and external pressures, steps were already being taken for the possibility of negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners. That possibility, including the possibility that Simon Trinidad could be part of that exchange, is now gone.

On Oct. 19, a car bomb exploded in the middle of the School and University of Nueva Granada in the north part of Bogota, the most important military installation of its kind in the nation with a complex of buildings under very tight security. Uribe immediately accused the FARC; the following day he spoke at the Nueva Granada University and announced the end of any possibility of negotiations and, more dangerously, that the Colombian Armed Forces would now attempt the military rescue of the FARC captives. This has frightened the relatives who know from experience that their loved ones could die in the crossfire. This “rescue” is an action that even the mother of Gonsalves, who goes daily to the hearing in Washington, has rejected.

There are many reports from Colombia that raise questions about who was responsible for this explosion. Even the Colombian general prosecutor, Mario Iguarán, stated that there is no evidence to accuse the guerrillas.

The explosion has conveniently handed Uribe an excuse to turn his back on peace negotiations and instead to harden his fascist-like policies. During his speech, he also proposed a special tax to fund the anti-guerrilla campaign, and a call for France, Spain and Switzerland, countries that were mediating between the FARC and the government, to instead help militarily. He also accused Ecuador and Venezuela of harboring FARC leaders.

The relatives and human rights organizations in Colombia called for a protest on Oct. 24, under the slogan “No al rescate a sangre y fuego” (No to the Rescue with Blood and Fire).