Vol. 80/No. 36 September 26, 2016
Momentum grows for Oct. 9 ‘Free Oscar López’ protest
Catholic Archbishop of San Juan Roberto González Nieves, Methodist Bishop Juan Vera, Lutheran Bishop Felipe Lozada Montañez and Heriberto Martínez, secretary of the Biblical Societies of Puerto Rico, joined Clarisa López, Oscar’s daughter, and leaders of the Coalition to Free Oscar López at a press conference Sept. 8 in San Juan.
“Oscar López Rivera has served a very long and disproportionate sentence,” González said. “That’s why as well as for humanitarian reasons, the bishops of Puerto Rico, members of other churches, politicians of all the ideologies and the majority of the representatives of civil society have asked for his release.”
“The support of the Puerto Rican people is practically unanimous,” he added.
López was arrested in 1981, accused by the U.S. government of being a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of Puerto Rico (FALN). Lacking evidence linking him to any violent acts, prosecutors framed him for “seditious conspiracy.”
His continued support for independence, along with resistance to years in solitary confinement, solidarity with other prisoners and his dignity, has made López a symbol of the fight against Puerto Rico’s colonial subjugation by Washington.
Thirty-eight city councils in Puerto Rico have called for his release, as has every union federation on the island.
In the United States the AFL-CIO labor federation, Service Employees International Union executive board, Communications Workers of America, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unions have also joined the call to free López.
Among the many international groups and individuals backing the fight are the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, the American Association of Jurists, the Senate of Mexico, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples and Rev. Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
Ingrid Vila Biaggi, a leader of the coalition in Puerto Rico, said that among the participants in the Oct. 9 meeting and concert will be musicians Danny Rivera, Roy Brown and René (Residente) Pérez and theater group Jóvenes del 98 (The youth of ’98).
Board to protect bondholders
The fight to free López is reinforced by opposition to the financial control board, just imposed on the island by Washington and given vast powers over Puerto Rico’s budget and fiscal policy for the next four years. This includes the right to lower the minimum wage there for those under 25 years old to $4.25 an hour.The board is part of legislation signed by President Barack Obama to ensure payment of Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt to bondholders and hedge funds. The colonial regime of Gov. Alejandro García says it cannot pay the debt without major restructuring. It did not make the July 1 payment of nearly $1 billion.
Obama announced the appointment of the board Aug. 31, four chosen by the Republican Party and three by Democrats. The majority are Puerto Rican, including Carlos García, CEO of BayBoston Managers and former president of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank. He is considered the architect of Law 7, which gave the government power to suspend public workers’ union contracts and override labor laws.
Other board members include insurance executives, past bank presidents and bankruptcy lawyers and judges, all of whom can be counted on to minimize any “haircuts” on payments to capitalist bondholders.
Hundreds of protesters blocked entrances to the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce’s Aug. 31 conference in San Juanto orient business people on how the board would function.
In addition to the debt to bondholders, the government owes $45 billion to workers’ pension funds, which are rapidly running out of money. Many of its “assets” are loans to workers — including about $1 billion in mortgages — who are less and less able to pay.
Over the last several years successive governments in Puerto Rico have laid off thousands of public workers, increased sales taxes, closed schools and raised the retirement age to push the debt obligations onto the backs of working people.
For more information on Oscar López and the Oct. 9 event in Washington, visit: freeoscarlopeznow.com or boricuahumanrights.org.
Related articles:
Month of action begins in Cuba against US embargo
Includes solidarity with Puerto Rico, Oscar López
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