[Ppnews] Call for Pardon for Oscar López Rivera, Now!

[Political Prisoner News]

Call for Pardon for Oscar

López Rivera

, Now!

June 1, 2011 | by 
<http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/authors/staff/>HS News Staff
http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/hsn-network/details/call-for-pardon-for-oscar-now/7991/

Today’s contribution is from 
<http://www.claridadpuertorico.com/generalcontent.html?gid=1>Claridad. 
Claridad is a weekly national newspaper in Puerto 
Rico, which was founded on June 1, 1959. It is 
the Puerto Rican newspaper continued publication 
oldest currently in circulation.
Claridad’s central aims to be an effective tool 
in the fight for independence of Puerto Rico, 
which is the main colony in the world under U.S. 
control since 1898, as a result of its invasion and occupation.

On May 29, 2001, Puerto Rican political prisoner 
Oscar López Rivera marks 30 years in prison in 
the United States. As was true with other 
imprisoned patriots before and now, even their 
jailers recognize that they aren’t common 
prisoners, that their conduct has been governed 
by a cause of conscience that for him is more 
valuable and transcendent than his own freedom, 
and even than his own life: the cause of the independence of Puerto Rico.

The fact that there have been, and still are, men 
and women disposed to suffer persecution, prison, 
torture and even death, to obtain freedom for 
their people, is something that challenges all 
human logic and confers a superior moral 
character on these men and women disposed to such 
a great sacrifice. Only freedom can convene such a degree of vital commitment.

For those who have chosen this path, freedom 
isn’t discussed; it’s taken and enjoyed as an 
inalienable and fundamental human right. That is 
the great lesson that our people has received 
from its patriots and political prisoners, who 
Oscar López Rivera has embodied for 30 years in 
an exemplary way. His stature and that of the 
other combatants for our national independence 
has been growing in the imagination of our 
people, in the same way that the U.S. government 
has been mercilessly treating him, as well as the 
González Claudio brothers Avelino and Norberto, 
just as it was previously merciless with Carlos 
Alberto Torres and their other compañeros and 
compañeras, and even before as they were with 
Lolita Lebrón and Oscar Collazo; with Rafael 
Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero, among many others.

The case of Oscar López Rivera is unique for 
several reasons. He is the Puerto Rican political 
prisoner who has served the longest time in 
prison in the United States, and is probably also 
the longest held political prisoner in our 
hemisphere. Additionally, his excessively lengthy 
imprisonment is the product of his jailers’ 
twisted logic. While the United States government 
claims to give lessons on freedom, democracy and 
human rights to the rest of the world, it has 
held Oscar López Rivera in prison for 30 years, 
denying him, under the rules of the very system 
it so staunchly defends, the right to parole and 
requiring him, in an arbitrary and inhumane way, 
to serve an additional 12 years in prison.

The United States government has a responsibility 
to Puerto Rico which, to date, it has refused to 
fulfill. Their armed forces mounted an invasion 
here in 1898, by virtue of which our nation was 
militarily intervened and our right to decide our 
own political destiny subjugated ­ a situation 
that has lasted to date. That is the principal 
offense for which it must respond, and the reason 
for which Puerto Rican independentistas have 
waged a struggle for 113 years, and during which 
thousands of Puerto Ricans, Oscar López Rivera 
among them, have paid an enormous share of sacrifice.

Now, Oscar López Rivera’s release from prison 
depends on the decision of the president of the 
United States, Barack Obama, who has in his hands 
the opportunity to emulate other U.S. presidents 
Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and pardon the 
Puerto Rican veteran. Obama, first Afro-North 
American to achieve this position, knows by his 
own experience the difficult path that must be 
followed to overcome prejudice and 
discrimination. For this reason, and for an 
elemental sense of justice and fair play, it is 
his duty to release Puerto Rican political 
prisoner Oscar López Rivera without further 
delay, and return him to the heart of the 
Homeland he belongs to and to which he has offered his life.

Claridad salutes our patriot Oscar López Rivera, 
thanks him for his life-long valor and sacrifice, 
and reiterates that we will continue to be 
committed to achieving his freedom, sooner than 
later. We urge the broadest sectors of the Puerto 
Rican people to participate in this purpose of humane justice.





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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