[Pnews] Oscar Lopez Rivera Lands in Puerto Rico

[Prisoner News]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Freedom-Fighter-Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-Returns-to-Puerto-Rico-20170209-0033.html

February 9, 2017 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Freedom-Fighter-Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-Returns-to-Puerto-Rico-20170209-0033.html> 



  Oscar Lopez Rivera Lands in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar Lopez Rivera arrived on the 
island nation Thursday after nearly 36 years in jail in the United 
States ahead of his long-awaited freedom on May 17.

His American Airlines flight landed in the Luis Muñoz Marin 
International Airport near San Juan at 4:36 p.m. Rivera, escorted by 
U.S. and Puerto Rico law enforcement officers, was seen handcuffed 
wearing a red shirt and a white cap. He was escorted from the second 
level of the airport into a white law enforcement van that drove him to 
his new detention quarters.

Benito de Jesus, a Rivera supporter, who was one of a few people to 
actually see Rivera on his return home, said the Puerto Rican 
independence hero looked "calm and happy," according to El Nuevo Dia.

New York State Assemblymember Jose Rivera also confirmed the transfer on 
his Facebook page this morning, writing, "Family, after many years of 
struggle for Oscar Lopez Rivera, he is in the airport on route to Puerto 
Rico."

Lopez Rivera will serve out the remaining months of his sentence under 
house arrest, set to expire on May 17, in Puerto Rico. The transfer 
comes after outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Lopez' 
sentence 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-to-Be-Freed-After-36-Years-in-US-Prison-20170117-0029.html> 
in January days before President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

According to Puerto Rico's El Vocero, prison authorities planned to 
transfer Lopez Rivera from the Terre Haute penitentiary in Indiana, 
where the activist spent about two-thirds of his more than 30-year jail 
term, to a transition house in Puerto Rico, where he will spend the 
final days before his sentence expires.

Lopez Rivera was set to be accompanied by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin 
Cruz on the trip from the United States to the island, Puerto Rico's El 
Nuevo Dia reported.

Public figures including artists and activists celebrated Lopez Rivera's 
return on social media.

"Today one of the children of the cane fields returns," Puerto Rican 
rapper Rene Perez, also known as Residente, the lead singer of Calle 13, 
wrote on his Twitter account. "Welcome home Oscar Lopez Rivera."

Lopez Rivera was born in Puerto Rico in 1943 and later moved to the 
United States. After being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War and 
returning to Chicago, Lopez Rivera joined the struggle for Puerto Rican 
rights. In 1976, he joined the fight for Puerto Rican independence as a 
member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, also known as FALN.

He was arrested in 1981 and charged with “seditious conspiracy” for his 
role in a variety of FALN activities. During his trial, Lopez Rivera and 
other FALN activists told the court their actions were part of an 
anti-colonial war against the U.S., declaring themselves prisoners of 
war and requesting that their cases be handed over to an international 
court. That request was denied, and Lopez Rivera was eventually 
sentenced to 55 years in prison — a sentence almost 20 times longer than 
those handed down for similar offenses.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton offered Lopez Rivera a pardon in 
1999, but the activist rejected it in an act of solidarity with other 
Puerto Rican activists who had not been offered clemency and because he 
refused to publicly renounce the right of colonized peoples to resist 
through armed struggle.

Lopez Rivera's return comes just days after Puerto Rico launched a new 
push for statehood with plans to hold a referendum on June 11 on 
becoming a state. The vote comes as the island continues to struggle 
with a crippling debt crisis, tempered by Puerto Rico's colonial 
relationship with the U.S.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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