Amnesty International is holding its annual general meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia today, and the key-note speaker is a man they worked hard to free.
His story is one of inspiration
Angel Amilcar Colon Quevedo was a challenging case for the human rights organization. Alex Neve, the head of Amnesty Canada, met him in prison at the Mexican military base in September 2014. As a result of the global campaign Angel was released on October 15, 2015.
ListenBut the campaign continues for Angel Colon. He is continuing the fight for justice. While he was released and the charges against him were dropped, the only evidence being a confession extracted under torture, Angel wants to raise awareness and pursue a day of reckoning for those responsible for the torture he suffered. This includes Mexico’s police force, the military, the commander of the base where the torture occurred, as well as the justice officials who ignored his reports of torture.
He is campaigning, with the support of Amnesty International, so that no one else suffers what he did. Kathy Price says without this quest for justice the torture will continue.
Angel Colon, originally from Honduras, was making his way through Mexico to the United States in a desperate attempt to make money to send back to his family for the treatment for his son, who was suffering from cancer. As the former president of OFRANEH, the acronym for the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, the group that fights for the rights of Afro-descendant communities in that country, he was mistaken for the leader of an organized-crime group.
Along with the horrific torture he endured, Colon was unable to contact his family for over 18 months, and he could not contact the Honduran embassy, in violation of International law
Kathy Price says Angel’s former experience as a human rights defender in Honduras, helped him survive and kept him going in the Mexican prison, and provided him the where-with-all to make contact with Amnesty somehow.
A “very serious human rights crisis”
Kathy Price says his story is one of inspiration, and demonstrates the power of activism, for all those involved in the work of Amnesty International. She says so many Canadians know Mexico as an oasis in the winter, a favoured destination, but all is not well beyond the seaside resorts. Price calls it a “very serious human rights crisis”.
Angel Colon will be visiting Ottawa this week, speaking to people in the department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and addressing a special hearing of parliament’s sub-comittee on international human rights. Price says Angel’s experience is not an isolated case.
Canada has a very close relationship with Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and therefore it has both a responsibility and an obligation to speak out.
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