Vol. 80/No. 13 April 4, 2016
Chicago event backs fight to free Oscar López
AND BETSY FARLEY
That statement is from a letter by Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera, who has been in U.S. prisons on frame-up charges for more than 34 years, that his daughter Clarisa López initially read on his 73rd birthday in January. She referred to it again at a March 12 forum celebrating International Women’s Day organized by the Chicago chapter of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women.
The event focused on the ongoing effort to free López and on the devastating economic crisis in Puerto Rico, including the $73 billion government debt that capitalist bondholders are demanding payment to fill their bank accounts on the backs of working people in the U.S. colony. The meeting was held at the National Museum for Puerto Rican Arts and Culture and attended by 100 people.
Because of drastic cuts in social services, unemployment and the bankruptcy of the state institutions, a “forced exodus of 150,000 residents has taken place since 2010,” said Wilma Reverón from the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico. This situation cannot be reversed unless Puerto Rico “wins sovereignty” over its economy and laws.
Clarisa López and Jan Susler, Oscar López’s attorney, spoke about the growing efforts to win López’s freedom, from petitions to monthly 34-minute vigils — one minute for every year of his imprisonment — being held across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.
Susler, who works for the People’s Law Office in Chicago, likened the broad support for López in Puerto Rico to the mass popular movement that forced the U.S. Navy to close its base and bombing range on the island of Vieques there in 2003. Trade unions in Puerto Rico and the U.S., every political party on the island and even some of López’s prison guards have supported the call for his release. Susler reiterated López’s demand, “Let’s not pay that debt.”
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