The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.24           June 28, 1999 
 
 
`Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners'  

BY JOSHUA CARROLL
CHICAGO-Puerto Rican independence activists and defenders of democratic rights are organizing a march and rally in Washington, D.C., July 24 to demand freedom for all the Puerto Rican political prisoners. There are currently 17 Puerto Rican patriots held in U.S. jails, with sentences ranging from 15 to 98 years. Starting July 22, there will be four days of actions aimed at winning their release. These actions are being organized by the National Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, Pro-LIBERTAD, the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project, and the Committee in Solidarity with José Solís Jordán.

Solís, who was convicted on false "terrorism" charges in federal court in Chicago on March 12, is the most recent independence activist to be framed up by the U.S. government. He was railroaded to jail in a trial typical of Washington's treatment of supporters of Puerto Rican independence. Three FBI agents and Rafael Marrero, a paid FBI snitch, provided the main testimony against him, bolstered by a fabricated confession admittedly written by one of the cops, and an alleged English translation of a largely inaudible tape of a conversation in Spanish.

Solís is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7 in Chicago. The groups organizing the Washington, D.C., actions are urging people to demonstrate at their local federal buildings on July 7 to protest the frame-up of Solís. "We want defenders of Solís to go to the July 7 protests that are being organized in their areas. Where there are not already protests called, people should get together to organize them," said Marcos Vilar, of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners.

There are currently demonstrations being planned at federal buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Oakland, California; Minneapolis; Boston; Chicago; Miami and Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Camden, New Jersey, among others.

"This attack on Solís opens the door for them to go after others" in the Puerto Rican nationalist community, explained Vilar, who reported that a federal grand jury on June 2 subpoenaed records from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago to be turned over on June 18. The Cultural Center is a community organization associated with the Puerto Rican independence movement.

Records of Vida SIDA, a program of the Cultural Center, have also been subpoenaed. Vilar stressed the importance for defenders of democratic rights, in the face of these attacks, to participate in the planned actions.

On June 19 the Puerto Rican People's Parade in Chicago will be dedicated to José Solís and to the people of Vieques, an island of Puerto Rico two-thirds of which is occupied by a massive U.S. military base. There has been a decades-long movement by residents of Vieques and other nationalists throughout Puerto Rico against the U.S. military occupation.

Organizers of the parade will build both the July 7 and July 22-25 protests at the action. In New York, the Puerto Rican National Parade on June 13 is being dedicated to the release of all the political prisoners.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, El Comite '98 is organizing a protest on July 7 at the federal building in Oakland from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. In Miami, a July 7 picket at the federal building at 5:00 p.m. has been called by the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community, the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Miami Coalition to End the Embargo of Cuba, according to Andrés Gómez, an organizer of the action.  
 
 
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