U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK
POLITICAL PRISONERS/STATE REPRESSION WORKING GROUP


The Obama Administration is holding meetings to prepare its list of accepted recommendations from governments at its 11/5/11 Geneva appearance. We must keep Cuba's PP recommendation in the U.S. list of human rights concerns. This group is working towards building a firestorm for US Political Prisoners in preparation of the US's March 18th return to Geneva.

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Monday, January 31, 2011

USHRN Work Group Demands Release of PP Oscar Lopez Rivera

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February, 2011

U.S. Human Rights Network Working Group Demands the Release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, U.S. Political Activist Imprisoned Close to 30 years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28,2011

Contact: Efia Nwangaza (864) 901-8627 or Enjericho@aol.com
Stan Willis (312) 750-1950 or swillis818@aol.com
Ajamu Baraka

Atlanta, GA- The Political Prisoner/State Repression Working Group of the U.S. Human Rights Network calls for the immediate parole of Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican political activist who has served close to 30 years of a 70 year sentence on a COINTELPRO Era seditious conspiracy conviction. He was not accused nor convicted of causing harm or taking a life

Oscar Rivera Lopez, 68 years old and a model prisoner, is a decorated Vietnam veteran, who worked in Chicago as a community organizer for better housing, education, employment, and living conditions for Puerto Ricans and Latinos. He helped to found institutions which still thrive today. He is a father and grandfather, encouraging his daughter and granddaughter as they pursue higher education degrees.

In 1999, former President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of Mr. Lopez Rivera's co-defendants. They, convicted of the same offense, had served between 16 and 20 years in prison, President Clinton determined that their sentences were disproportionately long and that they posed no threat to society. Applying the same standard, he said that Oscar López Rivera should be released by September of 2009.

Since the release of Mr. Lopez Rivera's co-defendants, including Carlos Alberto Torres who served 30 years and paroled in July of 2010, each person has established him/herself as a productive, law-abiding people contributing to the betterment of society. We believe this is and will be true of Oscar Lopez Rivera also.

We, the U.S. Human Rights Network Political Prisoner/State Repression Working Group, join the United Nations Decolonization Committee, the Ecumenical and Interreligious Coalition of Puerto Rico, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and other U.S. elected officials, civil society of Puerto Rico, and many other human rights, civic, religious, political and community leaders in the U.S. and Puerto Rico in the call for theU. S. government's immediate release of Oscar Lopez Rivera.

We urge all people of conscience to encourage the U.S. Parole Commission to grant Mr. Lopez Rivera immediate parole. We encourage participation in the continuing solidarity actions to call the Parole Board (301.492.5990), fax (301/492-5543) and mail support letters to the Parole Board UNTIL NOTIFICATION THAT THE PAROLE BOARD HAS REJECTED OR CONFIRMED THE EXAMINER’S DECISION. Contact alejandrom@boricuahumanrights.org to report the number of letters mailed/faxed.

See U.S. Human Rights Network Reports to the UPR Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/upr_reports.
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1 comment:

  1. Should criminals be in charge of correcting the wrong they inflicted?

    Puerto Ricans vote in elections every 4 years at an 80% level of participation. Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States (US) government for the past 116 years. If the US government has the final say in what happens in Puerto Rico, what is the purpose of these elections? The purpose is to fool the world that Puerto Rico is a democracy.

    The United Nations (UN) declared colonialism a crime against humanity in 1960. The UN has asked the US government 33 times to decolonize Puerto Rico immediately. The US government has refused. It says that Puerto Rico’s political relationship with the United States is none of the UN’s business. The US says that it is a domestic affair.

    To appear that the US government wants to decolonize Puerto Rico, it promotes the use of plebiscites to determine what Puerto Ricans want. Doesn’t that sounds innocent and democratic? So what’s the problem?

    To begin with, the international community already rendered its verdict and determined that colonialism is illegal. So to have a political status option in a plebiscite that favors maintaining Puerto Rico a colony of the United States is not permitted. To have a political status option of Puerto Rico becoming a state of the United States is also not permitted under international law. The problem goes back to the beginning of this article. In order to have free elections, the country must be free. So before these elections and plebiscite could be valid, Puerto Rico would have to first be an independent nation.

    What people must realize is that Puerto Rico is a colony of the US because the US government wants it that way. That is why it has used terrorism to keep it that way. That is why it refuses to release the Puerto Rican political prisoner of 33 years Oscar López Rivera. That is also why it is ridiculous to believe that decolonization is a US internal matter in which the UN has no jurisdiction over. If we allow the US government to decolonize Puerto Rico, she will remain a colony of the United States forever!

    José M López Sierra
    www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete