Gerardo Cajamarca Alarcón, 43, is a native of Sasaima, a village in the coffee producing area of Colombia. He worked in Bogotá as a mechanic and in Facatativa, a small city west of Bogotá, where he became a town councilman with the backing of the Facatativa Popular Movement and the labor union SINALTRAINAL. He now works as an organizer for District 11 of the United Steelworkers. Through the Colombian Support Network, the USW raised money for him, and later and his family, to get out of Colombia. Mr. Cajamarca was quickly granted political asylum here, which enables him to legally remain and work. He flew from Bogotá to Madison, Wisconsin on Feb. 22, 2004 and said what he felt when he landed on that winter day was “tranquility.”

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