Anti-draft protest, Medellín

Under the slogan "Servicio Militar: Y Mi Vida, Que?" (Military Service: What About My Life?), the Colombian anti-war group Red Juvenil (Youth Network) held a rally attended by thousands of of young people at Medellín's Atanasio Girardot stadium Feb. 12. The rally was held partly to celebrate the Jan. 26 release of Carlos Andrés Giraldo Hincapié, a conscientious objector from Yondó, Antioquia department, from forced military service. Giraldo Hincapié was press-ganged into the army at the village of La Soledad in August 2006 and taken to Casabe Military Base, in what Red Juvenil calls a violation of his freedom of conscience. (Red Juvenil, Feb. 13; War Resisters International, July 18, 2007)

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