The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.26           July 19, 1999 
 
 
Protesters Demand: `Free José Solís'  

BY BETSEY STONE
CHICAGO - José Solís Jordán, a longtime advocate of Puerto Rican independence, was sentenced here July 7 to 51 months in prison by Federal Judge Blanche Manning on frame-up "terrorism" charges. He is the most recent of 17 Puerto Rican political prisoners currently in U.S. jails because of their involvement in the fight for Puerto Rico's independence from U.S. colonial rule.

Solís was convicted March 12 on fabricated charges of setting a bomb outside a military recruitment center in Chicago in l992, based on the testimony of an FBI provocateur and three FBI agents.

The political activist and University of Puerto Rico professor could have served a possible sentence of eight years. He has already served almost four months in prison, which is supposed to be subtracted from the 51-month sentence.

One hundred supporters of Solís filled the courtroom and the hall outside the court to protest the frame-up and sentence. Picket lines demanding the release of Solís were held in front of federal buildings in a number of cities around the country, as well as a protest in San Juan by 60 Solís supporters.

Addressing the judge, defense attorney Jed Stone, declared: "You are presiding over the sentencing of an innocent man - a man who did not conspire and did not plant bombs."

Solís then addressed the courtroom. He said the judge's ruling would be directed not only against him and his family, as well as his students, but against the people of Puerto Rico. "Today, as this sentence is imposed," he said, "we hope that one day justice will be realized by the people of Puerto Rico."

After the sentencing, supporters of Solís and family members gathered in the lobby of the court building to protest. Several held aloft Puerto Rican flags.

Martha Gonzales-Simonet, Solís's wife, pointed out that when he was arrested in November 1997, FBI agents failed in their attempt to get Solís to testify against other Puerto Rican activists. She said the attack on her husband was in response to his "refusal to collaborate with the witch-hunt being carried out by the government against the Puerto Rican community."

Also there to express support were students and former students of Solís from DePaul University, where he was a professor of education from l992-95, along with Puerto Rican community activists and others.

Marcos Vilar, representing the National Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, urged participation in the campaign to free all Puerto Rican political prisoners, including Solís. Further events on behalf of the political prisoners will be held in Washington, D.C., in late July, including a July 24 march.

An appeal of the decision is planned. More information on the campaign in defense of Jose Solís Jordan can be obtained from: Committee in Solidarity with Jose Solís Jordán, P.O. Box 577826, Chicago, IL 60657; tel.: (312) 409-0801.

*****

BY ROSE ANA BERBEO

NEW YORK - Sixty people picketed the Federal Building here July 7 to demand the release of José Solís.

Among Solís's supporters at the picket line were several leaders of the independence movement in Puerto Rico who had testified the day before at the United Nations decolonization hearings on Puerto Rico, including Jorge Farinacci of the Socialist Front, Marisol Corretjer of the Nationalist Party, and Ismael Guadalupe Ortiz of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. The committee has spearheaded the fight against the U.S. Navy's presence on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Guadalupe said the fight to remove the U.S. military and the campaign to free Solís and the other Puerto Rican political prisoners "are intertwined - both are part of the struggle for the sovereignty of Puerto Rico against U.S. domination. José Solís's only crime is fighting for the independence of his country." Among the demonstrators were members of the Vieques Support Campaign in New York.

Frank Velgara, a leader of ProLIBERTAD, one of the organizations sponsoring the picket line, said, "This is the time to increase public pressure locally and nationally to demand the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners."

In Miami, a dozen supporters for Solís picketed the Federal Building. The protest was called by the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba. Also participating were members of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC), and Socialist Workers Party. A statement was read from the Orlando chapter of the Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners.

Ron Richards in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Ernie Mailhot in Miami contributed to this article.

 
 
 
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