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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Freedom-Fighter-Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-Returns-to-Puerto-Rico-20170209-0033.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Freedom-Fighter-Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-Returns-to-Puerto-Rico-20170209-0033.html</a><br>
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<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <a
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href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Freedom-Fighter-Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-Returns-to-Puerto-Rico-20170209-0033.html">February
9, 2017</a>
<h1 id="reader-title">Oscar Lopez Rivera Lands in Puerto Rico</h1>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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." </p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Oscar-Lopez-Rivera-to-Be-Freed-After-36-Years-in-US-Prison-20170117-0029.html">commuted
Lopez' sentence</a> in January days before President
Donald Trump was inaugurated.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Public figures including artists and activists
celebrated Lopez Rivera's return on social media.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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415 863.9977
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