 For more videos on People's Struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. My name is Zoe and this is Around the World in 8 Minutes, where we bring you stories of struggle and resistance of common people united in the rejection of this unjust system. For our first story, we take you to Colombia for some exciting news. After 900 days in prison, Puerto Co. prisoner Julia Gil, the technical secretary of Congreso de Pueblos, was absolved of all charges and released from prison. Gil was arrested on June 6, 2018 outside the office of Congreso de Pueblos in the Colombian capital of Bogota. He was accused of pertaining to the insurgent group ELN and was charged with trafficking and transportation of explosives and arms. Finally, on Tuesday, November 24, the specialized judge of Cundinamarca absolved Gil of all charges and declared that he should be released immediately. On Wednesday night, when he was released, he was greeted by dozens of members of his family and friends and members of social movements and human rights organizations. Gil called on his release as well as the release of two others implicated in the case as a victory of people's movements. Throughout the 900 days of unjust imprisonment, Gil affirmed his innocence as well as the political nature of his arrest and incarceration. Gil and his movement, Congreso de Pueblos, classified it as another attempt by the Colombian state to silence those who dare to fight for a country with peace and dignity as well as another attempt to weaken the power of the movement. Gil is one of hundreds of social leaders in Colombia that has been persecuted due to his political work. Many continue to be held in prisons across the country today. For our next story, we take you to Palestine, where administrative Dite Nih, Mahir Alacros, was finally released from Israeli custody on November 26. Alacros had been on a 104-day-long hunger strike to protest his illegal administrative detention by Israel and demand his release. Close to three months into the hunger strike, his health condition turned critical, and the prison authorities were forced to transfer him to a hospital. There, doctors attempted to force feed him to break his hunger strike at the insistence of prison authorities, but ultimately failed. During the strike, Alacros lost more than 40 kg and experienced acute headaches and pain in his ears and joints, as well as loss of consciousness. His lawyers and human rights activists had expressed alarm that he was on the verge of death and irreversible damage was being inflicted on his body. He agreed to end his hunger strike after successfully securing an agreement for his release at the end of his current term of administrative detention, which would have otherwise been renewed for another term. Alacros had been arrested on July 26 by Israeli domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, and was accused of being a prominent member of Islamic jihad. He was then placed under administrative detention for four months without charge or trial. The Israeli authorities also withheld the supposed evidence they had against him from his lawyers. Upon his release this week, 49-year-old Alacros told reporters, I secured my freedom by embarking on a long, drawn-out hunger strike. The strike proved that the Palestinian people need to fight for their rights and liberty, and we can't wait for anyone else to end our oppression. My freedom is the freedom of my people, and we have won over the occupation with our will and determination. For our last story, we take you to Argentina, where the country observed a three-day mourning period following the death of football star and people's hero, Diego Maradona. 60-year-old Maradona passed away on Wednesday, November 25th, in the afternoon at his house in Buenos Aires after suffering from a heart attack. Maradona has been honored globally as one of the most talented and outspoken footballers in history. His performance on the field had countless standout moments, like the two goals scored in the quarter-finals of the World Cup against England, just four years after the war on the Malvinas Islands, wherein more than 900 young Argentinians lost their lives fighting for sovereignty and control over the Malvinas from England. Off the field, Maradona was also a force to be reckoned with. A staunch internationalist and anti-imperialist, the football star maintained close relationships with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales and Nicolas Maduro. He was vocal about his support to the revolutionary and progressive processes on the continent and of the causes of the downtrodden globally. He was a great champion of the cause of Palestinian self-determination and famously said, In my heart, I am Palestinian. The loss has been felt deeply by millions across the world. In Buenos Aires, nearly one million lined up outside the Casa Rosada to pay their respects to Maradona, and people worldwide took to social media to share their own story of how Maradona impacted them and their memories of him. He will certainly be missed. Be sure to keep watching People's Dispatch and find us at our website, peoplesdispatch.org.