Freedom For The Puerto Rican Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of
War!
ProLIBERTAD Campaign For The Freedom Of Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners And Prisoners Of War
What Is ProLIBERTAD?
ProLIBERTAD's goal is the unconditional freedom of all the
Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war. The work
group is composed of individuals and organizations who work
together on a broad and unitary basis, accepting differences of
ideological or political position, but sharing the responsibility
to support these Puerto Ricans who have been imprisoned for their
political activities in the cause of Puerto Rico's independence and
self-determination.
It is our aim to develop an educational campaign sponsoring
activities, conferences, publications, and use the press, radio and
television to inform the public about who the prisoners are, the
circumstances of their imprisonment, and the reasons why a person,
whatever his or her political beliefs, should demand their amnesty.
We are aware of the work this entails and see the need to
collaborate and coordinate as much as possible with other
organizations and people working for the unconditional freedom of
all the Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war, as
well with groups working for the freedom of African-American,
Native American, Chicano and White political prisoners in the
United States
Who Are The Puerto Rican Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War?
They are workers and professionals, students and teachers,
community organizers, artists, mothers and fathers of families. And
they are fighters for Puerto Rico's independence and social
justice. These men and women found Puerto Rico's colonial reality
intolerable and unacceptable. This situation led them to join the
Puerto Rican independence movement and to confront the United
States government directly. The majority of the political prisoners
have spent more than a decade in federal prisons for their
political activities.
During the 1970's and the beginning of the 80's, the prisoners
were involved in community, union, student and political struggles
in Puerto Rico and Elizam Escobar in the United States.They fought
for the people's right to high quality, free education.They worked
to create community institutions such as alternative education
programs, child-care centers, health centers, housing cooperatives,
recreational facilities and political organizations.They
participated actively in churches, student groups, unions,
professional associations, committees against repression, campaigns
against youth violence and drugs. In summary they challenged the
U.S. political system in many ways.
Throughout their lives they suffered the Puerto Rican colonial
reality and the consequences of their political and community
involvement. They were fired from their jobs, kicked out of schools
and universities, denied scholarships, threatened, spied on,
attacked by the police and the FBI. And when they rose up and
fought against these injustices they were branded as terrorists and
placed in some of the worst prisons in the U.S.
Puerto Rico's Colonial Case
Puerto Rico has been a colony for 500 years, first of Spain
and then of the United States. In 1898, at the conclusion of what
is called the Spanish-American War, Spain was forced to cede the
island nation to the United States pursuant to a treaty between
Spain, France and the United States. No one consulted the people of
Puerto Rico, in violation of a Charter of Autonomy signed by Spain
and Puerto Rico which provided that the island's status could not
be altered without consulting the Puerto Rican people. The U.S.
military declared martial law, installed a U.S. governor, and began
a program to alter and destroy the fiber of Puerto Rico. Over the
years, the U.S. destroyed Puerto Rico's agrarian economy; devalued
its money; imposed citizenship on its people to facilitate drafting
its men into the U.S. army to fight the U.S.'s wars; imposed the
teaching of the English language and U.S. history on its students;
polluted its air, land, and water; sterilized its women; and
installed 21 U.S. military bases on some of the best land. This
would sound outrageous and unbelievable, except that this is the
very same U.S. government that exposed unsuspecting citizens to
radiation, as recent reports have disclosed.
Puerto Rico's colonial reality cannot be overlooked. George
Bush admitted during his presidency that Puerto Rico's people had
never been consulted on their status. Even Pedro Rossello, the
colonial governor, called attention to Puerto Rico's colonial
status in testimony before the United Nations in 1993.
As with any people of one nation dominated by another, there
have always been Puerto Ricans who resisted the U.S. government's
control of their nation's sovereignty. Their resistance, whether
the mere advocacy of independence or the taking up arms against the
colonizer, has been censored and criminalized, punished throughout
the years by harassment, surveillance, imprisonment, and even
summary execution.The examples are numerous. Some recent examples
include: in 1979 two pro-independence youth were assassinated at
Cerro Maravilla by the police after an undercover agent set up a
trap and the Puerto Rican government participated in the cover-up
that ensued; in 1987 it was discovered that the Puerto Rican police
in collaboration with repressive U.S. agencies had maintained a
list of so called "subversives" along with over 135,000 files on
Puerto Rican citizens for strictly political reasons in clear
violation of the Puerto Rican Constitution; in September 1994 an
ex-member of the intelligence division of the Puerto Rican Police
was arrested and accused of (along with other members of his
division) kidnapping, torturing, and the assassinating the labor
leader, Juan Rafael Caballero, in 1977.
International law denounces colonialism as a crime and
recognizes a colonized people's right to end colonialism by any
means at their disposal. The United Nations recognizes that these
laws apply to the case of Puerto Rico. For many years now, the
United Nations' Decolonization Committee has approved resolutions
recognizing the inalienable right of Puerto Rico's people to
independence and self-determination.
The actions of the Puerto Rican political prisoners are
comparable to those of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Washington and Jefferson denounced the tyranny of British control
over their colonies. They fought for the principle of democracy,
and gained independence. Similarly, the U.S. government recognized
that Nelson Mandela's imprisonment by the South African apartheid
government was unjust. Mandela was jailed for 27 years on charges
of attempting to overthrow the apartheid government through violent
means. Like Washington, Jefferson and Mandela before them, the
Puerto Rican political prisoners are conscientious activists for
freedom and justice, not criminals.
The Arrests
In a series of arrests carried out between 1980 and 1985
around 30 people were accused of acting or conspiring to overthrow
the authority of the U.S. government in Puerto Rico through force,
in other words acting in favor of Puerto Rico's independence and
self-determination. At the beginning of the 1980's fourteen people
accused of being members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation
(FALN, its acronym in Spanish) were arrested. At the time of their
arrest they declared themselves to be combatants in an anti-
colonial war to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. domination and
invoked prisoner of war status. They argued that the U.S. courts
and its political subdivisions did not have jurisdiction to try
them as criminals and petitioned for their cases to be handed over
to an international, impartial court that would determine their
status. The U.S. government did not recognize their request. Today
these individuals are serving sentences of 35 to 90 years.
On August 30, 1985, hundreds of FBI agents descended on Puerto
Rico and searched the houses and offices of independence
supporters. Thirteen people were arrested that day and three others
later on. These people were immediately removed from Puerto Rico in
military transport and moved to the United States where they were
held in preventative detention, some for as long as three years,
without bail being set. They were accused of conspiring to rob $7.5
million from Wells Fargo, an action for which the clandestine group
"Los Macheteros" had taken responsibility. The charges included
transporting the money outside the United States and using the
money to buy and distribute toys to poor Puerto Rican children. Of
the accused, one was found innocent and the government dropped
charges against another one. The rest of the accused were sentenced
to between 5 to 55 years. Seven of them have already completed
their sentences or are about to complete them.
Punitive Sentences
The sentences received by these Puerto Rican patriots are
excessive and punitive. Their goal is to punish political activity,
militancy, and affiliation. Ten of the fourteen arrested between
1980 and 1983 were sentenced to serve terms of between 55 and 90
years. The average sentence among this group is 71.6 years: 70.8
years for the men and 72.8 years for the women. These sentences are
19 times longer than the average sentence given out during the year
that they were sentenced. The majority are serving the equivalent
of a life sentence. Of those that were arrested as a result of the
Wells Fargo case, two were sentenced to more than 50 years in
prison.
Common prisoners, those who commit criminal offenses, receive
sentences that are much shorter. For example, statistics from the
federal court system show that between 1966 and 1985 the average
sentence for all those people found guilty of murder was 22.7
years; of rape, 12.5 years; of violation of arms laws, 12 years.
Only 12.8% of all federal prisoners have sentences of more than 20
years. (1) Also the statistics show that those people with previous
criminal records receive longer sentences. None of the Puerto Rican
patriots in prison had a prior criminal record at the time of their
arrest.
In reality, the longest time served by any prisoners in
federal custody is for kidnapping: 5.3 years. (2) A study shows
that those persons sentenced by state courts for serious violent
crimes served between 2.5 and 4 years. Fourteen of the Puerto Rican
Political Prisoners have already served between 11 and 15 years in
prison. The political nature of these sentences is made evident by
comparing them to the preferential treatment given to people linked
to right-wing, anti-communist, or anti-abortion groups accused of
violent crimes. For example in 1976 Orlando Letelier, a leader in
the movement against the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and his
assistant, were assassinated by a bomb that was placed in
Letelier's car which was parked in front of his residence in
Washington, D.C. The agent of the Chilean secret police who
admitted to having placed the bomb was sentenced to 10 years in
prison, of which he served 5 years and two months. A major in the
Chilean army received a sentence of 7 years for his role in the
assassination and a Cuban exile who admitted his role in the plot
received a 12 year sentence.
A Ku Klux Klan Wizard, who was captured in a boat with an
arsenal of arms and explosives while attempting to invade a
Caribbean island with the goal of establishing a white supremacist
state received a three year sentence and was freed on parole after
two years. (3) Another Klan leader received a sentence of three
years for possession of an arsenal and for conspiracy. This same
man was later sentenced to three more years in prison for attempted
murder and racial harassment after shooting at two black men. (4)
Two women anti-abortion activists sentenced for conspiring in
a series of Florida bombings including a doctor's office and a
women's clinic, were put on probation and received a small fine.
Their male co-conspirators received ten years in prison and a fine
for three of the explosions, and were not tried for the fourth
explosion. (5) Michael Donald Bray who was found guilty of bombing
ten clinics was sentenced to ten years and was set free after
serving 3.7 years. (6)
Human Rights Violations
During their imprisonment, the Puerto Rican political
prisoners have been the objects of cruel treatment and degrading
and inhumane conditions, because of their political beliefs. This
is direct violation of international norms which prohibit
discriminatory treatment of prisoners by prison personnel based on
their political beliefs or opinions. [United Nations' Minimum
Uniform Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMRTP), Rule A1 6
(1)]
Federal regualtions stipulate that prisoners should be put in
prisons as close as possible to their homes and families.
Nevertheless the Puerto Rican political prisoners have been kept
far from their families and communities in the United States and/or
Puerto Rico. For example, all those arrested on August 30, 1995 in
Puerto Rico have had to serve their sentences in the United States
despite the existence of a federal prison in Puerto Rico. Adolfo
Matos is assigned to a prison in Southern California even though
there is a prison very close to where his family lives in New York.
Elizam Escobar has requested a transfer to a prison near to New
York to be closer to his son who lives in New York City. Although
hundreds of prisoners have been assigned to prisons in the New York
area, Elizam has been denied a transfer on the grounds of
overcrowding. Further, the political prisoners have been moved
around continually to different maximum security prisons without
prior warning to their families and/or lawyers.
Some of the prisoners have been attacked sexually. For
example, Alejandrina Torres was attacked by personnel in three
different prisons. The first assault took place when she was locked
in a men's unit, permitting the men to exhibit themselves in front
of her. In a second incident a male lieutenant forced her to put
her head between his knees and observed while female guards tore
off her clothes and left her naked. The authorities responded to
complaints by putting Alejandrina in solitary confinement,
prohibiting from calling her family and lawyer to denounce the
abuses. She was penalized for violating prison rules, and a secret
letter was written to a judge assigned to her case giving a false
version of the events. In another prison female guards held her
while a male guard inserted his fingers in her vagina and her anus
during a "search". The warden who ordered the search admitted later
that he did not suspect Alejandrina of having contraband, and that
the search was in violation of prison rules.
Even though U.S. law stipulates that prisoners should receive
medical service equal to that of the standards available to the
general community, the Puerto Rican political prisoners have been
denied adequate medical attention. For example, Haydee Beltran was
left sterile after prison officials refused treatment for an
inflammation of the pelvis for five years, ignoring episodes of
drastic weight loss and severe pains in her pelvis which did not
permit her to stand up.
Some of the prisoners have been locked in an underground
prison with the goal of destroying them physically,
psychologically, and politically. For example, Oscar Lopez who was
in a maximum security prison in Marion, IL, (and now in Florence,
CO) wrote in 1993:
"I am enclosed in a cell that is 8 feet wide by 9 feet long on an
average of 22 hours each day. Today while I write this letter I
have been 36 hours without going out and tomorrow if they do not
take us out it will have been three days without moving from this
same space. In this little space I have to do everything. From
eating my meals to taking care of my needs. So it is my dining room
and latrine at the same time. My bed is a slab of cement. And the
whole cell is painted the same dead yellow color. From an aesthetic
point of view it is as attractive as a jail for zoo animals."
In their 1987 report, the organization Amnesty International
condemned the conditions at Marion saying:
"In Marion, violations of the Minimum Standard Rules [of the United
Nations for the treatment of prisoners] are common. There is almost
no rule in the Minimum Standard Rules that is not broken in one
form or another..."
The 1990 report by the House of Representatives' Subcommittee
on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Administration of Justice
expresses "concern [...] about the amount of time that the
prisoners spend in their cells in relative isolation and the
limited opportunities for productive activity and recreation
available in a highly controlled environment." And the necessity to
"continue developing a more humane focus for the imprisonment of
prisoners in a maximum security prison."
From 1986 to 1988 Alejandrina Torres was put in a Maximum
Security Unit for women in Lexington, KY. Acknowledging the
ideological character of the assignment to this unit, a federal
judge stated in Baraldini vs. Meese:
"One thing is to place persons under greater security because they
have histories of escape attempts and pose special risks for our
correctional facilities. But consigning anyone to a high security
unit for past political associations which they will never shed
unless forced to renounce them is a dangerous mission for this
country's prison system to continue."
Amnesty International concluded in 1988 that the conditions
and diet in this unit were "deliberately and gratuitously
oppressive."
The UNSMRTP states clearly that prisoners should be allowed to
communicate with their family and friends, including visits, and
that "prison personnel should be responsible for assuring and
improving [the relations of] prisoners" with their families.
Federal regulations and the U.S. Prison Board Rules repeat the same
thing (28 CFR Sec.540.40). Nevertheless Oscar Lopez Rivera was not
permitted any visit that involved physical contact. Some of the
prisoners have to submit to a search before and after visits by
their families even though they only see them through a glass
window and speak to them by telephone. Some of the prisoners are
restricted to visits by their immediate family members. While
Alejandrina Torres was in Lexington her son-in-law and
grandchildren were not included in this definition of immediate
family used by the prison authorities. Carlos Alberto Torres,
Haydee Torres, Ida Luz Rodriguez and Alejandrina Torres have
suffered through periods from months to years where communication
with anyone outside of their immediate family has been prohibited.
Many requests for visits by different friends have been denied and
political literature has been censored.
In the United States common prisoners are allowed to visit an
immediate family member who is dying or to attend his or her
funeral. This gesture of decency has been denied the Puerto Rican
Political Prisoners. When Carmen Valentin's father died, she was
not allowed to attend the funeral, even though her family was
willing to pay all the expenses of the trip. Ricardo Jimenez'
mother died without having seen him after having endured cancer for
two years which prevented her from visiting him in prison. Elizam
Escobar could not visit his father while he was sick nor was he
allowed to attend his funeral.
Why Should You Join The Campaign For The Freedom Of The Puerto
Rican Political Prisoners?
As responsible people, concerned with the situation in our
community, in our country and in other countries in the world, we
have lifted our voices to protest many problems and injustices.We
have protested the U.S. military interventions throughout the
world; we have demanded a stop to the clear cutting of our forests;
we have demanded adequate health services for those who have AIDS;
we have fought against pollution in our communities; we have fought
for a sound education for our children; and we have protested
against racism. Also we have written letters or sent telegrams to
foreign governments in support of people jailed unjustly, and
protested human rights violations.
The president of the United States has the constitutional
power to unconditionally pardon the Puerto Rican political
?1;0cprisoners. The power that the Constitution gives him to pardon
people who have acted or conspired against the U.S. government has
been used in the past to pardon, among others, confederate soldiers
who were charged with treason during the Civil War, socialists
charged with organizing armed resistance to the draft during the
First World War, and the five Puerto Rican nationalists who were
charged with shooting at the Blair House in Washington, DC. in 1950
and at the U.S. Congress in 1954.
The time has come for us to publicly denounce the human rights
violations committed against those Puerto Ricans who have struggled
for the independence of their country and to demand their
unconditional amnesty. This campaign is based in principles of
justice that are important to all of us:
- Self-determination is a basic right of all people;
- The sentences imposed on the Puerto Rican political prisoners are
excessive and disprortionate;
- The Puerto Rican political prisoners have been the objects of
abusive prison conditions which have violated their human rights;
- The Puerto Rican political prisoners have served more time than
is demanded of most prisoners, including those who have been
charged with murder.
Now is the time to unite our efforts to demand their
unconditional freedom!
Many voices have cried out for the release of the Puerto Rican
political prisoners and prisoners of war already. A few examples of
these voices include:
- Petitions and thousands of letters that have been sent to the
president and the attorney general of the United States.
- New York's City Council and its former Mayor David Dinkins.
- Religious groups and individuals who have called for freedom such
as the 19th Synod of the United Church of Christ; General
Conference of the United Methodist Church; the Most Rev. Thomas J.
Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit; Right Reverend
Paul Moore, Episcopal Diocese of New York; Esdras Rodriguez-Diaz,
Associate General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion
and Race of the United Methodist Church; Cynthia Nozomi Ikuta,
United Church Board of Homeland Ministries; the Ecumenical Peace
Institute/CALC of Berkeley, CA; and the Northern California
Ecumenical Conference of San Francisco, CA.
- Legal and human rights organizations who have called for freedom
such as Puerto Rico's Bar Association; the president of the
National Lawyers Guild; the coordinators of the National Conference
of Black Lawyers; and Roger Wareham, Vice-International General
Secretary, International Association against Torture.
About The Prisoners...
Edwin Cortes
Edwin was born and raised in Chicago, one of 15 children. In
1973, after a high school teacher told him that she did not teach
Puerto Rican history because Puerto Rico did not have a history, he
became involved in Latinos Unidos, a student group that called for
the establishment of a Latin American studies curriculum and
cultural programs. After graduating high school, Edwin entered the
University of Illinois in Chicago where he joined a struggle that
culminated in the establishment of programs for support services
and recruitment for Latinos. As a student leader he participated in
struggles in support of the Iranian, Palestinian, Eritrean, and
Mexican people. He also participated in the founding of the Puerto
Rican Student Union. In the community in which he lived he helped
to set up programs for recreational and employment opportunities
for youth. He was a member of the Committee to stop the Grand Jury
and for the freedom of the five Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners.
Edwin has two children: Noemi and Carlos. His children were two and
four years old when he was arrested in 1983 and condemned to 35
years in prison for seditious conspiracy. His first ten months in
custody were spent in isolation, imposed solely because of the
political nature of the charges against him, and ended only when
the federal court ordered the prison to place him in the general
population. In prison he has been involved in the creation of
cultural and social programs for prisoners. He has also been active
in vocational and arts programs. His release date is 2004.
Elizam Escobar
Elizam was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1948. He comes from
a family with a long history of anti-colonial resistance. He has
been active in political struggles and the pro-independence
movement since the 1960's. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Fine
Arts from the University of Puerto Rico and continued his graduate
studies in New York. In New York, he worked as a teacher at the
Museum del Barrio, in public schools, and as a graphic artist with
the Hispanic Artists' Association. He was arrested in 1980, accused
of seditious conspiracy, and sentenced to 68 years in prison.
At the time of his arrest, his son Elizer was five years old.
Elizer is studying to become a musician and artist, and is taking
college classes. Since the Prison Board has kept Elizam in prisons
in Wisconsin and Oklahoma, his family who lives in New York and
Puerto Rico can only visit him once a year.
Elizam has continued writing and painting in prison. His
paintings have been exhibited in Puerto Rico, the United States,
Latin America, and Europe. His articles on art and politics have
been published in magazines in Canada, England, Italy, Latin
America and the United States. He is considered to be one of the
most important Puerto Rican revolutionary painters and poets. His
release date is 2014.
Alberto Rodriguez
Alberto was born in 1953 in the Bronx, New York and was raised
in Chicago. While he was in high school he became part of a new
generation of Puerto Ricans in the United States who demanded that
their history and culture be recognized and he joined the national
liberation struggle. He became part of a group of Latino students
who, using the tactics of sit-ins and civil disobedience, forced
the Chicago Board of Education to be more responsive to the needs
of Latino students. Alberto entered the University of Illinois in
1972, and immediately became involved in student struggles for a
Latin American studies program and for recruitment of Latino
students.
Upon graduation in 1976 he began to work for community
programs which provided opportunities for working adults to pursue
educational goals. He also worked in various community
organizations such as the Workers Rights Center, El Comite Pro-
Orientacion Comunal, El Desfile del Pueblo, Latino Cultural Center
and various anti-repression committees. He has two children, Yazmin
and Ricardo.
When arrested in 1983 Alberto was working as an academic
counselor at Northeastern Illinois University and was completing
his thesis requirements for a graduate degree from Governor's State
University. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced
to 35 years. His first ten months in prison were in solitary
confinement, where, he says, "I had to search within myself to find
the spiritual strength to persevere." His release date is 2004.
Alejandrina Torres
Alejandrina was born in Puerto Rico in 1939. Her family
emigrated to the United States when she was 11 years old. During
the 1960's and 70's, she was a leader in her community. She was a
founding member and later a teacher at the Puerto Rican High School
in Chicago. She later helped found the Betances Health Clinic and
was active in boycotts of public schools which continued to mis-
educate children and were hostile and racist to their parents. At
the First Congregational Church, where she worked, she organized a
variety of community programs. She also participated in the
Committee to Free the Five Nationalists and later became a member
of the Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War.
At the time of her arrest in 1983 she was married to Reverend
Jose A. Torres and had two daughters Liza and Catalina, who were 16
and 11 years old respectively. She was accused of seditious
conspiracy and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her release date is
2004.
Since her imprisonment, Alejandrina Torres has been plagued by
health problems which were aggravated by prison staff's violent
attacks and an indifference to her medical needs. It took the
federal prison system six years to place her in a regular women's
prison. Two of those six years were spent in the underground
Women's High Security Unit at Lexington, KY. Amnesty International
has condemned the conditions in that unit as "deliberately and
gratuitously oppressive" and as causing physical and psychological
deterioration.
Throughout her more than ten years of imprisonment she has
maintained a positive attitude and works with prisoners assisting
them in achieving educational, vocational, and religious goals. Her
faith in God and in her people has maintained her high spirits. "In
the darkest place they put me in, I always manage to see a glimmer
of hope. Taking on the struggle for justice is a matter of the
heart and the conscience", she recently told the editor of the
United Church of Christ national newsletter.
Ricardo Jimenez
Ricardo was born in Puerto Rico in 1956. His family moved to
the U.S. when he was still an infant. He attended Tuley High School
in Chicago when the school was in the midst of a crisis brought
about by a racist principal and the lack of a relevant curriculum
for Puerto Rican students. As a member of Aspira and the student
council he was a leader in struggles which ultimately led to the
creation of the Roberto Clemente High School. Ricardo was also Vice
President of the Senior Class, a member of the national Honor
Society and in 1974 was chosen by the mayor as the city of
Chicago's Senior High School Student of the Year.
In his community Ricardo worked as a volunteer at El Rancor,
a drug rehabilitation center, and on a project on housing which led
to the exposure of a plan called the Chicago 21 plan, to turn the
Puerto Rican community into an enclave for the high income
professional class. Upon graduation he attended Loyola University
and was a member of the Latin American Student Organization, which
developed the university's first Puerto Rican history class. He
later attended Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and was
selected to represent the student body in a national conference on
the need to force large U.S. corporations to open their doors to
Latino engineers and other high tech professionals.
Ricardo was arrested in 1980, accused of seditious conspiracy
and related charges, and sentenced to 98 years. In prison, he
gravitated to educational programs, both as a student and as a
tutor for other students. He has volunteered teaching illiterate
and functionally illiterate prisoners to read and write.
Carmen Valentin
Carmen was born in Puerto Rico in 1946 and emigrated with her
family to the U.S. when she was 10 years old. She received a BA
from Northeastern Illinois University, a MA from Roosevelt
University, and at the time of her arrest was completing her
Doctorate from the University. Carmen became active in the
community as a young teacher at Tuley High School, where she
struggled against racism and an educational curriculum based on
ignorance of the Puerto Rican reality, outright lies and
distortions. She took her role as educator seriously and refused to
compromise her principles with the Board of Education's demands
that she ignore the colonial plight of her people. Her educational
presentations became controversial, and she was forced to resign.
Carmen then began to work at the Central YMCA Community
College. Carmen sponsored both the Iranian Student Association and
the Organization of Arab Students during an intense period of
struggle and controversy which led to many physical confrontations
with the local police as well as with the Shah's secret police. In
the community she worked to defeat the infamous Chicago 21 Plan.
She was a founding member and president of the Jose de Diego
Bilingual Center and was on the board of directors of Aspira of
Illinois. Carmen was also a founding member of the Ruiz-Belvis
Educational Center and developed various educational and cultural
programs for the maximum security prison for men at Stateville, IL.
In 1980 she was arrested, charged with seditious conspiracy and
related charges, and sentenced to 98 years. Her release date is
2043.
Her son, Antonio, who was 10 years old at the time of Carmen's
arrest, has graduated from college and works in the same school
where his mother taught. Carmen has a three year old grandchild.
Carlos Alberto Torres
Carlos was born in Puerto Rico in 1952. His family soon
thereafter emigrated to New York and then to Chicago. Carlos grew
up in his father's house, a minister with a passion for social
justice. His step-mother is Alejandrina Torres. In his junior year
in high school he was able to participate in his first Puerto Rican
history class, offered by Aspira. He studied sociology at Southern
Illinois University and later at the University of Illinois at
Chicago. At the University of Illinois he became involved in the
struggles against the racist teachings of Schockley, Critteneden
and other sociologists, as well as for Latino recruitment to the
university. Carlos was involved in issues in the community related
to police brutality, slum landlords, corrupt politicians, and the
colonial case of Puerto Rico. In 1980 he was arrested and charged
with seditious conspiracy and related charges, and sentences to 78
years in prison. His release date is 2024.
Upon his arrest, his three year old daughter was hidden for
her safety for fear that government agents would carry out threats
to do her harm. In prison he has worked for many years as a baker,
attended college, and taught Spanish to fellow prisoners.
Juan Segarra Palmer
Juan was born in Puerto Rico in 1950. He comes from a family
with a long history of resistance to both Spanish and U.S.
colonialism. He graduated from Harvard University and continued
studying in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He is married to ex-political
prisoner Lucy Berrios and has five children: Amilcar, Ramon, Wendy,
Luriza, and Zulena.
During his youth Juan did cultural work in the poor barrios of
New York, in the prisons in Boston, and in the anti-mining crusades
and the land rescue movement in Puerto Rico. In 1985 he was
arrested for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government in Puerto
Ricoand to obtain money from the Wells Fargo company, insured by
the United States government, to continue the independence struggle
in Puerto Rico. He is serving a 60 year sentence in Atlanta, GA.
Antonio Camacho Negron
Antonio was born in Yauco, Puerto Rico in 1945. Antonio, whose
family has for generations lived in the coffee-growing region of
Yauco, was a farmer. He also studied psychology at the University
of Puerto Rico and two years of law at the Interamericana
University. He worked as a therapist with the Department of
Services against Addiction, Methadone Program. At the time of his
arrest in 1986 he was working as a mechanic and was the sole source
of income for his family. He was sentenced to 15 years for
allegedly participating in a conspiracy in general and interstate
transportation of money in the robbery of the Wells Fargo Company
in Hartford, Connecticut. Antonio has four children, three boys and
a girl, who live in Puerto Rico. He is incarcerated in
Pennsylvania, thousands of miles away from his children and family.
Luis Rosa
Luis was born in Chicago in 1960. At the time of his arrest he
was 19 years old and was a young father and a university student.
He was also an excellent baseball player, recruited by professional
teams. At the University of Illinois he became involved in the
student movement and was president of the Union for Puerto Rican
Students. In the community he was particularly involved in the
struggle against police brutality. Luis was involved in the
campaign against police murders of unarmed Puerto Ricans which
arose in response to the killings of Cruz and Osorio in Humboldt
Park in 1977 by the Chicago police. He was an organizer for the
Desfile del Pueblo Puertorriqueno and at the Puerto Rican Cultural
Center. In 1980 he was arrested, charged with seditious conspiracy
and related charges, and sentenced to 105 years.
In prison Luis has kept a youthful and enthusiastic spirit. He
has continued to be involved in sports, educational and cultural
activities. His spotless record has not prevented the state system
from shuttling him mercilessly between maximum security prisons, or
from one cell to another within a prison, or from limiting his
access to educational and other programs available to other
prisoners.
Oscar Lopez Rivera
Oscar was born in Puerto Rico in 1943. His family moved to the
U.S. when he was nine years old. He was drafted into the army and
served in Viet Nam and awarded the Bronze Star. When he returned
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 immediately set to work organizing to improve the
quality of life for his people. Oscar worked in the creation of
both the Puerto Rican High School and the Puerto Rican Cultural
Center. He was involved in the struggle for bilingual education in
public schools and to force universities to actively recruit Latino
students, staff, and faculty. He also worked on ending
discrimination in public utilities like Illinois Bell, People's
Gas, and Commonwealth Edison. He was arrested in 1981 and sentenced
to 55 years for seditious conspiracy. In 1988 he was given an
additional 15 years for conspiracy to escape. Oscar is in prison in
the maximum security jail in Florence, Colorado under oppressive
conditions. His release date is 2021.
Dylcia Pagan
Dylcia was born in New York in 1946. At an early age she
became involved in the civil rights movement, participating in
voter registration drives. As a student at Brooklyn College she
helped organize the Puerto Rican Student Union which resulted in
the formulation of a student-controlled Puerto Rican Studies
Department. By the early 1970's, she began a career as a TV
producer and writer developing investigative documentaries and
children's programs at NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS. She worked with the
Puerto Rican Media and Education Council, which filed a series of
lawsuits against the major television stations which facilitated
the local public affairs programming that still exists today. She
also worked as the English editor of the bilingual daily, El
Tiempo.
Dylcia was arrested in 1980 and charged with seditious
conspiracy and related charges and sentenced to 63 years. When she
was arrested in 1980, her young child, whose safety she feared for,
was hidden from the government. In the prison she has developed
educational and cultural programs for the other inmates, has taught
aerobics, directed theatrical performances, and organized carnivals
for Children's Day.
Adolfo Matos
Adolfo was born in Puerto Rico in 1950. At the age of 15, he
moved from his native Lajas to New York City to live with his
grandparents. He has two daughters, Rosa Maria and Lydia. He was
arrested in 1980 and is serving a 78 year sentence for conspiracy
and related charges. His family lives in New York and Puerto Rico
and rarely can afford the expenses of visiting him in California,
where he has been held over the last few years. He has become an
artisan in prison, producing copper etchings of Puerto Rican
scenery and historical figures.
Alicia Rodriguez
Alicia was born in Chicago in 1953, the first in her family to
be born in the United States. On entering school, Alicia quickly
discovered that being born in the U.S. brought her no privileges,
as her Puerto Rican parents, heritage, language, and culture were
regarded as foreign, different, and ugly by her teachers and fellow
students. Her first trip to Puerto Rico, which came only after
graduating high school, was a turning point in her life. On her
third and last trip, as a biology student at the University of
Illinois in Chicago, Alicia was heartbroken to see the devastating
effects of industrial pollution on the island and resolved to
combat the root of the problem - colonialism. She was arrested in
1980, convicted of seditious conspiracy and related charges, and
sentenced to 85 years in prison. Her sister is Ida Luz Rodriguez.
Although she is one of the longest held prisoners in the prison,
with an immaculate record which includes the accumulation of a
bachelors degree with honors, after 13 years she is not permitted
to walk unescorted across the grounds.
Ida Luz Rodriguez
Ida Luz was born in Puerto Rico in 1950. She studied at the
University of Illinois in Chicago, majoring in psychology and
sociology. She participated in community struggles for jobs,
housing, and education, and worked at a hospital in the Puerto
Rican community that blatantly discriminated against the very
community it served. She worked at the Puerto Rican High School and
with the Committee to Free the Five Nationalists. Her son Damian is
22 years old. Her sister is Alicia Rodriguez. Ida was arrested in
1980 and sentenced to 83 years in prison for seditious conspiracy
and related charges. In prison she has finished her bachelor's
degree and continues studying psychology, health and environmental
questions. Her release date is 2014.
Final Word
Puerto Rican Nationalists Oscar Collazo, Lolita Lebron, Irving
Flores, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Rafael Cancel Miranda spent
between 25 and 29 years in U.S.jails for their activities in
support of Puerto Rico's independence and self-determination until
they were pardoned by president Jimmy Carter. It is urgent that we
join efforts so that the same thing will not happen to the
political prisoners and prisoners of war who today find themselves
serving sentences in U.S. jails. No one better to underline the
importance of this campaign than Yazmin Rodriguez and Noemi Cortes,
daughters of Alberto Rodriguez and Edwin Cortes: "We miss our
fathers. And even though we have grown up without them, we love
them very much. Nobody can take their place in our hearts, no
matter what is said about them. They have earned and will always
have our respect. We forgave them for leaving us and will wait with
hope and admiration for their return. Unfortunately, we are not the
only children without parents. There are many others who have
parents in jail for this cause. We hope that people will understand
our hardships and help us in our struggle for their release..."
They speak with the voices of all the children who await the
day of their mother or/and father's release.
Notes:
1. The information contained in this document have been taken from
different brochures and articles including material published by
Jan Susler, Ofensiva '92, the National Committee for the Freedom of
the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, the Alberto Rodriguez
Support Committee, Que Ondee Sola, Claridad and the Puerto Rico
Update, newsletter of the U.S./Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
2. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1989 State of the Bureau of Prisons
(Washington, DC) pg. 54.
3. Id., pg 55.
4. James Ridgeway, "Hard Time: Why the Left Goes to Jail and the
Right Goes. Home", The Village Voice, December 11, 1980.
5. Paul Valentine "Md Klan Leader Gets 36 Months in Weapons Case",
The Washington Post, 10/5/89; "Md Ku Klux Klan Leader Sentenced",
The Washington Post, 10/10/89.
6. National Abortion Federation, "Antiabortion Violence; Incidents
of Arsons, Bombings and Attempts, 1977-1985", (1986) pgs. 1 and 5.
7. U.S. v. Michael Donald Bray, (D.C. Md) Crim. H-85-082,
Transcript of sentencing hearing, July 2, 1985 pg. 19; Sue Ann
Pressley, "From Prison Back to P.G. Pulpit", The Washington Post,
July 26, 1989.
What Can You Do?
1. Join ProLIBERTAD.
2. Organize a ProLIBERTAD Committee in your community, church or
workplace.
3. Participate in activities in support of the prisoners; write to
President and Mrs. Clinton demanding their freedom; sign petitions
demanding their freedom; ask friends and family members to do the
same.
4. Organize activities, conferences, or panel discussions on the
prisoners in your community, church, school, or workplace.
5. Write articles or letters to newspapers, magazines, local
bulletins, etc. or if you know somebody or have a relationship with
a publication interested in publishing an article on this theme,
communicate with ProLIBERTAD and someone from our work group will
write an article.
6. Support ProLIBERTAD with money. Write a check to USPRSN
(ProLIBERTAD Campaign), Mail to ProLIBERTAD, P.O. Box 477, New
York, NY 10159-0477 USA
7.Write or call ProLIBERTAD:
New York: ProLIBERTAD, P.O. Box 477, New York, NY 10159-0477 USA
Telephone: (718) 601 4751, Fax: (718) 601 3909
Boston, MA: Latinos por el Cambio Social c/o Central America
Education Fund, 1151 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02130 USA
Telephone: (617) 492 0699
Amherst, MA: Max Duenas, 10 Hollister Apts., Hadley Rd., Amherst,
MA 01002 USA Telephone: (413) 256 4578
Washington, DC: Comite Independentista Puertorriqueho del Area de
Washington. Contacts: Jose Vargas: (703) 243 4969 or Nitza Segui:
(202) 265 9678
Write To The Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War
Dylcia Pagan #88971-024
FCI Pleasanton
5701 8th Street, Camp Parks
Dublin, CA
94568 USA
Ida Luz Rodriguez #88973-024
FCI Pleasanton
5701 8th Street, Camp Parks
Dublin, CA
94568 USA
Carmen Valentin #88974-024
FCI Pleasanton
5701 8th Street, Camp Parks
Dublin, CA
94568 USA
Antonio Camacho-Negron #03587-069
FCI Allenwood
P.O. Box 2500
White Deer, PA
17887 USA
Edwin Cortes #92153-024 Unit 3J
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN
47808 USA
Elizam Escobar #88969-024
P.O. Box 1500
FCI Colorado Two
El Reno, OK
73036 USA
Alejandrina Torres #92152-024
FCI Danbury, Pembroke Station
Danbury, CT
06811 USA
Adolfo Matos Antongiorgi #88968-024
Lompoc Federal Penitentiary (Unit J)
3901 Klein Blvd.
Lompoc, CA
93436 USA
Alicia Rodriguez #NO7157
P.O. Box 5007
Dwight, IL
60420 USA
Luis Rosa #NO2743
P.O. Box 711
Menard, IL
62259 USA
Juan Segarra-Palmer #15357-077
601 McDonough Blvd SE
Atlanta, GA
30315 USA
Carlos Alberto Torres #88976-024
P.O. Box 1000
Oxford, WI
53952 USA
Ricardo Jimenez #88967-024 (A-2)
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA
17837 USA
Alberto Rodriguez #92150-024 (B-3)
P.O. Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA
17837 USA
Oscar Lopez-Rivera #87651-024
USP Florence
P.O. Box 8500
Florence, CO
81226 USA
Hilton Fernandez and Jorge Farinacci have both been released to a
half-way house in Puerto Rico.
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++
++++ see
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
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Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist collective based
in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of
material, including political prisoners, national liberation
struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight
against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings,
research, and translation materials in our magazine and bulletins
called Arm The Spirit. For more information, contact:
Arm The Spirit
P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P7 Canada
E-mail:
[email protected]
WWW:
http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats
FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit
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