Oscar López Rivera
Encyclopedia
Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican
Nationalist
who was convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and various other offenses. He was among the 16 Puerto Rican nationalists offered conditional clemency by U.S. President Bill Clinton
in 1999, but he rejected the offer. His sister, Zenaida Lopez, said he refused the offer because on parole, he'd be in "prison outside prison."
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.
group linked to more than 100 bombings and five deaths in the 1970s. Lopez Rivera will neither confirm nor deny his affiliation with the FALN and disowns any personal involvement in the bombing deaths.
At his trial 1980-81, Lopez and the other Chicago-based FALN comrades were not tied to specific bombings. Instead, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy ("attempt to overthrow the government of the United States in Puerto Rico by force"), armed robbery, and lesser offenses. Declaring his status as a prisoner of war, he refused to participate in the proceedings.
None of the bombings of which they were convicted resulted in deaths or injuries. 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. None of those granted clemency were convicted in any of the actual bombings. Rather, they had been convicted on a variety of charges ranging from bomb making and conspiracy to armed robbery and firearms violations. They were all convicted for sedition, the act of attempting to overthrow the Government of the United States in Puerto Rico by force.
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 violation 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.
In 1988, he was convicted of conspiracy to escape and given an additional 15 years. Currently Lopez Rivera is still incarcerated in the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, under conditions that are described as oppressive. In 2006, the United Nations
called for the release of the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners in United States prisons.
s in an anti-colonial 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.
The sentences received by Lopez Rivera and the other Nationalists were judged to be "out of proportion to the nationalists' offenses." Statistics showed their sentences were almost 20 times greater than sentences for similar offenses by the American population at large.
For many years, numerous national and international organizations criticized Lopez Rivera' incarceration categorizing it as political imprisonment.
Cases involving the release of other Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners have been categorized as cases of political prisoner
s, with some being more vocal than others.
Supporters of Lopez Rivera have accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons of isolating Lopez Rivera on the basis of his political beliefs. For more than half of his 22 years in prison, Lopez Rivera has been held in solitary confinement in maximum security prisons in the United States. Lopez's release date is scheduled for June 26, 2023.
Lopez Rivera was denied parole in February 2011.
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
Nationalist
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded on September 17, 1922. Its main objective is to work for Puerto Rican Independence.In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence and he...
who was convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and various other offenses. He was among the 16 Puerto Rican nationalists offered conditional clemency by U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in 1999, but he rejected the offer. His sister, Zenaida Lopez, said he refused the offer because on parole, he'd be in "prison outside prison."
Early years and personal life
Oscar López Rivera was born in San Sebastián, Puerto RicoSan Sebastián, Puerto Rico
San Sebastián is a municipality of Puerto Rico located northwest of the island south of Isabela and Quebradillas; north of Las Marías; east of Moca and Añasco; and west of Lares. San Sebastián is spread over twenty-four wards and San Sebastián Pueblo...
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
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
. 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
Illinois Bell
Illinois Bell is the name of the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is wholly owned by AT&T.Their headquarters are at 225 West Randolph St., Chicago, IL. After the 1984 Bell System Divestiture, Illinois Bell became a part of Ameritech, one of the 7 original Regional Bell Operating Companies...
, People's Gas, and Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...
.
Oscar was one of the founders of the Rafael Cancel Miranda High School
Rafael Cancel Miranda
Rafael Cancel Miranda , political activist, is a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and an advocate of Puerto Rican independence. On March 1, 1954, Cancel Miranda together with fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebron, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodriguez entered the United...
, now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School
Pedro Albizu Campos
Don Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican politician and one of the leading figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the leader and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death...
and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center. He was a community organizer for the Northwest Community Organization (NCO), ASSPA, ASPIRA
ASPIRA
ASPIRA of New York is a Hispanic non-profit organization working to foster educational excellence and civic responsibility among young Latinos. ASPIRA youth development clubs, dropout prevention initiatives and after school programs each year serve more than 8,000 young people in the five boroughs...
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 Liberación Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican NationalistPuerto Rican Nationalist Party
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded on September 17, 1922. Its main objective is to work for Puerto Rican Independence.In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence and he...
group linked to more than 100 bombings and five deaths in the 1970s. Lopez Rivera will neither confirm nor deny his affiliation with the FALN and disowns any personal involvement in the bombing deaths.
At his trial 1980-81, Lopez and the other Chicago-based FALN comrades were not tied to specific bombings. Instead, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy ("attempt to overthrow the government of the United States in Puerto Rico by force"), armed robbery, and lesser offenses. Declaring his status as a prisoner of war, he refused to participate in the proceedings.
None of the bombings of which they were convicted resulted in deaths or injuries. 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. None of those granted clemency were convicted in any of the actual bombings. Rather, they had been convicted on a variety of charges ranging from bomb making and conspiracy to armed robbery and firearms violations. They were all convicted for sedition, the act of attempting to overthrow the Government of the United States in Puerto Rico by force.
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 InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
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 violation 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.
In 1988, he was convicted of conspiracy to escape and given an additional 15 years. Currently Lopez Rivera is still incarcerated in the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, under conditions that are described as oppressive. In 2006, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
called for the release of the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners in United States prisons.
Political prisoner
At the time of their arrest Lopez Rivera and the others declared themselves to be combatantCombatant
A combatant is someone who takes a direct part in the hostilities of an armed conflict. If a combatant follows the law of war, then they are considered a privileged combatant, and upon capture they qualify as a prisoner of war under the Third Geneva Convention...
s in an anti-colonial war against the United States to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. domination and invoked prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
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
International court
International courts are formed by treaties between nations, or under the authority of an international organization such as the United Nations — this includes ad hoc tribunals and permanent institutions, but excludes any courts arising purely under national authority.Early examples of...
that would determine their status. The U.S. Government, however, did not recognize their request.
The sentences received by Lopez Rivera and the other Nationalists were judged to be "out of proportion to the nationalists' offenses." Statistics showed their sentences were almost 20 times greater than sentences for similar offenses by the American population at large.
For many years, numerous national and international organizations criticized Lopez Rivera' incarceration categorizing it as political imprisonment.
Cases involving the release of other Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners have been categorized as cases of political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s, with some being more vocal than others.
Supporters of Lopez Rivera have accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons of isolating Lopez Rivera on the basis of his political beliefs. For more than half of his 22 years in prison, Lopez Rivera has been held in solitary confinement in maximum security prisons in the United States. Lopez's release date is scheduled for June 26, 2023.
Lopez Rivera was denied parole in February 2011.
The 12 convicted prisoners
On August 11, 1999, President Bill Clinton extended an offer of clemency to 14 of the Puerto Rican political prisoners convicted on February 18, 1981. Lopez Rivera refused the clemency offer. Twelve accepted the offers and were subsequently released. The twelve were:- Edwin CortesEdwin CortesEdwin Cortes is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 35 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 35 years in prison. - Elizam EscobarElizam EscobarElizam Escobar is a Puerto Ricanpoet, author and visual artist.-Early years:Escobar was born in Puerto Rico's second largest city, Ponce, Puerto Rico, on the southern part of the island. There he received his primary and secondary education. As a child, he always enjoyed drawing and painting...
, sentenced to 60 years in prison. - Ricardo JimenezRicardo JimenezRicardo Jiménez is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 90 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 90 years in prison. - Adolfo MatosAdolfo MatosAdolfo Matos is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 70 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 70 years in prison. - Dylcia Noemi PaganDylcia Noemi PaganDylcia Noemi Pagan is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 55 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. She was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 55 years in prison. - Alicia RodriguezAlicia RodriguezAlicia Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 55 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. She was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 55 years in prison. - Ida Luz RodriguezIda Luz RodriguezIda Luz Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 75 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. She was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 75 years in prison. - Luis RosaLuis RosaLuis Rosa is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 75 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 75 years in prison. - Carmen ValentinCarmen ValentinCarmen Hilda Valentín Pérez is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 90 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. She was sentenced on February 18, 1981, and incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison...
, sentenced to 90 years in prison. - Alberto RodriguezAlberto Rodriguez (Puerto Rican Nationalist)Alberto Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican nationalist who received a sentence of 35 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was sentenced in 1985, and incarcerated first at United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg , PA, and later at the federal penitentiary at USP Beaumont, TX...
, sentenced to 35 years in prison. - Alejandrina TorresAlejandrina TorresAlejandrina Torres is a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted and sentenced to 35 years for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. Torres was linked to the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional , which claimed responsibility for numerous bombings...
, sentenced to 35 years in prison.
- Juan Enrique Segarra-PalmerJuan Enrique Segarra-PalmerJuan Enrique Segarra-Palmer is a Puerto Rican Nationalist who became eligible for release from prison five years after accepting President Bill Clinton's clemency offer on September 7, 1999. He had received a sentence of 55 years for seditious conspiracy, and weapons and conspiracy charges, along...
, served an additional five years after clemency was granted and had his fine dropped. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison on October 4, 1985, and was released on January 25, 2004.