These were Andrés Figueroa Cordero’s first words to his brother as the ailing member of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico was carried from a plane at the San Juan airport October 7. Andrés’s brother had broken out in tears when he saw the pallid, frail figure of Andrés in a wheelchair, a Puerto Rican flag draped across his shoulders.

"My release is a victory for the Puerto Rican and North American people, which should be dedicated to work for the release of other political prisoners, especially he other four Nationalist political prisoners, Lolita Lebrón, Oscar Collazo, Irving Flores, and Rafael Cancel Miranda," Figueroa Cordero said.

The five were imprisoned in the early 1950s for armed actions carried out in support of Puerto Rican independence.

After twenty-three years in U.S. prisons, Andrés Figueroa Cordero is free at last. But he will have only a few weeks to enjoy the homeland he dedicated his life to liberating. Doctors say he has less than two months to live.

It has been known for several years that Figueroa Cordero has terminal cancer. Carter waited until the prisoner was liquidado--finished, to use Figueroa Cordero’s word--before releasing him.

The fifty-two-year-old Nationalist is dying today instead of ten or twenty years from now because prison authorities turned a deaf ear to pleas for adequate medical treatment from a man totally at their mercy.

And yet the White House said Carter had released the prisoner on "humanitarian grounds."  
 
October 20, 1952
By Farrell Dobbs
American mothers and fathers who believe they may save their draft-age or GI sons from the horrors of Korea by voting for Stevenson or Eisenhower are being cruelly deceived. Stevenson is trying to give the impression that he would continue only a "limited war" in Korea. Eisenhower is spreading the illusion that he would reduce U.S. losses by replacing American troops with South Koreans.

"American casualties that were running 250 a week have jumped to about 1,000 a week," reveals the Oct. 17 U.S. News and World Report. Bigger sacrifices of American boys in Korea--that’s the real prospect offered by the candidates of the Democratic and Republican twin parties of Big Business.

Stevenson flatly acknowledges that he has no idea of ending the Korean War and withdrawing U.S. troops. "I assume he (Eisenhower) does not mean to promise an early return of our forces from Korea, regardless of consequences," said Stevenson on Oct. 9. "If he does, I shall not match him.... I shall make no promises in this election I know I cannot keep."

But Stevenson does try to suggest he will keep the war within its present "limited" scope. Yet the "limited war" against the Koreans has spread into a bigger conflict with the 450 millions of China. And in the 15 months of truce negotiations, the U.S. has suffered over 40,000 battle casualties.

If elected, I would exercise the powers Truman used when he ordered the troops to Korea in the first place, except that as President and Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. armed forces I would order their immediate withdrawal from Korea.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home