Oscar López Rivera
| Oscar López Rivera | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Oscar López Rivera |
| Born |
Oscar López Rivera January 6, 1943 San Sebastián, Puerto Rico |
| Residence | San Sebastián, Puerto Rico |
| Known for | Longest-incarcerated FALN member |
| Home town | San Sebastián, Puerto Rico |
| Criminal charge | Seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms and ammunition to aid in the commission of a felony |
| Criminal penalty | Prison for 55 years; extended 15 years for later conspiracy to escape |
| Criminal status | Sentence commuted by President Obama, sentence ends in May 2017. |
| Awards | Bronze Star Medal |
 You can hear a half-hour radio news segment on Oscar López Rivera, conducted by NYC radio host Howard Jordan on WBAI 99.5 FM (on June 6, 2014) Here. |
Oscar López Rivera (born January 6, 1943) is a Puerto Rican independence activist who was one of the leaders of the FALN. In 1977, López Rivera was arrested and tried by the United States government for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. López Rivera maintained that according to international law he was an anticolonial combatant and could not be prosecuted by the United States government. On August 11, 1981, López Rivera was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in federal prison. On December 31, 1988 he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for conspiring to escape from the Leavenworth federal prison.
The imprisonment of López Rivera was opposed or supported by individuals and groups representing political, religious, and other constituencies. Some called him a terrorist, but others said he was a political prisoner. Several U.S. Congressmen supported López Rivera's release from prison.
U.S. President Bill Clinton offered López Rivera and 13 other convicted FALN members conditional clemency in 1999, but López Rivera rejected it. On January 17, 2017, President Barack Obama commuted López Rivera's sentence and is scheduled for release from prison on May 17, 2017, after almost 35 years in prison. He had been incarcerated longer than any other member of the FALN. On February 9, 2017, he was moved from an Indiana prison to Puerto Rico, where he will complete the last three months of his sentence under house arrest.
Oscar López Rivera was born in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, on January 6, 1943. His family moved to the mainland United States 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 the Vietnam War and awarded the Bronze Star. When he returned to Illinois in 1967, he became a community activist, advocating for housing for the Puerto Rican community, bilingual education and Latino recruitment in the university system. In the late 1970s he began to advocate for Puerto Rican independence. López Rivera was one of the founders of La Escuelita Puertorriqueña, 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.
...
Wikipedia