Who is Oscar Lopez Rivera? - Anarchist Black Cross Federation

Who is Oscar Lopez Rivera?
Oscar Lopez Rivera is a Puerto
Rican Nationalist and prisoner of war
who was convicted and sentenced to
70 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and various other offenses.
Early Years and Personal Life
Oscar Lopez Rivera was born in San
Sebasti·n, Puerto Rico on January 6,
1943. His family moved to the U.S.
when he was nine years old. At the age
of 14, he moved to Chicago to live with
a sister. At age 18 he was drafted into
the army and served in Viet Nam and
awarded the Bronze Star. When he
returned to Illinois from the war in
1967, he found that drugs, unemployment, housing, health care and education in the Puerto Rican community had
reached dire levels and set to work in
community organizations to improve
the quality of life for his people.
He was a well-respected community
activist and an independence leader for
many years prior to his arrest. Oscar
worked in the creation of both the
Puerto Rican High School and the
Puerto Rican Cultural Center. He was
also involved in the struggle for bilingual education in public schools and to
force universities to actively recruit
Latino students, staff, and faculty. He
worked on ending discrimination in
public utilities like Illinois Bell, People’s
Gas, and Commonwealth Edison.
Oscar was one of the founders of the
Rafael Cancel Miranda High School,
now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu
Campos High School and the Juan
Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural
Center. He was a community organizer
for the Northwest Community
Organization (NCO), ASSPA, ASPIRA
and the 1st Congregational Church of
Chicago. He helped to found FREE, a
half-way house for convicted drug
addicts, and ALAS, an educational program for Latino prisoners at Stateville
Prison in Illinois.
Seditious Conspiracy
The U.S. Government describes
Lopez Rivera as one of the leaders of
the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion
Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican
Nationalist group that actively engaged
in armed action in support of Puerto
Ricanís independence from the United
States.
In 1980-81, Lopez Rivera and the
other Chicago-based FALN comrades
were arrested and sentenced for their
participation in the Puerto Rican independence struggle. All were indicted on
various charges related to 28 bombings
in the Chicago area between 1976 and
1980. They were convicted of seditious conspiracy (“attempt to overthrow
the government of the United States in
Puerto Rico by force”), armed robbery,
and lesser offenses. Lopez Rivera
refused to participate in the trial,
declaring himself a prisoner of war.
Lopez Rivera was given a 70-year
federal sentence for seditious conspiracy and other charges. Among the other
convicted Puerto Rican nationalists
there were sentences of as long as 90
years in Federal prisons for offenses
including sedition, possession of unregistered firearms, interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, interference
with interstate commerce by violence
and interstate transportation of firearms
with intent to commit a crime.
In 1986, FBI foiled a plan to liberate
Oscar Lopez Rivera from Leavenworth,
KS. The alleged plot involved landing a
helicopter stocked with machine guns
and explosives in a prison yard.
However, the plan was interrupted
when the FBI infiltrated to plot.
Lopez Rivera was later convicted of
conspiracy to escape and given an
additional 15 years for his involvement
in the plot.
Human Rights Violations
There were reports of human rights
violations against the FALN prisoners.
The prisoners were placed in prisons
far from their families, some were sexually assaulted by prison personnel,
some were denied adequate medical
attention, and others were kept in isolated underground prison cells for no
reason. Amnesty International and the
House of Representatives’
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual
Property and the Administration of
Justice both criticized the conditions.
The conditions were found to be in vio-
lation of the U.N. Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. A
federal judge also addressed his concerns in the case of Baraldine vs.
Meese.
Political Prisoner
At the time of their arrest Lopez
Rivera and the others declared themselves to be combatants in an anticolonial war against the United States
to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. domination and invoked prisoner of war status. They argued that the U.S. courts
did not have jurisdiction to try them as
criminals and petitioned for their cases
to be handed over to an international
court that would determine their status.
The U.S. Government, however, did
not recognize their request.
On September 11, 1999, President
Bill Clinton extended an offer of
clemency to 16 of the Puerto Rican
political prisoners. Eveln accepted the
offers were subsequently released.
Juan Enrique Segarra-Palmer, who
was sentenced to 35 years in prison on
October 4, 1985, also accepted the
clemency but was to become eligible
for release in September, 2004.
However, Lopez Rivera rejected the
offer because he refused to stay out of
the Puerto Rico Independence militant
activities.
In 2006, the United Nations called for
the release of the remaining Puerto
Rican political prisoners in United
States prisons. However, Oscar Lopez
Rivera release date is scheduled for
June 26, 2023.
Free the Puerto Rico POW’s
Oscar Lopez Rivera
Write to the Puerto Rican POW at:
Oscar Lopez Rivera
#87651-024
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47808
Organizations Supporting the
Oscar Lopez Rivera:
Anarchist Black Cross Federation
(ABCF)
P.O. Box 11223
Whittier, CA 90604
[email protected]
YOU CAN HELP BY GIVING POLITICAL PRISONERS A VOICE AND VISIBILITY
THE TRUTH CAN SET THEM FREE!
Puerto Rican Prisoner of
War Serving 70 Years
For His Particpation in the
Independance Movement