Vol. 79/No. 4 February 9, 2015
BY TOM LEWIS
NEW YORK — Supporters of the fight to win the release of Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera have set May 30 for a national protest in New York to demand his freedom. López has been jailed in the U.S. for more than 33 years, 12 of them in solitary confinement.
“Oscar has been in federal prison since May 29, 1981,” Alejandro Molina, a leader of the National Boricua Human Rights Network and one of the organizers of the May 30 rally, told the Militant. “May 30 marks the start of his 34th year in prison. This is an opportunity to increase the pressure on Barack Obama to commute his sentence.
“In Puerto Rico, the three political parties, the governor, 15 mayors and 22 municipalities have called for Oscar’s release,” Molina said.
“The people of Puerto Rico, regardless of party lines, thought and politics, are all in agreement that Oscar López must be released,” Eduardo Bhatia, president of the Puerto Rican Senate, said in a January 2014 statement outside the Puerto Rican Capitol in San Juan.
López, 72, was born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony since it was invaded by the U.S. military in 1898. His family moved to Chicago when he was 14. He was drafted into the army in 1965 and served as an infantryman in the U.S. war against Vietnam.
“When he came home he recognized injustices and sought to change them,” Molina said. López became active in Chicago in struggles against discrimination against Puerto Ricans in hiring, for bilingual education and against police brutality. He was won to the position that the only way to end U.S. colonial oppression of Puerto Rico was to fight for independence. “He’s never backed down,” Molina said.
In a letter to his daughter Clarisa released Jan. 13, López said the ongoing support for his release has helped him continue to contribute to “the just and noble cause of the independence and sovereignty of our beloved Homeland.”
In the mid-1970s, following bombings at banks and businesses with investments in Puerto Rico that the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) took credit for, the U.S. government stepped up spying and harassment against Puerto Rican political activists. In 1980, 10 people were arrested and accused of belonging to the FALN. López, accused of being a leader of the group, was arrested the next year. They were framed up and railroaded to jail on charges including “seditious conspiracy.” Demanding to be recognized as prisoners of war, they refused to participate in the court proceedings and were given stiff sentences.
López was sentenced to 55 years in prison, and in 1988 he was framed up on charges of conspiracy to escape and sentenced to serve an additional 15 years.
The recent victory winning the release of the Cuban Five — Cuban revolutionaries framed up for coming to the United States to expose the actions of paramilitary forces organizing attacks against Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution in the U.S. and Puerto Rico — strengthens the fight to free López. “It was an amazing thing,” Molina said. “We see the example of Cuba that has struggled against the blockade for over 50 years. And now, Latinos need to take up the case of winning Oscar’s release.”
Another important victory strengthening López’s fight was the Jan. 15 release on parole of Norberto González Claudio, a fellow fighter for Puerto Rican independence imprisoned on conspiracy charges in 2011.
López has kept his dignity and morale. He sent a message to supporters in Philadelphia Jan. 4. “The past year was amazing and extraordinary for the campaign in support of my release,” he wrote. “I’ve survived, and today I feel as much hope and spiritual strength as I did when I came to prison.”
A first run of 15,000 “save the date” flyers for the May 30 rally has been printed with initial sponsors and the facts on the fight to free López. A national planning meeting for the action will take place in New York Feb. 14.
Information on the march and rally is available online at freeoscarnycmay30.org, or email nyc-free-olr@boricuahumanrights.org.
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