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Good interview with a Colombian activist. Part of it goes to show how much many of the downtrodden around the world have much in common as well as the unified oligarchs worldwide (however they may actually fight each other). 

Following is an interview with Andrey Tellez from last Summer, 2021. We are publishing it here on the occasion of the second anniversary of the 2020 Bogotá police massacre that left 14 people dead in one day. The following interview was arranged by then-Bogotá City Councilor Susana Muhamad, who is now Colombia's Minister of the Environment. They were joined by her Aide, Alejandro Mazuera. 

Excerpt: 

JPJ: Can you describe a little of what happened on the day of your arrest? 

AT: We learned the fateful news of the law student Javier Ordoñez who was brutally beaten by the National Police and who died. There was a call through social networks, and we decided to go to that CAI to show our dissatisfaction with everything that had been happening.... 

I started to record, although I had withdrawn a little because they were shooting in the air and also at people's bodies and I got really scared. A policeman approaches me, points a gun at me. I tell him that I am a Human Rights Defender and that I am recording. He threatens to shoot, but fortunately he does not fire his gun. He turns around and goes down towards the avenue, takes off his helmet, and I try to record his face since he threatened me. When I try to do this, I am stopped by a police officer who tells me that he is going to take me to the CAI. I tell him that I am not causing a problem, that I am not doing anything wrong. 

At that moment the police officer who had threatened me tries to take my cell phone and I do not allow it. He almost ripped off my finger, the nail was completely black, and another police officer had me from the back, and another one hit me with his knife in my abdomen. They couldn't take my cell phone, but in the struggle, I damaged my shoulder because another policeman hit me with a stout Billy club in the right side. I was left unconscious just because I was recording. I fell to the ground and the policemen kept hitting me. My glasses fell and a policeman stepped on them and broke them completely. He stole my cell phone so I have no proof of what I am saying, although there are some cameras around that can verify everything.... 

JPJ: What is the role of the international community, especially the U.S., with respect to your case, and with respect to the Colombian situation? 

AT: Three things. One has to do with pressure on the U.S. government to review the aid that is being processed for a murderous and genocidal police force. It is fundamental that this be discussed in the U.S. What is the role that the police really play in Colombia? Does the support that the U.S. is sending make human rights violations and the murder of defenseless civilians possible in this country? This would be the first task.

Anyhow, good to hear there are some anti-monarch types in England still. I wish them the best. I do find it funny that every keeps saying "oh she's just a figurehead" when in all actuality, the forced mourning period (no PL soccer games, a target at the working class) shows it does matter. 

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