Monday, March 27, 2023
Home   >   Editor’s Picks   >   Obama Commutes Sentence for Oscar López Rivera

Obama Commutes Sentence for Oscar López Rivera

By on January 17, 2017

SAN JUAN — Car horns rang out across Puerto Rico and people celebrated in the streets Tuesday after President Barack Obama announced he had commuted the prison sentence of 74-year-old nationalist Oscar López Rivera.

Many Puerto Ricans have long demanded his release, and some wept with emotion upon hearing the news while others headed to all-night parties announced on social media.

His lawyer, Jan Susler, told The Associated Press that she broke the news of the release to López, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his role in a violent struggle for independence for the U.S. island territory.

“He’s very, very grateful,” she said in a phone interview. “One of the things he said was: ‘Tomorrow’s my daughter’s birthday. What an amazing present for her.'”

María Pagan, center, joins a rally calling for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera on Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

María Pagan, center, joins a rally calling for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera on Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The announcement comes just three days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and amid a growing plea from Puerto Ricans who campaigned for López Rivera’s release, including Sen. Eduardo Bhatia, who as recently as Tuesday stated that he had received a reply from the Justice Department regarding a formal request issued by the Senate last December.

“It is a moment of jubilation and justice for Oscar López Rivera, who has given all of us Puerto Ricans a lesson in staying hopeful and sane even amid the darkest circumstances. The fight for the liberation of our last political prisoner is a historic honor and an honorable achievement for this generation. Let us not forget for a long time what it means to unite for the same purpose,” attorney José Rodríguez Irizarry, who authored the petition for release Dec. 14 that resulted in reaction from the White House.

The petition was submitted Nov. 11 and reached 100,000 signatures on Dec. 5. It called on Obama “to do what is right and free Oscar López Rivera before the end of his term.

López belonged to the ultranationalist Armed Forces of National Liberation, which claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings at public and commercial buildings during the 1970s and ’80s in New York, Chicago, Washington and other U.S. cities. He was convicted on one count of seditious conspiracy, and he was later convicted of conspiring to escape from prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. He is currently being held at Terre Haute, Indiana.

The group’s most notorious bombing occurred at New York’s landmark Fraunces Tavern in 1975 that killed four people and injured more than 60. López was not convicted of any role in that attack, but some still hold him responsible because of his ties to the ultranationalist group.

“I’m willing to forgive, but he never once said he was sorry, showed no remorse at all,” said Mary Connor Tully, whose husband, Frank Connor, was killed in the bombing. “He’s an old man and he’ll get to live his life free, and hopefully he can live with the sins he committed, and that he’ll answer one day to a higher power than us for what he did.”

López, whose release also was opposed by several groups including a national police organization, is now scheduled to be freed May 17.

“He wants to live in Puerto Rico, and people there really want him to come home,” Susler said.

López was offered clemency by President Bill Clinton in 1999, but he rejected the offer because it excluded two comrades who have since been released. Then in 2011, the U.S. Parole Commission denied his request for an early release.

Among those who publicly supported López’s release was Pope Francis, “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, former President Jimmy Carter and several legislators, including U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois.

“Sobbing with gratitude here in London,” Miranda tweeted Tuesday, adding that he will have a show for López in Chicago. “It’ll be my honor to play Hamilton the night he goes.”

Alejandro Molina, coordinator of the National Boricua Human Rights Network, joined about 100 other people in a spontaneous celebration Tuesday at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, which was founded by López.

“It’s wonderful news,” he said.

Upon his return to Puerto Rico, López plans to spend time with his daughter and granddaughter and wants to establish a think tank that will work on such problems as climate change, the economy and the island’s political status.

“He wants to be actively involved in solving the problems of Puerto Rican society,” said Molina, who accompanied López’s daughter on a Christmas prison visit

Susler said the U.S. pardon attorney told her that sometimes inmates first transition to a halfway house after being released. But eventually, López will return to Puerto Rico, she said.

“He’s a man who lives with a lot of hope,” she said. “That’s how I think you survive 35 years in prison. He’s never had false hope or illusory hope. He thought he was in prison for a higher cause for his people, and that’s something that’s very life-giving.”

Caribbean Business contributed to this report.

 

 

 

You must be logged in to post a comment Login