US to set free Puerto Rican independence leader Rivera

PUERTO Rico’s independence leader and longest held political prisoner in the US from Latin America will soon be set free, after his sentence was commuted by outgoing US President Barack Obama.

The US government earlier announced the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been imprisoned in the US for 36 years for his struggle to free Puerto Rico from US colonial rule.

Obama commuted Lopez’s sentence, which will expire on May 17, according to a list of commutations announced by the White House.

Celebrations started almost immediately. Clarissa Lopez, his daughter, was to hold a press conference yesterday in reaction to his release.

Lopez was born in Puerto Rico in 1943, and upon returning to Chicago after serving in the Vietnam War, joined the struggle for Puerto Rican rights.

He participated in acts of civil disobedience and other actions. In 1976, he joined the clandestine fight for the independence of Puerto Rico as a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation. In 1981, he was captured by the FBI and accused of “conspiracy” for his militancy in the Faln.

At the time of his capture, he proclaimed himself a prisoner of war, protected under the first protocol of the Geneva Convention of 1949. The protocol protects Lopez from prosecution for having been arrested in a conflict against colonial occupation.

The US did not recognise Lopez’s demand and sentenced him to 55 years in prison, and, after an alleged attempt to escape, the sentence was increased to 70 years in prison, 12 of which he spent in solitary confinement.

Human rights organisations, have demanded Lopez’s release for many years. – Telesur