* We oppose the repression and incarceration of people who fight for genuine peace and human rights. We call on President Barak Obama to order the immediate release of Oscar Lopez Rivera who has been unjustly imprisoned for over 31 years. The U.S. Parole Commission recently denied his application for parole and ordered that he serve an additional 15 years in prison. By that time, he would be 83 years old and would have been incarcerated for 45 years for politically motivated offenses where no one was hurt. We condemn the inequity in his treatment, compared to his co-defendants. He is now the only one of the 1980′s pro-independence prisoners still in prison.

By Inter News Service
February 2, 2012

http://www.elnuevodia.com/pesquisainternacionalamuertedefilibertoojedarios-1181116.html

Attorney Luis Abreu Elías, who represented the deceased Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, member of the Boricua Popular Army–The Macheteros, today accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of having allowed a sharpshooter agent to shoot the Puerto Rican independentista leader at a time when he represented absolutely no threat.

According to Abreu Elías, Ojeda Ríos, after presumably having attended the activities of the Grito de Lares on September 23, 2005, arrived at his home in the neighborhood of Jaguitas, in Hormigueros, and on being surrounded by federal authorities, was apparently playing his trumpet when he was felled.

As a result of these facts, the attorney asked for an investigation independent of the governments of Puerto Rico and the United States.

“There was an agent who knew Spanish there, who was supposedly a negotiator, as was (police officer José Luis) Caldero previously in Puerto Rico, and he is the one who spoke with Filiberto Ojeda Ríos,” said Abreu Elías.

On this matter, he said that conversation lasted about an hour, from 4:28 to 5:28 p.m., and Ojeda Ríos was shot around 6:28 p.m., according to the FBI, but it must have been around 7:28 p.m., according to experts.

Abreu Elías asked that, given the irregularities in the case, an international organism such as the International Court in the Hague or a civil rights commission of the United States — comprised of people other than those who are currently in place in that governmental institution —, investigate the death of this Puerto Rican.

The investigation of the Civil Rights Commission of Puerto Rico (CDC by its Spanish initials) arrived at a conclusion, in a 238 page document, that the operation conducted by the FBI in Hormigueros was characterized by the excessive and abusive use of force.

In the same way, investigators from the CDC concluded that the FBI had other alternatives to conduct the arrest and, very probably, would have avoided the tragic unfolding of events.

He pointed out that the CDC affirmed in its report that the operation began with a violent attack on Ojeda’s home by use of a specialized paramilitary unit and the use of powerful M4 carbines, similar to those used by the United States armed forces.

The report indicates that even though the FBI claims that Mr. Ojeda Ríos shot first, an examination of the chronology of events, taken from the reports of investigations and witness statements, clearly demonstrates that the first armed offensive acts were taken by the FBI itself.

One witness’ testimony evaluated by the CDC was Luis Poventud Martínez, who at the time of the incident was director of forensic investigators.

The report underlines that in his testimony Poventud “narrated his impressions on arriving at the area of the home on September 24 and explained the tasks carried out by each of the institute’s group of technicians.”

It adds that “Mr. Poventud was one of several technicians from the ICF (Institute of Forensic Sciences) who alluded to the presence of a trumpet on the concrete block stairs of the home. One aspect of his testimony, which turned out to be worrisome but wasn’t able to be subjected to better corroboration, was his mentioning that he had been told that Mr. Ojeda Ríos was playing the trumpet when he was injured.”

CDC investigators asked him about the trumpet, and he responded that he heard it said that the musical instrument “had to be moved out of fear it was a bomb. Is that what you heard said?” “Yes. Apparently, from what they tell me, it’s that he was making use of that trumpet.”

Señor Presidente, señores delegados. Soy Eduardo Villanueva Muñoz, portavoz del Comité Pro Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico. Comparezco, como tantos años, a llamar la atención, no sólo de éste Comité, sino de la comunidad latina que vive y vota en Estados Unidos, de la nación puertorriqueña que reside en el territorio que aún hoy es Puerto Rico, según la doctrina de los casos insulares y del propio informe de Casa Blanca, que ratifica dicha condición territorial.
La situación colonial que vive nuestro país, provoca que se haya generado un grave deterioro en la convivencia de los puertorriqueños, que afecta la calidad de vida de los habitantes del territorio. La seguridad pública se ve afectada por las actividades del narcotráfico, que de algún modo subsidia la economía puertorriqueña, por las propias deficiencias que genera un sistema que no permite planificar la economía conforme a los intereses del país intervenido.
En Puerto Rico ocurren cerca de 1,000 asesinatos anuales. Existe un clima generalizado de violencia, impuesto por la dinámica de un mercado ilegal que se encarga de subsidiar el consumo, que en última instancia beneficia predominantemente a la economía de Estados Unidos, país del cual somos uno de sus mercados principales. La corrupción gubernamental y la puesta en práctica de una política neoliberal ha empobrecido considerablemente a las masas puertorriqueñas, que se ven obligadas a migrar o a vivir de los subsidios del gobierno y a su vez a delinquir en ocasiones, para poder sostener el patrón de gastos a que las condiciona el sistema de capitalismo salvaje al cual hemos sido sometidos.
El actual gobierno de Puerto Rico, pretende imponer la paz por la fuerza. Busca implementar la docilidad y la conformidad, tratando de abolir en la práctica, el sistema de frenos y contrapesos, que es la base teórica del sistema republicano de gobierno. En esa dirección se han tomado varias acciones para garantizar los intereses de los bonistas y del capital que subvenciona su propio mercado de consumo. Se despidieron miles de empleados públicos que tenían derechos adquiridos y una expectativa de permanencia en el empleo, algunos con más de una decena de años en el servicio público.
El FBI, que es la policía del país interventor, reprimió periodistas con gas pimienta y con agresiones físicas, en un operativo en De Diego 444 en Rio Piedras, que no produjo un solo arresto, ni acusaciones algunas a base del material incautado. Todo intento en el Tribunal Federal de la colonia, para que se resarza a los afectados ha sido bloqueado y los afectados aún esperan justicia a sus agravios.
Se agreden sindicalistas y estudiantes en un evento de protesta en el Hotel Sheraton en San Juan y la policía se niega a entregar el resultado de la investigación que se efectuara ante las querellas de brutalidad policiaca.
Se agredieron padres, maestros y estudiantes en la huelga de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Ante las querellas de los involucrados, el Gobierno actual y su Departamento de Justicia, se niegan a informar qué pasos ha dado dicho departamento para investigar las querellas y proteger los derechos civiles de los participantes.
Ante una visita del Presidente Obama, se concede el día libre a los empleados públicos que quieran ir a recibirlo, pero se le niega a los que quieren protestar o pedir la reparación de agravios, por el sistema colonial que vive en Puerto Rico. Es decir, se utilizan fondos públicos para reprimir el pensamiento disidente y premiar la obediencia servil de los que apoyan las políticas del actual gobierno. Se pretende que el Estado opere como un ente monolítico en que el Ejecutivo, el Legislativo y el Poder Judicial, actúen como un equipo integrado, que limite o elimine la oposición real a la política neoliberal, de eliminación de plazas públicas, privatización, destrucción de recursos naturales y agrícolas, que se está implementando.
Se ha legislado para que los que necesiten instar un pleito en protección de recursos naturales, terrenos agrícolas o acceso a las playas, tenga que prestar una fianza que puede resultar excesiva, para proteger los desarrolladores e intimidar y disuadir a los ambientalistas. Se pretende construir un tubo que le rajará el vientre a la montaña puertorriqueña, a un costo de miles de millones de dólares, aún cuando no se cuenta con la capacidad para transportar el gas natural que se pretende suplir por el tubo de alta peligrosidad y toxicidad. La información sobre ese proyecto se otorga por cuenta gotas o en secreto y se mantiene bajo el control del Cuerpo de Ingenieros de Estados Unidos y del gobierno regente en Puerto Rico.
El poder federal ocupa el campo de las investigaciones criminales y las autoridades estatales presionan los jueces para limitar, sin enmienda constitucional, el derecho a la fianza, (fijando fianzas excesivas que equivalen a no poner fianza real). No se respeta la prohibición constitucional local de no interceptar comunicaciones telefónicas y por consiguiente, prima sobre la voluntad del pueblo que aprobó una Carta de Derechos en el 1952, los intereses de los Estados Unidos en cuanto a su manera de impartir justicia. Voceros de la fiscalía federal y funcionarios que otrora trabajaron en el FBI, siguen presionando la opinión pública para que acepte la pena de muerte a nivel federal y se condiciona la mente del pueblo para que eventualmente se acepte a nivel estatal. En justicia hay que decir, que tanto el Comisionado Residente, como el Gobernador, se oponen a la misma, a nivel estatal, aunque contradictoriamente, la aceptan a nivel federal. El Pueblo de Puerto Rico, se opone a la pena de muerte y lucha contra el sistema jurídico que permite este oprobio, este discrimen, que se nos trate menos que a reservaciones indias, en cuanto a reconocimiento de los derechos que tienen dichas reservaciones. Contra el sistema federal que he descrito y sus consecuencias, es que han luchado nuestros presos políticos. Obama, cuando era candidato, dijo en Puerto Rico que habría de atender el caso de los presos políticos, uno a uno, caso a caso. Hay un caso, que es el de Oscar López Rivera, que es una patente injusticia y un acto de tiranía, cada día en que transcurre encarcelado luego de 30 años, por su lucha en pro de la independencia de Puerto Rico.
No puede haber verdadero proceso de autodeterminación, mientras existan presos políticos. No puede haber descolonización, mientras el poder federal permita y apoye excesos de poder y uso de excesiva fuerza policiaca, para reprimir protestas, reclamos de justicia, defensas del ambiente y de los derechos de obreros y estudiantes, por el régimen actual que en alguna medida, responde a las políticas públicas del gobierno federal en Puerto Rico. Todos estos grupos disidentes y reprimidos, esperan por el resultado de una querella que radicó la ACLU ante el Departamento de Justicia en Washington para proteger los derechos constitucionales de los ciudadanos que por su activismo social, son perseguidos en Puerto Rico.
El Gobierno local, especialmente varios de sus funcionarios electos, aun dentro del partido de mayoría, no están necesariamente de acuerdo con la política, que desde el Poder Ejecutivo, se implanta contra el movimiento obrero y los recursos ambientales.
El puertorriqueño promedio resiente que a nivel federal se impongan políticas represivas, para limitar o extinguir la disidencia. En temas de derechos humanos y en defensa de los puertorriqueños, el pueblo y sus representantes, se unen para proteger y preservar los derechos de sus compatriotas, más allá de ideologías políticas. Eso explica el apoyo y la base de consenso que ha alcanzado la campaña para excarcelar a Oscar López Rivera.
El Presidente Obama, tiene la obligación moral de actuar a la altura de los compromisos y las actuaciones que su nación efectúa en nombre de la paz y la democracia. Así lo han reclamado públicamente diversos sectores ideológicos y de soluciones variadas de status político, que se proponen como alternativas al régimen colonial que aún existe en Puerto Rico. Un hombre justo, que ha entregado su vida y su libertad por la libertad de su pueblo, languidece por más de treinta años en cárceles federales. Este Comité debe exigir en su resolución, que se excarcele a Oscar López a la brevedad posible. Ello propiciara que la política de Estados Unidos sobre derechos humanos y su accionar en la colonia que mantienen en Puerto Rico, sea consistente con los reclamos que le hacen a otros países del mundo en el tema de los derechos universales de todos los seres humanos. De hecho, todas las potencias del mundo deben ser vigilantes entre sí para que se respeten los derechos de cada ciudadano, que le asisten meramente por ser seres humanos. La Asamblea General debe retomar el caso de Puerto Rico, de modo que las resoluciones que emita éste Comité no continúen siendo ignoradas por el Gobierno de Estados Unidos, como lo ha estado siendo hasta el presente.
Señores Delegados, es momento de actuar y velar porque se respete el derecho internacional. Esa es la ruta de la descolonización y la paz verdadera.
¡Muchas gracias!
Lcdo. Eduardo Villanueva Muñoz
Portavoz
Comité Pro Derechos Humanos
De Puerto Rico
ONU, New York
20 de junio de 2011

Baje la presentación con notas de alcalce aqui.

National Lawyers Guild International Committee Presentation to the United Nations Decolonization Committee Hearings on Puerto Rico June 20, 2011

The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color. The National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. With headquarters in New York, it has chapters in every state. From its founding, the National Lawyers Guild has maintained an internationalist perspective, with international work a critical focus for the Guild. Its International Committee has organized delegations to many countries throughout the world, and Guild members are involved in international organizations such as the International Association for Democratic Lawyers and the American Association of Jurists. Presently, active subcommittees exist for Cuba, the Middle East, Korea, Haiti, Palestine, Iran, Puerto Rico, and other nations. Guild members, including myself, have a long history of defending activists in the Puerto Rican independence movement.

I. Status

The Obama administration has joined the ranks of successive U.S. administrations which ignore the provisions of international law which this Honorable Committee has year after year conscientiously applied to the colonial case of Puerto Rico. In March of this year, the U.S. President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status ­ of which there is not a single Puerto Rican member ­ issued a report with recommendations proposing methods for purportedly resolving the status question, acknowledging that “status remains of overwhelming importance to the people of Puerto Rico,” but nowhere expressly acknowledging the colonial status or the application of international law. The report suggests convening a plebiscite process, polling the people of Puerto Rico regarding available status options of statehood, independence, free association and commonwealth. However, there is a significant potential for the elimination of the independence option. Although more than half the population lives in the United States, the Task Force suggests that “only residents of Puerto Rico should be eligible to vote in any plebiscite.” The report, moreover, does acknowledge that it is the U.S. Congress that will ultimately determine the resolution of the status.

The report also addresses multiple insertions of increasing U.S. programs into Puerto Rico, from the economy to education to labor, from health care to the environment to law enforcement, in a barely veiled attempt to increase the nation’s dependency on the United States.

Last week, President Obama made a four-hour stop in Puerto Rico, the first U.S. president in 50 years to visit the island nation. He encountered mass demonstrations comprised of diverse groups, with placards and banners reading “Obama, Go Home!” and calling for an end to U.S. colonial control, independence, and the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, particularly Oscar López Rivera. “Obama can’t talk about freedom while he has Oscar and the others in prison,” was a theme echoed by the people.

While the White House claimed that the trip was related to furthering the goals of the Task Force, the visit was seen as a transparent attempt to woo the many Puerto Rican voters who now reside in the U.S., including in the hotly contested state of Florida in the upcoming 2012 U.S. presidential election, as the people of Puerto Rico cannot vote for president. More than half of Mr. Obama’s time on the island was spent raising over $1 million for his re-election campaign. It was clear to the Puerto Rican people that “neither Obama nor his recent predecessors recognize that the Puerto Rican political case is a colonial problem.”

II. The Ongoing Crisis of Colonialism

The economy of the colony, one of the few economies in the world with negative growth, and among slowest growing in the world, cannot support the population.

Unemployment is at its highest in two decades, higher than any state in the U.S. There is an unprecedented exodus, being called “a brain drain,” leading to the startling statistic that now more than half the Puerto Rican population lives outside the island, and the vicious cycle of difficulty in building an economy when much talent is seduced away by the lack of job opportunities on the island and the perception of increased job opportunities in the U.S.

With lack of control over its own borders, Puerto Rico has been unable to stem the unstaunched flow of drugs, which has led to a second, underground economy and related crime, as well as a staggering murder rate: as of June 9, there had been 491 murders this year alone; if the murder rate continues, there will be 1,000 murders this year, making it the most deadly in Puerto Rico’s history.

In this context, in the past year, the human rights crisis on the island has burgeoned. The superintendent of Police, a former U.S. agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], has overseen and applauded the unending wave of violent attacks on people protesting the policies of the colonial administration, particularly on striking students at the University of Puerto Rico.

Police violence has attracted the attention and condemnation of Amnesty International in London, and even the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating.

The colonial administration has taken measures to ensure that the courts of the colony are hostile to anything but the administration’s partisan line, leaving most litigants without an impartial judicial forum in which to challenge such human rights violations.

The colonial administration packed the Supreme Court, increasing the number of justices from seven to nine, in a transparently partisan effort, accelerating the nomination and confirmation process. The expansion, which supposedly responded to the court’s workload, was largely seen an excuse and has been criticized as unnecessary and a power grab by the governor’s pro-statehood party, with the criteria for appointment favoring strong pro-statehood credentials over legal and judicial experience. The court-packing was only one part of a broader plan, which included legislation to gut the judicial appellate process, fast-tracking appeals directly to the partisan higher court, often bypassing the intermediate appellate courts.

The U.S. federal court in Puerto Rico has been a full partner in ratifying the rampant violations of human rights, with the case against the Puerto Rico Bar Association as a foremost example, where the court blatantly assisted disaffected pro-statehood partisans’ attempts to not only dismantle the venerable institution, but to try to seize the building which serves as its headquarters as well as a cultural center, and in the course of which the federal court held in contempt and jailed the president for educating his constituency about the lawsuit.

The public university system has been taken over by partisan politics. The colonial administration expanded the board of trustees with four fast-tracked appointees and named a commission to restructure the university with members openly hostile to its existence. The administration has also imposed tuition hikes and curricular changes which undermine university autonomy and the role of the university as a forum for open discussion of issues of concern to the people of Puerto Rico.

The labor movement continues to be under attack by the colonial administration’s adoption of anti-labor measures, never having redressed the dismissal of some 30,000 public workers, the abrogation of collective bargaining agreements in the public sector, or the creation of “public-private alliances” as part of the privatization of essential public services, with the resultant hardship for workers in Puerto Rico. Labor union protests of these draconian measures have been met with indifference in some instances and with violent repression at other times.

The history of criminalizing the independence movement continues unabated. The head of the FBI office in San Juan was recently promoted to an administrative position in FBI headquarters, a move attributed to the “disarticulation” during his watch of the clandestine pro-independence group The Macheteros, including the 2005 assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, the 2008 arrest of alleged Machetero Avelino González Claudio, and the 2011 arrest of alleged Machetero Norberto González Claudio.

III. Political Prisoners

This year has been historically significant for Puerto Rico’s political prisoners held in United States prisons. The sole remaining political prisoner of the group arrested in the 1980′s is Oscar López Rivera, who has the unenviable distinction of having served 30 years in prison, despite the fact that he was not convicted of harming anyone or taking a life. López, 68 years old, and serving a sentence of 70 years, has a release date of 2023. In a politically punitive move,
the U.S. Parole Commission recently refused his parole bid, erroneously asserting that his release would promote disrespect for the law. The decision ignored the express will of the Puerto Rican people and those who believe in justice and human rights, counting tens of thousands of voices across the political spectrum who have uniformly supported his immediate release. The Commission ignored the evidence establishing that he met all the criteria for parole and also ignored its own rules in the process. Among these many ignored voices are this venerable body, members of the United States Congress and many state legislatures of the various states; the city councils and county boards of many locales in the U.S. and Puerto Rico; the mayors of many towns in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including the Association of Mayors of Puerto Rico; bar associations including the Puerto Rico Bar Association, the National Lawyers Guild and the American Association of Jurists; clergy and religious organizations, including the Ecumenical Coalition representing every religious denomination in Puerto Rico; the National Latino Congreso, human rights advocates, academics, students, artists, community organizations, and workers.

The Commission also flouted President Clinton’s 1999 determination that Oscar’s sentence was disproportionately lengthy and that he should be released in September of 2009. The Commission ignored the fact that Oscar’s co-defendants released as a result of the 1999 Clinton clemency are productive, law-abiding citizens, fully integrated into civil society. Finally, the Commission ignored its own July 2010 order to release Oscar’s last remaining imprisoned co-defendant Carlos Alberto Torres.

Avelino González Claudio, a 68 year old man with Parkinson’s Disease, has served 3 years of his 7 year prison sentence and is scheduled for release in 2012. His brother, Norberto González Claudio, 65, was apprehended last month after 25 years in clandestinity. He awaits trial in federal court in Connecticut, facing 275 years for the same charges as his brother and many former political prisoners, accused of belonging to the Ejército Boricua Popular – Macheteros, a pro-independence clandestine force which expropriated over $7 million from a Wells Fargo Depot in 1983, the proceeds to finance their struggle for independence.

They remain strong in spirit, their commitment to the independence of their nation undaunted, in spite of adversity, particularly buoyed by the mass demonstrations of support for their release during the U.S. president’s recent visit to the island.

IV. Environment

Two examples suffice to demonstrate the need for self-determination. The island of Vieques, a U.S. Superfund site, has been shamefully left to abandon after 60 years of military occupation polluted its land, air and water and consequently gravely damaged the health of the people and their economy. Yet in the face of this shameful abandon, the U.S. makes promises it does not fulfill and suggestions without remedial action.

A $450 million 92 mile gas pipeline, which the colonial administration euphemistically calls “the Green Way,” is another pending environmental disaster, to run across the island, threatening the safety and health of the people and the environment along the entire path, without public participation, in violation of all the rules, and replete with allegations of corruption. The project has generated massive public opposition. The role of United States agencies is suspect.

V. Conclusion

The National Lawyers Guild International Committee, incorporating the requests sought by other presenters before this Honorable Committee, urges the adoption of a resolution calling for the General Assembly to consider the case of Puerto Rico; and calling on the government of the United States to:
• immediately cease the brutality, criminalization and harassment of, and attacks on, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the students, and all those who exercise their fundamental rights to expression and association;
• immediately release Puerto Rican political prisoners: Oscar López Rivera, who has served more than 30 years in U.S. custody, and Avelino González Claudio and Norberto González Claudio;
• identify and hold criminally liable all those responsible for the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (2005), Santiago Mari Pesquera (1976), Carlos Muñiz Varela (1979), and other militants of the Puerto Rican independence movement;
• withdraw the FBI, the U.S. court, and all other U.S. police, repressive and military forces from Puerto Rico;
• withdraw from Vieques, formally return legal property of the land to the people of Vieques, cease detonating unexploded ordnance, completely clean up the pollution left by the U.S. Navy’s 60 year occupation through the use of proven, environmentally friendly clean-up methods, and compensate the people of Vieques for the damage to their health done to them by the same;
• cease and desist from the application of the death penalty in Puerto Rico;
• ensure the right to quality public higher education;
• formally commit to negotiate in good faith with the people of Puerto Rico a solution to the colonial condition; and recognize the proposals that emanate from a Constitutional Assembly, initiated by the people of Puerto Rico, such as that called for by the Puerto Rico Bar Association, as the true expression of the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico, and respond to them accordingly.

Dated: June 20, 2011 Respectfully submitted,
Jan Susler People’s Law Office
1180 N. Milwaukee Chicago, IL 60622

On behalf of the National Lawyers Guild International Committee

http://www.nlginternational.org/

Download the presentation here.