Demand freedom and justice for political prisoner David Ravelo. Ravelo is a member of Colombia's Regional Human Rights Corporation and was honored by the Catholic Diocese of Barrancabermeja for his defense of human rights. He was recently convicted to 18 years in prison for what is widely regarded as a sham trial by national and international human rights organizations.
The North American Committee to Free David Ravelo has drafted a sign-on letter in English and Spanish reprinted below, along with additional background information that they have provided. Click Here to add your name as endorsing the letter for David Ravelo. For More Information: freedavidravelo@gmail.com or atwhit@roadrunner.com.
SIGN ON LETTER IN ENGLISH, FOLLOWED BY SPANISH
Dr. Eduardo Montealegre Lynett, Fiscal General de la Nación, Fiscalía General,Dg. 22B No. 52-01 (Ciudad Salitre)Edf. C P.4, Bogotá, Colombia
Dear Dr. Montealegre,
This letter concerns David Ravelo (cédula de ciudadanía 13.887.558) who was arrested on September 14, 2010. He is presently wrongly held by your government at La Picota Prison in Bogota. It was announced on December 11, 2012 that he had been convicted of “aggravated homicide” and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Those of us signing this letter regard the judicial process delivering Mr. Ravelo to a long prison term as unjust and erroneous.
The pretext for David Ravelo’s arrest and conviction is the allegation he participated in the murder in 1991 of David Núñez Cala, Secretary of Public Works in Barrancabermeja. That charge is false. David Ravelo is innocent. He must be released from prison.
Both Mr. Ravelo’s family and his colleagues at the CREDHOS human rights organization in Barrancabermeja have long been subjected to death threats. The Colombian government must guarantee their safety.
Your government’s purpose in inflicting a long prison sentence on David Ravelo, we suspect, was to silence a recognized defender of human rights. David Ravelo was instrumental in publicizing abuses and violence in Barrancabermeja at the hands of murderous paramilitary criminals.
Conduct of Mr. Ravelo’s trial was scandalous. The case against him rested on accusations from two jailed paramilitary murderers who, by testifying, gained reductions in their sentences. Witness Orlando Noguera testified that the accusers tried to bribe him to corroborate their story. Over 30 witnesses prepared to defend David Ravelo were prevented from testifying at his trial.
Corruption and fakery marking David Ravelo’s trial is epitomized in the role played by prosecutor William Pacheco Granados. In 1991, Granados was a police lieutenant in Armenia. There, he helped arrange for the forced disappearance of Guillermo Hurtado Parra. Colombian law bans perpetrators of such crimes from service as a public official. Yet the Colombian state used Pacheco Granados, designated as “Prosecutor 22 of the National Anti-Terrorist Unit,” as its agent in putting David Ravelo in prison.
Prosecutor Pacheco Granados is a criminal. David Ravelo is neither a criminal nor a terrorist. He must be freed.
The world is watching. United Nations human rights specialists and the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights have come to David Ravelo’s defense. In December, 2012, British parliamentarians denounced his trial and conviction. (http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article9850) Dozens of European and U. S. human rights, labor and lawyers’ groups have done likewise. (http://www.fidh.org/Colombia-International-12579 and http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/IMG/pdf/Carta_al_Fiscal_caso_David_Rabelo.pdf)
We join these international human rights advocates. We call for justice to be done, now.
Sincerely yours,
(name, address, email, ?affiliation)
(Copies go to: Maria Ángela Holguin Cuellar, Colombian Foriegn Minister; Carlos Urrutia Valenzuela, Colombian Ambassador in Washington;Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, President of Colombia; P. Michael McKinley, U.S. Ambassador in Colombia.)
