<html>
<body>
<h3><b>Call for Pardon for Oscar </b></h3><font size=4><b>López
Rivera</font><h3><b>, Now!</b></h3><font size=3>June 1, 2011 | by
<a href="http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/authors/staff/">HS News
Staff</a><br>
<a href="http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/hsn-network/details/call-for-pardon-for-oscar-now/7991/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/hsn-network/details/call-for-pardon-for-oscar-now/7991/<br>
<br>
</a><i>Today’s contribution is from
<a href="http://www.claridadpuertorico.com/generalcontent.html?gid=1">
Claridad</a>. 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.<br>
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.<br><br>
</i>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>