Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Justice for Colombian Musician, Andres Ocampo


Andres Ocampo of Los Suziox with Robert Rose of Raw Travel TV 

Andres Ocampo is a well-known musician from Medellin Colombia and a friend of mine. He also composed the theme music for the show Raw Travel TV and has contributed other tracks to the sound design over the years. His band, Los Suziox (The Dirty) was the first act I signed for my digital record label Punk Outlaw Records back in 2010.

Andres lives and works in Medellin, Colombia where he operates a concert venue called "El Sub" (the Underground) in the hard-scrabble and sometimes violent neighborhood of Castilla in the north of the city. In addition to hosting musical acts and other artistic forms of expression at El Sub, Andres works with local youth to give them alternatives to the violent lifestyle that surrounds much of Medellin's working-class barrios like Castilla. 

Andres had his approved US visa and had visited twice before without incident (he has family in NYC and had never overstayed his visa). 

However, on June 4th ,2019 during his 3rd trip to the US to visit his ailing mother,  he was inexplicably targeted, detained, rudely treated like a criminal by US Customs and Border Patrol at JFK Airport in New York City. Under threat of imprisonment, he was ultimately coerced to sign a false document and sent back to Medellin, Colombia on what became a 30 hour odyssey. During most of this time he was unable to contact his worried relatives and let them know what had occurred.

This happens all too often and we feel that our US Customs and Border Patrol at certain ports of entry like JFK are acting rogue and above the law. This is especially tragic, given that many people, like Andres, are visiting the US to visit family members.  This isn't North Korea.

We want to
1) Help Andres recoup the money he lost for his roundtrip airfare to and from New York City (Colombia is not a wealthy country and Andres is a well-known musician but not wealthy)

2) Try to raise enough funds to help Andres apply for an artist visa so he can perform and tour in the US much as he already has in Europe

3) Raise awareness of this issue and hopefully impact behavior at the US Customs and Border Patrol Points of Entry. These personnel are often the 1st Americans many US Visitors see, and if they are rude, crude and dishonest it reflects poorly on the nation and the rest of us.

Please visit www.JusticeForAndres.com for more information and how you can help.