June, 02 2009, 07:24pm EDT
Test Case for Colombian Supreme Court to End Widespread Criminalization of Activism
Colombian Activist, Victim of Arbitrary Detention, Seeks Annulment of Trumped-Up Charges
NEW YORK
A test case filed today with the Colombian Supreme Court could mark a
turning point in Colombia's efforts to end the criminalization of human
rights defenders, according to Human Rights First (HRF), a New
York-based international human rights organization.
Principe Gabriel Gonzalez Arango, a student activist and member of
the Colombian Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee, has filed an
appeal with the Colombian Supreme Court seeking an extraordinary remedy
(casacion) to quash his malicious terrorism conviction.
"This appeal gives Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice a historic
opportunity to overturn years of arbitrary detention and unjust
persecution against Gonzalez," said Andrew Hudson, Senior Associate at
HRF. "The Supreme Court should send a strong message that it will not
tolerate abuse of the judicial system to intimidate and silence human
rights defenders."
According to Gonzalez's legal team, this is the first time a human
rights defender has sought this type of extraordinary remedy from the
Colombian Supreme Court. The precedential value of this case is
enormous, and a strong decision by the Supreme Court would help dozens
of other Colombian activists who are victims of baseless criminal
prosecutions. "Gonzalez's case is just the tip of the iceberg.
Throughout Colombia, human rights defenders are subject to trumped-up
charges intended to persecute them" said Hudson.
Gonzalez was detained in Bucaramanga for more than one year starting
in 2006, and remained incarcerated while awaiting trial on charges of
rebellion and of being in charge of an urban militia force linked to
the FARC guerrilla group. At trial, a judge acquitted him of all
charges, finding that they were baseless and should never have been
initiated. Inexplicably, the acquittal was appealed, and in March 2009,
after two years of liberty, the Superior Tribunal of Bucaramanga
overturned the lower court's judgment and sentenced Gonzalez to seven
more years in prison for the same false charges. The prosecution relied
on two witnesses: one who was unable to physically identify or even
name Gonzalez before he was detained, and the other who admitted to
providing statements under duress from prosecutors.
Gonzalez's appeal to the Supreme Court argues that his conviction is
void for two reasons. First, it violates his right to defense by
failing to inform him that a preliminary investigation against him was
underway. Second, for error of reasoning by accepting contradictory and
incoherent witness evidence from ex-combatants receiving re-integration
benefits from the state.
A range of international entities have expressed concern about
Gonzalez's prosecution: the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on
Human Rights Defenders, and the United States Department of State.
According to HRF, Gonzalez's case is emblematic of many others. In February 2009, the group released In the Dock and Under the Gun: Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia,
a comprehensive report that, for the first time, documented the
widespread use of trumped-up charges to silence Colombian human rights
activists.
HRF and Gonzalez's legal team are currently considering whether to
take the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Further information:
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
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Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first Southern autoworkers not employed by one of the Big Three car manufacturers to win a union Friday night when they voted to join the United Auto Workers by a "landslide" majority.
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"Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly before we announced this campaign, 'You can't win in the South,'" UAW president Shawn Fain told the victorious workers in a video shared by UAW. "They said Southern workers aren't ready for it. They said non-union autoworkers didn't have it in them. But you all said, 'Watch this!' And you all moved a mountain."
"This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
According to the UAW's real-time results, the vote tally now stands at 2,628—or 73%—yes to 985—or 27%—no. Voting at the around 4,300-worker plant began Wednesday.
The Chattanooga workers announced their current union drive in December 2023. Friday's victory follows two failed unionization attempts at the plant in 2014 and 2019.
"We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking," Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW's proficiency room, said in a statement. "You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That's why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there's no way to stop them."
The union's win comes despite the opposition of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
"Today, I joined fellow governors in opposing the UAW's unionization campaign," Lee said on social media Tuesday. "We want to keep good-paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers."
However, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) celebrated the win.
"Watching history tonight in Chattanooga, as Volkswagen workers voted in a landslide to join the UAW," he wrote on social media Friday night. "Despite pressure from Gov. Lee, this is the first auto plant in the South to unionize since the 1940s. This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
Other national labor leaders and progressive politicians also congratulated the Chattanooga workers.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said the win "shows what we already know—workers in every part of this country want the freedom to join a union, and when we stand together, we have tremendous power. Even though the deck is stacked against us, momentum is on our side, and we're winning."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "This is a huge victory not only for UAW workers at Volkswagen, but for every worker in America. The tide is turning. Workers all across the country, even in our most conservative states, are sick and tired of corporate greed and are demanding economic justice."
"I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the results "an utterly historic victory for the working class."
"Tennessee is shining bright tonight," she wrote on social media Friday. "We are in a new era. Congratulations to the courageous workers in Chattanooga and the entire UAW. Absolutely heroic. Solidarity IS the strategy—across the South, and all over the country."
More Perfect Union said the victory would "change the auto industry, and the future of American labor," and the campaign organizers themselves are aware of the importance of what they've accomplished.
"We understand that the world's watching us," worker Isaac Meadows, who has been at the plant for one year, told More Perfect Union. "You know there's a labor movement in this country, you know, we're poised to be the first domino of many to fall."
Worker Kelcey Smith, who has also been at the plant for one year, added, "I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
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"The real fight begins now," Fain told cheering workers. "The real fight is getting your fair share. The real fight is the fight to get more time with your families. The real fight is the fight for our union contract."
"And I can guarantee you one thing," Fain continued, "this international unionist leadership, this membership all over this nation has your back in this fight."
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