Among the honored guests at the event was Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of five Puerto Rican nationalists who spent more than 25 years in U.S. jails. He was freed in 1979 along with four other prisoners who were jailed in the 1950s for their pro-independence activities. Their release was the product of a massive international defense campaign. Luis Rosa, one of the political prisoners who were released in 1999, was also present. He spent 19 years behind bars.

“The campaign for the release of the political prisoners was becoming an international issue, in the UN, in Cuba, in Venezuela, everywhere,” said Cancel Miranda. “They have not been able to defeat us.”

At the beginning of the reception, Oscar López Rivera addressed the crowd by phone from prison. López Rivera is serving a 70-year sentence at the maximum security federal prison at Terre Haute, Indiana. The independence fighter spent 12 years in solitary confinement before an international campaign won his 1998 transfer to Terre Haute from the federal prison in Marion, Illinois, and his release into the general prison population.

He was jailed in 1981 and sentenced to 55 years on charges of “seditious conspiracy.” U.S. officials claimed that he was a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, a pro-independence organization accused by Washington of carrying out a series of bombings of government, business, and military sites. Seven years later, López was framed for “conspiracy to escape” and sentenced to an additional 15 years. The Puerto Rican fighter is not eligible for release until 2027.

Carlos Alberto Torres was arrested on April 4, 1980, and was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges the following year. He was sentenced to 78 years. Prison authorities refused to allow him leave to attend his father’s funeral services in February despite a campaign on his behalf that won the support of the colonial governor of Puerto Rico and three Puerto Rican congressional representatives.

In 1999, in the face of growing protests against U.S. colonial domination of the island, President William Clinton released 11 of the 17 political prisoners held at that time. The releases were a by-product of the growing support for the prisoners’ cause that grew out of the movement for the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, struggles against efforts to sell off the nationally owned Puerto Rican telephone company, and other resistance to Washington’s imperial boot in Puerto Rico. Three more of the prisoners have been released since then.

The April 4 event was followed by a concert by Puerto Rican singer Roy Brown attended by 300 people. Organizers announced that an art exhibition of works by Rivera and Torres would be shown April 9-30 at the Galería Que No Era in Chicago. The exhibit is sponsored by the National Boricua Human Rights Network and the Committee on Human Rights of Puerto Rico  
 
 
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