Political prisoner, Silvia Baraldini, is an Italian national serving a 43 year sentence here in the United States. She has been imprisoned since 1982. Her sentence is excessive and reflects the U.S. government's attempt to punish her for her support of the Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements and also for her refusal, since her arrest, to recant her political beliefs.
To seek relief from these injustices, the Italian government and Silvia Baraldini jointly petitioned the Justice Department in 1989 for her transfer to an Italian prison to complete her sentence. To this day, her petition has been denied, depite growing public pressure from supporters in Italy and in the United States, including requests from the Italian Prime Minister and 90% of the Italian Parliment. In April, 1994 and again in January, 1995 Italy and Silvia requested her transfer for the third and fourth time.
We call on everyone concerned with human rights to join the international campaign to win Silvia's transfer to an Italian prison.
Return Silvia to Italy Now!
"We were subjected to sleep deprivation for four months and kept indoors in bright white light 24-hours-a-day; sexually harassed by daily strip searches and showers without a curtain. The result - deterioration of our physical and mental health." -- Silvia Baraldini
Silvia Baraldini came to the United States as a teenager. In the late 60's and early 70's, she became involved in the women'smovement while a student at the University of Wisconsin and became a staunch opponent of the war in Vietnam. Later in the 70's, she became more active in building solidarity with other liberation movements that were active in those years -- the Black liberation movement, the Puerto Rican Independence movement and the Southern African liberation movements. Silvia founded a material aid campaign for Zimbabwe in 1978. In recognition of that work she was invited by ZANU to be an international observer in the independence elections there in 1980.
During this same period, Silvia's work in support of Black human rights inside the United States focused on exposing the illegal FBI program, COINTELPRO, which was devised to decimate Black political dissent through covert illegal actions carried out under the guise of legitimate law enforcement. (Native American, Mexican and Puerto Rican activists were also targeted by similar programs.) Silvia became involved, through this work, in campaigns to free many Black Panther and Black Liberation Army political prisoners arrested through COINTELPRO>.
Political commitment has been the underpinning of Silvia's life. By the late 1970's, Silvia became involved in militant political activities, which led to her arrest in the early 1980's. She is serving a 40 year sentence for RICO conspiracy charges. The charges reflected support for actions of the Black movement's underground, including the prison escape of Black Panther leader, Assata Shakur, who is now living in Cuba. Silvia's co-defendants, Sekou Odinga, Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck, are all serving excessive sentences of over 40 years.
"To this day the other political prisoners and I are treated differently. The latest occurence is the denial of my request for transfer to an Italian Prison." -- Silvia Baraldini
She has received unusually harsh treatment in the US federal prison system. Although her disciplinary record had been exemplary through 1987, shortly after refusing to talk to FBI agents she was transferred from a medium security prison to an underground high security isolation unit (HSU) in Lexington Kentucky. Two other political prisoners, Susan Rosenberg and Alejandrina Torres, Puerto Rican Prisoner of War, were also sent to Lexington.
The sensory deprivation, extreme isolation, and inhumane treatment in this unit were exposed in the acclaimed PBS documentary "Through the Wire." In 1988, HSU-Lexington was finally closed in response to a suit brought by the ACLU and supported by Amnesty Internationbal. While Silvia was incarcerated in HSU the prison delayed medical diagnosis and treatment for a potentially fatal uterine cancer. With the settlement of the suit, she was finally transferred for medical care and required two major surgeries and radiation therapy. Since then a national campaign has been undertaken to insure that she receives timely follow-up exams.
After that Silvia spent two years at New York Metropolitan Correctional Center which has no health services because it is not a facility for long term prisoners. In 1989, she was transferred to a women's high security unit in Marainna Federal Penitentiary in Florida. After protesting this designation for years, Silvia's security rating was lowered. Finally Silvia is in general population at FCI, Danbury, CT.
When Italy signed the Strasbourg Convention in 1989, which provides for the transfer of prisoners to their copuntry of origin to complete their sentences, Silvia and the Italian government jointly applied. She hoped to be near her mother, who lives alone in Rome, and to find relief from the terrible injustices she has experienced while incarcerated in US prisons. Her only sibling Marina Baraldini, spearheaded the campaign in Italy to build support for Silvia's transfer. Tragically, in 1989 Marina was killed in an airplane explosion. Silvia's repatriation to Italy was denied in 1990.
"The Bush government wanted me to publically condemn the political beliefs which have motivated me for the last twenty-five years." -- Silvia Baraldini
In 1990, a million Italian citizens sent letters, the Vatican began an investigation into her case and her treatment in the US was exposed on Italian national television. The Italian Parliamnet, 90% favoring, voted to petition the US to return MS. Baraldini to an Italian prison. Petition denied.
In 1992 United States upporters gathered 10,000 signatures on Silvia's behalf, which were presented by a delegation of US religious leaders to the Justice Department. Public organizing, demonstrations, and letter writing, phone and fax campaigns have augmented the petition drive. In December 1994, once again US religious leaders visted the Justice Department and requested the application of the Strasbourg Convention to Silvia's case.
In Italy, support for Silvia continued to grow. To celebrate Silvia's birthday in December, 1993, the Italian National Coordinating Committee sponsored a day of actions in Rome, Milan, Naples, Florence, Bologna, Livorno, Ferrara, Pisa, and Siena. On International Women's Day (IWD) 1994, large demonstrations were held in twenty Italian cities in support of Silvia. For the past few years, IWD demonstrators in San Francisco, USA have included demands for Silvia's repatriation to an Italian prison. In June, 1994 during a meetingbetween the MAyro of Rome and President and Hillary Clinton, thyousands of demonstrators formed a human chain arouind the Rome City Hall dranatizing Italian support for Silvia's transfer. In 1994 and 1995, the European Parliament unanimously passed a motion supporting Silvia's petition. January 1995 Silvia's third petition was denied. By MArch 1995, Release Silvia! activists in Italy published an open letter calling for Silvia's repatriation in "L'Unita," a major daily in Rome. Signatories include well known Italian writers, journalists, and actors.
Under the Strasbourg Convention, thousands of prisoners have been transferred by the US to prisons in their native countries. In a public statement Silvia wrote, "I am not asking for a reduction of the 43 year sentence I am serving. I am sking to be allowed to serve it in an Italian prison, close to my family and the community where I will live when I get out."
Although the US government vehemently denies the existence of political prisoners in US prisons, Silvia is one of over a hundred US held political prisoners. The US government must not be allowed to violate human rights. In December 1995, Silvia and the Italian government will repetition the US Justice Department for Silvia's repatriation to an Italian prison. Public pressure always makes a difference. Phone, fax, or write to the Attorney General's office supporting Silvia's petiton for transfer:202-514-2000 and fax: 202-514-4371
Address: US Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Constitution Ave. at Tenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20530
Ask your government to inquire of the US Embassy in your country about the status of Silvia Baraldini. Write to Silvia: Silvia Baraldini (05125-054) FCI Danbury, Pembroke Station, Danbury, CT 06811
To make a donation, please send a check made out to:
"CRSBI"
On the West Coast send to:
Send to Committee for the Return of Silvia Baraldini to Italy (CRSBI) 3543 18th St. #30 San Francisco, CA 94110
On the East Coast send to:
Committee for the Return of Silvia Baraldini to Italy (CRSBI)
PO Box 02-114 Brooklyn, New York 11202