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Vol. 81/No. 24 June 19, 2017
Puerto Rican independence fighter welcomed in Calif.
BY ERIC SIMPSON
BERKELEY, Calif. — “A better and more just world” is possible, Puerto
Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera told the more than 600
people who welcomed him here May 31. He pledged to keep fighting to
decolonize Puerto Rico and “to get all political prisoners out of jail.”
López was released May 17 after nearly 36 years in U.S. prisons, framed
up on charges of “seditious conspiracy” and accused of being a leader of
the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). Because the government
had no evidence that López carried out violent acts, it centered its
case on a member of the group who turned informer. He testified against
López in exchange for getting out of prison.
When he was 14, López moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico. Drafted into
the U.S. Army and sent to fight in Vietnam in 1966, López became active
in struggles against police brutality, job discrimination and against
U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico upon his return to Chicago. He was
arrested in 1981.
For nearly five years López was joined in prison in Indiana by Fernando
González, one of the Cuban Five — Cuban revolutionaries jailed for more
than a decade for activities in the U.S. in defense of their revolution.
The growing international movement that won freedom for the Five helped
build support for López’s fight.
López’s dignity in the face of his jailers’ failed attempts to break him
— including more than 12 years in solitary confinement — and growing
support in Puerto Rico and worldwide won his release.
At a reception before the meeting, López pointed to the conditions
imposed by the President Barack Obama-appointed Fiscal Oversight and
Management Board for Puerto Rico, which has dictatorial power over the
U.S. colony’s government budget and finances. The board highlights
Puerto Rico’s colonial status, he said.
“I am certain that most Puerto Ricans are not satisfied with the Fiscal
Control Board,” he said in an interview earlier that day with radio
station KPFA, referring to cascading layoffs of government workers,
slashing of pensions and cutting the University of Puerto Rico budget.
“There’s one common denominator that we can use” to unite all Puerto
Ricans “and that is the decolonization of Puerto Rico.”
Many said the Puerto Rican “political prisoners would never be free,”
his brother José López told the crowd at the meeting, “But Oscar López
is free tonight.”
“I spent quite a few years behind bars. I know how dehumanizing prison
can be,” Oscar López said. “I know how painful it is for the families.”
Leonard Peltier, in prison since 1976, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in prison since
1981, and Herman Bell, a former Black Panther in prison since 1973
serving a life sentence on frame-up charges of killing two New York cops
in l971, were among the prisoners who sent greetings to the meeting.
“I am happy you made it out. All too often most of us seldom do, or we
die soon after we get out due to poor health, or when spending endless
decades inside,” Bell wrote. “We look to the future with unshakable
resolve to achieve our goals.”
At all the meetings since his release, López tells people to fight for
freedom of these remaining political prisoners.
A statement from Fernando González, president of the Cuban Institute for
Friendship with the Peoples, was distributed. “Oscar, an upright man and
revolutionary, was tortured and repressed,” González wrote, but “never
stopped loving his island, his people and his flag.”
In an interview with Cuba solidarity activist Alicia Jrapko before the
event, López said he is “really looking forward” to visiting Cuba in
November. “Cuba has always given us their solidarity,” he said, “Not
just toward me, but their solidarity for the independence of our beloved
homeland.”
Organized by the National Boricua Human Rights Network, the National
Lawyers Guild and local Puerto Rican activists, the meeting was endorsed
by the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity; the
Socialist Workers Party; the National Network on Cuba; and others.
Related articles:
Join fight for independence, workers power in Puerto Rico
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