After 36 years, US finally frees Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera

Puerto Ricans march in New York in 2014 to call for freedom for Oscar Lopez Rivera, who will be released in May.

The United States government announced on January 17 the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been jailed in the US for 36 years for his struggle to free Puerto Rico from US colonial rule.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama commuted Lopez' sentence, which will expire on May 17, according to a White House source, consulted by the EFE news agency.

Lopez, born in Puerto Rico in 1943, is an independence leader in his native country, a US-ruled colony on the Caribbean. Upon returning to Chicago after serving in the Vietnam War, Lopez joined the struggle for the rights of the Puerto Rican people and participated in acts of civil disobedience and other actions.

In 1976, he joined the clandestine fight for Puerto Rican independence as a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). In 1981, he was captured by the FBI accused of "conspiracy" and his menbrship of the FALN.

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

The US did not recognise the demand of Lopez and sentenced him to 55 years in prison. After an alleged attempt to escape, the sentence was increased to 70 years in prison, 12 of which have been spent in isolated confinement.

Former US President Bill Clinton in 1999 offered him a pardon. The offer was made to 13 Puerto Rican prisoners who accepted, but Lopez rejected it because it included completing 10 years in jail with good behavior. Leaders from around the world, as well as human rights organisations, have demanded the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera.

In 2012, the UN Decolonization Committee approved a resolution, promoted by Cuba, in which it called for recognition of Puerto Rico's right to independence and self-determination and urged the release of the pro-independence detainees in the US.

Reposted from TeleSUR English

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