Press and Radio Release

A delegation from the Medellín International Poetry Festival, made up of Fernando Rendón, Gabriel Jaime Franco and Gloria Chvatal, received the 2006 Alternative Nobel Prize at the seat of the Swedish Parliament, in Stockholm, on December 8th past.

Before and after the ceremony this delegation met with the speaker of the Swedish Parliament Birgitta Sellén, and with a number of members of parliament from different political forces within Sweden, including Bodil Ceballos, Eva Selin and Kerstin Lundgren, as well as the Green member of the Euro parliament Carl Schlyter whom we updated regarding the serious political crisis which is deteriorating our country, due to the investigation being carried out by the Inspector General of the Nation against 40 members of the Colombian government for their links with paramilitaries, which has had a direct political impact on the President of the Republic, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and his chancellor Consuelo Araújo.

In Uppsala we also met with Henning Melber, the executive director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, whom expressed his preoccupation and sorrow due to the tragedy which the Colombian people have lived through for decades.

Fernando Rendón, Festival Director, carried out an agenda of interviews in Berlin, with the Vice-president of the Bundestag – German Parliament-, Mr. Wolfgang Thierse and with the member of parliament Monika Griefahn, among others, who were profoundly interested in understanding the origins and nature of the Colombian conflict and in finding out how the German Parliament may help towards its definite solution.

Both the Swedish and German Parliaments are working to set up multi-party commissions, which will come to Colombia to attend as witnesses the XVII Medellín International Poetry Festival, which will be carried out between July 14 and 22, 2007. They will then go to Bogotá and other cities throughout the country to meet with the country’s political and social forces, and with Human Rights organizations, in order to form first hand impressions regarding the true situation that exists in our country.

In Paris, Fernando Rendón met with Mrs. Danielle Miterrand, director of the France-Libertés Foundation, who promised to do her best to attend the upcoming Festival.

The Festival delegation held interviews with many different media outlets, journalists from news agencies, TV networks, newspapers and radio broadcasters, and with a number of representatives from agencies for international cooperation.

Message from the Green Members of Parliament for Ingrid Betancur

Swedish Member of Parliament Bodil Ceballos and European Member of Parliament Carl Schlyter, both member of the European Green Party, sent through us a brief note for Ingrid Betancur, currently retained by the FARC, which we wish to transmit to news agencies and other communications media in Colombia. The full text is as follows:

“Hello Ingrid,

I am writing from the Swedish Parliament. Another Green Swedish delegate in the European Parliament and I wish to tell you from the bottom of our hearts that we have not forgotten you, that you are constantly in our thoughts. We would like to take advantage of the opportunity we have at this time to send you some Green lines of encouragement, like the forest and nature, from us Greens in the world. We are trying, through the means we have out our disposal, to exert our influence so that there may be dialogue and peace in Colombia also. We hope that this can also help you and many others who can not live with their loved ones.

We have been told that you are well and this makes us glad. We hope to see you soon and together save the world in this great struggle, which is now against the effects of the climate. If you can send us a message we would be grateful.

An embrace,

Bodil Ceballos, delegate for the Swedish Green Party.
Carl Schlyter, delegate for the Green Party in the European Parliament".

Medellín, diciembre 16 de 2006.

Jakob von Uexküll and the German parliamentary Monika Griefahn	Panoramic of Hall´s Auditorium of Philharmonic of Berlin	Intervention of Fernando Rendón in the Hall of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin
Wolfgang Thierse, Vice-president of Bundestag, Fernando Rendón, Tobias Burghardt and the German parliamentary Monika Griefahn	Fernando Rendón near to the statue of Simón Bolívar in Berlin	Tina Gadow, from GTZ, and Fernando Rendón
Ulrich Shreiber, director of International Literature Festival Berlin and Birgitte Jaeckel, from Right Livelihood Award	Thomas Wohlfahrt, director of Poetry Festival of Berlin and Heiko Strunk, from Lyrikline	Danielle Mitterrand, President of France Libertés Foundation and Fernando Rendón
Stephan Chaumet and Fernando Rendón in poetry reading in the Sorbona University, Paris	Colombian poet Myriam Montoya and French poet Stephan Chaumet	From right to left: Chico Whitaker, Daniel Ellsberg, Ruth Manorama and Fernando Rendón, receipts of the Right Livelihood Award, 2006
Karim Bagge, interpreter and Helen Sigeland, director of Literature area of the Swedish Institute	From left to right: Ole von Uexküll, Kerstin Bennett and Chico Whitaker	Right Livelihood Award, 2006 to the Representatives of the International Poetry Festival International of Medellin
From right to left: Bodil Ceballos -Swedish Member of Parliament from the Green Party-, Carl Schlyter -European Member of Parliament from the Green Party- and Gloria Chvatal	Poetry reading in the Cervantes Institut in Stockholm: Lasse Söderber, Ángela García, Bengt Berg, Ide Hintze, Víctor Rojas and Jona Burghardt	Gabriel Jaime Franco and Fernando Rendón in the poetry reading on the Cervantes Institut