[Pnews] Top Elected Officials, Clergy and human Rights Leaders to Deliver Petitions to White House Today Demanding Clemency for Oscar López Rivera
Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 10 12:41:28 EST 2017
*TOP ELECTED OFFICIALS, CLERGY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS LEADERS TO DELIVER
PETITIONS TO WHITE HOUSE TODAY DEMANDING CLEMENCY FOR IMPRISONED PUERTO
RICAN ACTIVIST*
**
January 11, 2017, Washington D.C. Prominent supporters of imprisoned Puerto
Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, who turned 74 years old last
week in his thirty-fifth year behind bars, will deliver 100,000
petitions to the White
House this afternoon, Wednesday, January 11. Grammy-award winning artist
Rene Perez, Illinois Congressman Luis V. Gutiérrez, Florida Congressman
Darren Soto, New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and San
Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soto, will lead the delegation demanding that
President Obama use his presidential power of pardon to grant López Rivera
clemency in the last week of Obama’s tenure in office. “Our deeply
profound and
moral commitment to Oscar and his freedom,” asserted the group, “once again
brings us to the gates of the White House.”
An additional 108,000 digital petitions on the White House website, /We,
The/
/People/, have called for López Rivera’s release, which is also supported by
leading international human rights figures including Nobel Peace laureates
former President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Connecting Obama’s, Carter’s and Tutu’s Nobel Prizes with that of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (whose birthday is commemorated on Monday, January
16), Tutu – in a special message written to coincide with today’s action
– stated
that the participants “feel for good reason that all avenues and
channels have
been exhausted, and that leaving the elder López Rivera to face the coming
years behind bars would constitute a grave injustice to all the peoples
of Latin
America. As a growing number of heads of state throughout that continent are
calling him ‘the Mandela of the Americas,’ I am reminded of the
prophetic words
of Dr. King – who was, after all, also a political prisoner: ‘I am
cognizant of the
interrelatedness of all communities and states,’ King wrote. ‘Injustice
anywhere is
a threat to justice everywhere.’”
López Rivera, widely considered to be a political prisoner, is one of
the longest
held in this hemisphere. He was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to 70
years in
prison on charges including seditious conspiracy, despite no evidence or
charges
of involvement in any act of violence. Twelve of his 35 years behind
bars were
spent in solitary confinement, and support in Puerto Rico for his
release comes
from across the political spectrum, including from strong opponents of the
independence option advocated by López Rivera, and from the island’s current
and former Governors.
The January 11 protest follows a video release last Thursday by Our
Revolution,
the successor to the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, with the former
Presidential hopeful calling for clemency for Lopez Rivera and urging his
supporters to contact the White House. Emails, texts, and tweets
continue to flow
demanding that President Obama take immediate action, and – in San Juan – a
supporter of López Rivera is on hunger strike to draw attention to his
cause.
United Nations Special Representative and Nobel Peace Prize recipient José
Ramos-Horta, the former head of state of the Pacific island of East
Timor, sent a
message to President Obama and the January 11 organizers noting, “Eight
years
ago, approaching the Presidency, Barack Obama was heartily welcomed into the
community of Nobel Peace laureates with great hope on the horizon. Now, as
President Obama approaches civilian life, there can be no better way to
demonstrate restorative, peaceful and just practice than by granting
full clemency
to Oscar Lopez Rivera.”
Coordinating Committee
National Boricua Human Rights Network
2739 W. Division Street
Chicago IL 60622
www.boricuahumanrights.org <http://www.boricuahumanrights.org>
@free_olr
facebook.com/chi.nbhrn
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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