Supporters call for release of Puerto Rican nationalist

luckystrike

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May 25, 2011
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Gathering marks 30th year in prison for FALN activist


With prayer, song and calls for freedom, dozens of Puerto Rican community members and human rights activists gathered Sunday to mark the 30th year in prison for Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera and to call for his release.

Lopez Rivera, now 68, is a gray-haired vestige of an era in America when a group known as the FALN (Spanish for the Armed Forces of National Liberation) fought for Puerto Rico's independence from the U.S.

More than a dozen FALN members were convicted and imprisoned in the 1980s on charges including seditious conspiracy and armed robbery. In 1999, President Bill Clinton granted clemency to nearly all the prisoners and released them.



Lopez Rivera, who is serving a 70-year sentence in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., is the last remaining FALN prisoner. Lopez Rivera, who had been serving a 55-year sentence for conspiracy, was sentenced to an additional 15 years in 1988 after he was convicted of plotting an escape from prison. In 1999, he rejected Clinton's conditional offer for a reduced sentence.

In recent months, the National Boricua Human Rights Network and other activists have launched a national campaign to urge President Barack Obama to commute his sentence. In addition to a prayer vigil and rally in Chicago, events were held in New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Puerto Rico.

Read more:
Activists call for Puerto Rican nationalist's release - chicagotribune.com

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This is part of the "Be Nice To Latinos" campaign. Only Latinos are human! Everybody else is SCUM! Would they be holding prayer services for any other race of Catholics?

The Catholic Church has now become a haven for Latino terrorists and gang banger illegals.
 

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