I DEMAND AN END TO THE INHUMANE CONDITIONS AT LA TRAMACUA PRISON IN VALLEDUPAR, COLOMBIA…designed and advised by the US BUREAU OF PRISONS!

At La Tramacua, temperatures get as high as 105 degrees, with no form of cooling, but prisoners are granted access to water only 10 minutes a day.  There are no sanitary toilets and open sewage runs by the kitchen.  Fecal contamination of food has been documented by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and other national and international agencies.  Inmates are subjected to harsh punishments--even torture, especially  political prisoners.  La Tramacua was built with US Federal Bureau of Prisons and USAID funding.   It is the first of at least eleven prisons being built by the US and Colombia to establish a “New Penitentiary Culture”--what appears to be a culture of repression and abuse.  We therefore demand that:

1)      The prisoners of La Tramacua be granted immediate access to potable water 24 hours a day;

2)       They be supplied with sanitary, working toilets;

3)       Inhumane punishments and all forms of torture cease immediately;

4)      That the US Congress open immediate investigations into the US Bureau of Prisons and USAID relationship with Colombian prisons to assess their culpability in allowing these conditions to occur.

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