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The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
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| The Puerto Rican Political Prisoners!! |
From Left to Right: Carlos Alberto Torres,
Haydee Beltran Torres, Oscar Lopez Rivera and Avelino Gonzalez Claudio!
They are workers and professionals, students
and teachers, community organizers, artists, mothers, and fathers of families. They are fighters of 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 18 years 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 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.
The U.S. invaded Puerto Rico on July 25th,
1898 and for over 100 years has exercised colonial control over the people of Puerto Rico. International Law defines colonialism
as a crime against humanity and gives a colonized people the right to use all means at their disposal to end the colonial
domination by a foreign power. United Nations Resolution 1514 calls for a transfer of all political power to the colonized
nation, the withdrawal of all military and paramilitary troops, reparations and the freedom of all political prisoners for
a process of de-colonization to be genuine one, in compliance with International Law.
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.
Arrests and Punitive Sentences
Human Rights Violations
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The Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners:
Oscar Lopez Rivera
was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico on January
6, 1943. At the age of 12, he moved to Chicago with his family. He was a well-respected community activist and a prominent
independence leader for many years prior to his arrest. 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).
He was active in various community struggles, mainly
in the area of health care, employment and police brutality. He also participated in the development of the Committee to Free
the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists. In 1975, he was forced underground, along with other comrades. He was captured on May
29, 1981, after 5 years of being persecuted by the FBI as one of the most feared fugitives from US "justice".
Oscar, who has a daughter named Clarissa, is currently
serving a 55-year sentence for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was convicted of conspiracy to escape along with
Jaime Delgado, (a veteran independence leader), Dora Garcia, (a prominent community activist) and Kojo Bomani-Sababu, a New
Afrikan political prisoner.
Oscar was one of 12 Puerto Rican political prisoners
offered some form of leniency by the Clinton Administration in the fall of 1999. According to the Chicago Sun Times, he "declined
the president's offer, which still would have him left with 10 years to serve on conspiracy to escape charges. Now he faces
at least 20 more years in prison. His sister, Zenaida Lopez, said he turned the offer down because he would be on parole.
'Accepting what they are offering him is like prison outside of prison,' she said. Zenaida Lopez said her brother 'was in
total agreement' with the decision of the 11 others to take the conditional clemency." Oscar is presently in prison in Terre
Haute, Indiana and his release date is 7/27/2027.
Carlos Alberto Torres
was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on September 19, 1952. His parents
moved to New York, finally settling in Chicago. He studied in the University of Illinois in Carbondale and Chicago. He studied
sociology at Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carlos Alberto was involved in the struggles
to recruit more Latin@s to the University, against racism, and police abuse. Carlos was one of the founders of the Rafael
Cancel Miranda Puerto Rican High School now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School and participated
in the Committee to Free the 5 Nationalists.
In 1976, Carlos was forced to go underground and was
on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He was captured along with other comrades and sentenced to 78 years on charges of seditious
conspiracy, among other charges.
Although the Clinton Administration offered clemency to 12 Puerto
Rican political prisoners in the fall of 1999, no leniency was granted to Carlos Torres, whom prosecutors described as a leader
of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), an underground organization which fought for Puerto Rico's independence
in the 1970s and '80s. His release date is 2024. He is currently in prison in Oxford, Wisconsin.
Haydee Beltran Torres was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico on June 27, 1955. When Haydee was 12 years
old, her parents moved to Chicago. At Tuley High School, she organized a boycott that demanded the firing of a racist principal.
Haydee attended the University of Illinois where she was an outspoken defender of Latino students’ rights.
Haydee was forced underground in 1976 and was captured
April 4, 1980. She has been sentenced to life in prison on charges including seditious conspiracy. Haydee was the first POW
to receive a life sentence. She was kept in total isolation from the other prisoners of war and was transferred to a special
control unit which limited visits. It was a year before she was allowed to see her family.
At the MCC in Chicago, she was classified as “no visitors allowed”.
Haydee was subject to physical abuse in interrogations for refusing to implicate her comrades in unfounded crimes. This was
done several times by FBI and other government agents. These and other inhumane acts by the U.S. government have led to serious
injuries which prison medical directors have misdiagnosed; also, Haydee has received injections of unknown medications.
Avelino Gonzalez Claudio Special Biography Page
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Before
you write the prisoners:
It is important to know that it takes time for your letter to reach a prisoner and to receive a response
from him or her. If you do not receive a quick response, do not give up!! Continue to write to him or her until you receive
a response.
If you are going to send a prisoner money for his or her commissary, it must be in the form of a money order (Postal
or Western Union) with their name and prisoner number. Do not send cash and avoid sending them personal checks.
If you are going to send them reading materials (Books or magazines); you must make sure that it is a paperback edition.
If you are sending a magazine you must remove all the staples and metal clips. The envelope you send it in must have the staples
and metal clips removed as well.
Oscar Lopez Rivera
#87651-024
FCI Terre Haute
PO Box 33
Terre Haute, IN, 47808
Carlos Alberto Torres
88976-024
FCI Pekin
P.O. Box 5000
Pekin, IL 61555
Haydee Beltran Torres
#88462-024
SCI Tallahassee
501 Capitol Circle NE
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Avelino González Claudio #357422
Unit 1 West Cell 211
NCI
PO Box 665
287 Bilton Road
Somers, CT 06071
Before you send money to the Prisoners:
The
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has changed the guidelines for sending federal prisoners commissary. If anyone wants to send money
to our patriots, it must be sent to the following address and in the following manner:
Federal Bureau of Prisons
(Prisoner’s name and Prison Number)
PO Box 474701
Des Moines IA 50947-0001
You
must send all funds to the mailing address (above) and adhere to the following instructions:
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will only approve/accept the following
items, which it calls “Negotiable instruments”: Money Orders, government checks, Foreign Negotiable Instruments
or Business checks. NOTE: No Personal Checks; they will be sent back to you.
Print
the prisoner’s committed name and register number (prison number) on the funds.
The
name and return address of the sender must appear in the upper left hand corner of the envelope to ensure that funds can be
returned when necessary.
Don’t send items other
than funds top the above provided address. The BOP will discard letters, pictures and anything else you send.
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