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Vol. 81/No. 44 November 27, 2017
Oscar López: ‘Cuban Revolution offers example’
Ismael Batista
“Ever since the triumph of the revolution, Cuba has offered us an
example that a better, more just world is possible,” Puerto Rican
independence fighter Oscar López told a meeting in his honor in Havana,
Nov. 13. “That example has to get to everyone.”
López was jailed in the U.S. for 36 years on frame-up charges of
“seditious conspiracy” for actions supporting independence for the U.S.
colony. An international campaign won his freedom and return to Puerto
Rico earlier this year.
Fernando González, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with
the Peoples (ICAP), above right with López on his arrival at the airport
the day before, also spoke to the overflow meeting at the ICAP office.
It was attended by leaders of the Cuban government, the Communist Party,
the Federation of Cuban Women, as well as visiting Puerto Ricans.
González was one of the Cuban Five, imprisoned in the U.S. for actions
to defend the Cuban Revolution from attacks by paramilitary forces in
Florida. He shared a cell with López for four years at the federal
prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. López called their time together “the
best four years that I had in prison.”
“The real reason they punished you was because you wouldn’t surrender,
you maintained your revolutionary values against all types of force and
provocation from the most powerful government on the planet,” González
said.
“I am working, traveling to different parts of the world, to advance the
cause of independence for Puerto Rico to show the world that colonialism
is a crime against humanity,” López said. “The Cuban people have been
the biggest supporters of the fight for independence for Puerto Rico.”
On Nov. 14, the Council of State awarded López the Order of Solidarity.
He will tour across Cuba until Nov. 26, talking to workers about the
revolution and U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico.
— SETH GALINSKY
Related articles:
New Zealand exhibit draws interest in Cuban Revolution
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