Support the Colombian people

International Action Center, March 4, 2008

The International Action Center urges everyone to support the Colombian people at this critical moment. Over the past weekend, relations between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador became very tense when the Colombian government with the complicity of the U.S. crossed illegally into Ecuador and invaded this neighboring country. The Colombian government rained many bombs and cowardly executed a group of insurgent forces from the FARC-EP, including Raul Reyes, Chancellor in charge of International Relations.

On March 6 there will be actions around the U.S. and around the world in solidarity with the Colombian people. Information about the New York event follows including statements from Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.

No matter where you stand with regards to the armed players in Colombia, the need to call for peace in Colombia and an end to state terrorism is urgently needed.

For those Disappeared, Displaced, Massacred, & Executed

There are 3,855,000 displaced persons.
31,000 persons have disappeared since 1990. There are 10,000 presently in 3,000 common graves.
1,771 union members have been murdered in the last decade.
The paramilitaries assassinate 800 persons per year on average.
Since the Uribe administration took office in 2002 and began its so called policy of "democratic security" 955 persons have been executed extra-judicially and 7,500 persons have been arbitrarily detained. 486 Colombians were assassinated by the state in the year 2007.

March 6, join us to accompany the victims of the Paramilitaries, the Parapoliticians & Agents of the state!

No more Common Graves. No more Forced Displacement. No more Paramilitaries. No more Parapoliticians. No more crimes by the State. No More US military aid to Colombia.

March 6, 2008 - 4 pm - Come Join our Vigil
140 East 57th Street & Lexington Avenue - New York, N.Y.
In front of The Mission of Colombia to the United Nations

Noam Chomsky's statement supporting the vigil on March 6, 2008

For far too long, Colombians have suffered torture, displacement, disappearance, and general misery under the dark shadow of paramilitary and military terror, constantly taking new and more menacing forms. To our everlasting shame, citizens of the United States have unwittingly made a decisive contribution to these horrors for close to half a century. The vigil on March 6 is a courageous stand by the victims and their supporters, in Colombia and around the world, a passionate plea for this savagery to be brought to a final end. Please join them in any way you can, and help to bring to this wonderful country the justice and peace that its people richly deserve.

Noam Chomsky,
February 14,2008

Howard Zinn's statement supporting the vigil

Dear friends:

I am pleased to invite those who receive this message to support the march and vigils plan for March 6, 2008 in support of the victims of paramilitary violence and of abuses by the Colombian Army and Police. Paramilitary violence, often supported by agents of the Colombian state, has taken thousands of lives and left millions of rural Colombians displaced in recent years. While a series of public demonstrations in Colombia and elsewhere on February 4th called attention to the human rights violations of the FARC guerrillas--- including massacres, selective killings and kidnapping--- the suffering of the victims of paramilitary violence and of abuses by the Colombian state security forces have not received the same broad public attention.

Now , however the Movements of Crimes of the State ( MOVICE) and other social and human rights organizations in Colombia are planning to bring the plight of the victims of the paramilitaries and the Colombian state to public attention in Colombia and abroad through a series of events in remembrance of them. These events are being promoted by the Colombia Support Network (CSN), to whose Advisory Council I belong. Please contact CSN for more details.

Sincerely

Howard Zinn,
February 10, 2008