Vol. 79/No. 22      June 15, 2015

Dozens of marchers set off April 25 from the island of Culebra, traveled by boat to the neighboring island of Vieques and then to the main island on the way to San Juan, stopping in 40 towns and cities along the way.

Culebra and Vieques were chosen as the starting point because they are symbols of resistance to U.S. colonial rule. After decades of struggle, the U.S. Navy was forced to stop using them for target practice.

The San Juan march was led by more than half a dozen independence fighters who themselves had been political prisoners in the United States.

Among the demonstrators were teachers, health care workers, butchers, retired workers and a good number of students with “UPR con Oscar” T-shirts. Students recently organized a 48-hour strike at the University of Puerto Rico to oppose proposals by the colonial government to cut university funding and raise taxes on working people to prioritize interest payments to capitalist bondholders. Many marchers said that both the frame-up of López and the island’s economic crisis — the deepest since the 1930s — are expressions of Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. colony.

William Hernández and Lizzie Díaz, workers at a pharmaceutical plant, said they joined the caravan in Fajardo, on Puerto Rico’s eastern tip. “We’ve been handing out thousands of educational flyers about the fight to free Oscar,” Díaz said. Hernández added, “Some people we talked with were opposed to his release, but a majority were in favor. Some didn’t know much about the case, and we explained it to them.”

Among those marching was Rafael Cancel Miranda, who spent 27 years in U.S. prisons and is a well-known leader of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Cancel Miranda was also an active campaigner for the release of five Cuban revolutionaries imprisoned in the United States, the last three of whom returned home last December in a victory for the Cuban Revolution.

The closing rally was addressed, by U.S. Congressman Luis Gutiérrez and Oscar López’s daughter Clarisa López. Also at the rally was San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of the Popular Democratic Party. Political figures from all major parties here have joined the call for the freedom of Oscar López. Some 30 local governments in the towns visited by the cross-island marchers issued resolutions supporting his release.
 
 
Related articles:
NY, Puerto Rico rallies: ‘Free Oscar López now!”:
Jailed 34 years in US for independence fight
 
 
 
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