He was one of the commanders of the Caribbean Bloc of the guerrilla FARC-EP for three decades and a member of the Central Staff. Santrich is also a writer, musician, painter and historian. Besides being one of the negotiators in the Havana talks, he participated in the drafting of the Agreements. From the department of Atlántico, he was elected Congresswoman of Colombia. But these days will be a year when he was an architect of the Accords in an isolation cell. Let us explain, albeit briefly, the context.

The Havana Agreements are based on a deep-rooted political conflict. Although the historical reasons are many, the social, political and armed conflict has its origin in land and rural development. The insurgency guerrilla group FARC-EP was founded in 1964 by 48 peasants who rose up in the face of the repression and bombardment of the peasants of Marquetalia. In the context of this social majority that lived at the foot of the anti-democratic bipartisanship and the economic elite, the guerrillas were born in response to misery and repression and fed for half a century thanks to the farmers, the afros, the indigenous and the most committed citizens.

For five decades, all Colombian generations have known an open internal war. Data are raw: 262,000 deaths, 80,000 missing, 10,000 false positives, 6 million internally displaced… According to the most belligerent or negotiating position of the government in turn.

After going through three negotiation processes (La Uribe 1982-1987, Tlaxcala 1992, San Vicente del Caguan 1999-2002), the Colombian state has developed war strategies with the insurgency (FARC-EP, ELN, M-19, EPL, Quintín Lame …), from assimilation to annihilation. In the turn of the twentieth century, with the expansion of the FARC-EP guerrillas, both by the guerrillas (more than 30,000) and by the occupation of the territories (until the area of Bogotá), Uribismo launched the “Plan Colombia” with the help of the United States. Its main objective was to destroy the guerrillas in collaboration with paramilitarism, while having a clear geopolitical objective, as it allowed the United States to take root its political, economic and military interventionism throughout South America. The seven military bases that were built witnessed this. But despite all the imaginable violations of human rights, even dividing the peasants with chainsaw, this offensive did not manage to put an end to the rebels and their support.

As he did not achieve the results that sought the total confrontation of the paramilitary Uribe, then came the Colombian oligarchy representing the governments of Santos and, with the reflection and decision of the great entrepreneurs, entered into peace negotiations with the guerrillas of the FARC-EP. Discouraged by the military victory and after the conclusion that an endless draw damaged more than its class interests.

Soon after the signing of the Havana Accords, however, Uribism returned to the Government by the hand of Duque. The far-right parapolitics of the Civic Center, which it represents, has sought since the beginning to sabotage the Agreements, as they live from conflict and conflict, and on the other hand, because they want to continue hiding their criminal implication before the Truth Commission and the Special Title for Peace (JEP).

In the context of innumerable violations of the Agreement of the two Governments (which I will explain in a second more specific article), the United States launched a repressive machinery against those who most pointed to those responsible, carrying out illegal military operations and anti-agreements to arrest Ivan Márquez, Oscar Montero, Romagna and others, who have since been “hidden”, and detained for false accusations.

Colombia's High Prosecutor, Néstor Humberto Martínez Neira, involved in numerous cases of corruption and well-known opposition to the Havana Accords, conducted a police assembly aimed at Santrich, with the help of the infiltrate agency DEA of the United States. Under the false accusation of having sent ten tons of cocaine to the United States, Santrich was imprisoned pending extradition. Although they know perfectly well that the fate of Jesus Santrich is entirely linked to that of the Peace Accords, since, in addition to being one of the main negotiators, his extradition to the United States would become a precedent for all the guerrillas.

From the outset, Santrich went on an indefinite hunger strike until, contrary to the wishes of the corrupt prosecutor, his cause was transferred from ordinary jurisdiction to the JEP. This meant that the JEP could analyse its cause and introduce it into the validity of the evidence, unlike the ordinary extradition procedure. After analyzing the JEP's alleged tests against Santrich in the New York Court, where there are no causes in Colombia, all the videos, audios and tests disseminated by the prosecutor with the help of the media have remained in nothing, as the U.S. ambassador acknowledged. There was no cocaine, no Sinaloa signs (they were infiltrated by the DEA), no recorded reviews on the theme of Santrich. Since then, Santrich’s freedom remains entrenched in the political struggle between supporters and opponents of the Agreements, Uribism uses the issue to delegitimize and modify the JEP.

Meanwhile, pending the final decision of the JEP, Santrich remains chained to the judicial bureaucracy. Upright, dignified, as an enthusiastic defender of the dream of a new Colombia and sworn in Bolibar that it will not survive them. Santrich is currently, for those who would like to eliminate it, the exponent of the memory of what was agreed in Havana.

For all these reasons, I call for the freedom of all political prisoners in Colombia, Simon Trinidad, imprisoned in the United States by these French tellers, and Jesus Santrich, in cell 26 of La Piedad. Even though an entire ocean moves us away, internationalism and some righteous ideals unite us.

In these terrible and exemplary days for the Kurds, we cannot fail to mention the indefinite hunger strike being carried out by the seven thousand political prisoners of the PKK and the PAJK, demanding that the isolation of Öçalan be put to an end, breaking the fascism of government of the AKP and the freedom of Kurdistan. History is written in resistance.

* Iurdan Martitegi Lizaso is a Basque political prisoner. Tomorrow we will publish the second article on the tragic trajectory of the Havana agreements.

More information about Jesus Santrich:

Website of the campaign to ask for the freedom of Santrich.