Vol. 80/No. 34 September 12, 2016
Build ‘Free Oscar López’ rally, concert in DC Oct. 9
“In Puerto Rico there is a broad consensus in favor of freeing Oscar,” Eduardo Villanueva, spokesperson of the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico, said by phone from San Juan Aug. 26. “We are organizing this event to show that in the heart of the United States, in the belly of the beast, like José Martí used to say, there is also broad support. We want Obama to exercise his constitutional powers and release Oscar.”
Villanueva is a member of the executive committee of the Coalition to Free Oscar López, formed to organize the event. The coalition includes longtime supporters of independence, church leaders, unions, local elected officials on the island and in the U.S., as well as former staff members of current Gov. Alejandro García Padilla.
Buses are being organized from New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, including union participation from Service Employees International Union locals 32BJ and 1199. Congressman Luis Gutierrez from Illinois and New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito have spoken out in support of the event.
The fight to free López has been expanding. The deepening economic crisis in Puerto Rico, with the colonial government bankrupt, has battered working people. Many have left, coming to the U.S.
President Barack Obama signed a law June 30 imposing a fiscal control board on the island, which he will appoint, to ensure payment to wealthy bondholders and hedge funds on Puerto Rico’s $72 billion debt. “Obama keep your fiscal board and return Oscar to us,” is a popular sign at demonstrations against the measure.
The imposition of the board and the resistance against it “is a confirmation of the legitimacy of the struggle Oscar was waging” when he was arrested, Villanueva said.
López’s fight was strengthened by the freeing of the last of the Cuban Five and their return to Cuba in December 2014. The five Cuban revolutionaries, framed up and imprisoned in the U.S. for some 15 years, have repeatedly called for López’s freedom. Fernando González, one of the Five, shared a cell with him for four years in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The fight is also strengthened by growing recognition — despite Washington’s claims to the contrary — that Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony.
Born in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, López moved to Chicago when he was 14. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam. Upon returning to Chicago he joined fights against discrimination in housing and jobs, against police brutality, for bilingual education and for freeing Puerto Rican political prisoners.
López was arrested in 1981, accused by U.S. prosecutors of being a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), which claimed responsibility for bombing banks and corporations in the U.S. with ties to Puerto Rico. Having no physical evidence linking him to any violent crime, the U.S. government charged López with “seditious conspiracy” and railroaded him to prison.
U.S. officials have tried with no success to break López’s spirit, throwing him in solitary confinement his first 12 years in prison.
López continues to speak out for independence for Puerto Rico from his prison cell today. Villanueva, who talks frequently with him, said that López “has a lot of respect from his fellow prisoners.”
“He doesn’t try to impose his views on anybody, he respects everybody’s space,” Villanueva said. Many prisoners have asked for his help in studying English, art — López learned how to paint in prison — and history, Villanueva said.
López has extended support to struggles of others, including the fight for Black rights in the U.S. He gave a speech to a Juneteenth celebration, organized by African-American prisoners. “He spoke on the history of Puerto Rico and its relation to the African-American freedom struggle,” Alejandro Molina, spokesperson for the U.S.-based Boricua Human Rights Network, told the Militant.
The unfolding crisis in Puerto Rico presents an opportunity to increase the pressure on the U.S. government to release López, Molina said. “We want as many people to turn out for the rally and concert as possible.”
For more information on the Oct. 9 action and how you can get involved, visit: freeoscarlopeznow.com or boricuahumanrights.org.
Related articles:
Dignity, courage of Cuban 5 inspired fellow prisoners
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