Political Prisoners

Please view the video, Dissent is Not a Crime, for more background into the case of the Political Prisoners.

Also see, Jan Susler’s article, More than 25 years: Puerto Rican Political Prisoners.

For recent articles on the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners, please click on the category “Political Prisoners” on the right side of this page.

Puerto Rican Political Prisoners:

Carlos Alberto Torres

Born on September 19, 1952

Address:
88976-024
FCI Pekin
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 5000
Pekin, IL 61555

Carlos Alberto Torres was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on September 19, 1952. Although he was raised in the United States, he was never disconnected from Puerto Rico. Carlos also had a strong religious upbringing; his father, Rev. José A. Torres, is pastor emeritus of the First Congregational Church of Chicago. These influences led Carlos to struggle for social justice through political and community activism.

Carlos engaged in struggles around housing, police brutality and education. He was one of the founders of the Puerto Rican alternative school now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School and participated in the Committee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists.

In 1980, Carlos was arrested along with 10 other compañera/os and was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges in 1981; he was unfairly sentenced to 78 years in prison for his political ideas, not for any violent actions. He is the step-son of ex-political prisoner Alejandrina Torres. Carlos was not included in the 1999 Clinton clemency offer. His projected release date is 2024.

Oscar López Rivera

Born on January 6, 1943

Address:
87651-024
FCI Terre Haute
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

Oscar López Rivera was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico on January 6, 1943. He moved to Chicago with his family at the age of 12, where he experienced racism in the schools and on the street. He was drafted into the army in 1967 and spent a year in Vietnam. Oscar was transformed by this experience and by the Chicago Boricuas’ resistance against police brutality, which was fueled by the Puerto Rican Riots of 1966. Oscar became involved in many struggles including welfare rights, bilingual education, unemployment, housing, political representation and police brutality. He helped to found a Puerto Rican alternative school now known as Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School, and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center, and he participated in the Committee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists during the 70s.

In 1981, Oscar López was arrested and convicted for seditious conspiracy, armed robbery and lesser charges; he received a disproportionately long sentence of 55 years in prison. He was not convicted of any specific act of violence, but for his political beliefs. In 1988, Oscar was convicted of conspiracy to escape and sentenced another 15 years. After much hard work and struggle by Puerto Rican activists and supporters, Oscar was offered a limited clemency by President Clinton in 1999, along with 11 other Puerto Rican Political Prisoners. Oscar rejected the offer because it would leave other Puerto Rican Political Prisoners behind and because he would have to renounce his political beliefs. His projected release date is 2027.

Avelino González-Claudio

NCI # 357422
PO Box 665
Somers, CT 06071

Friends and Family of Avelino González Claudio
Apartado Postal #22282
San Juan. P.R.00931-2282

Avelino González Claudio. . . A Tireless Fighter

In August of 1985, Avelino González Claudio was accused of participating in the planning and authorization of an operation to secure $7,117,000 from a Wells Fargo armored truck in Hartford, Connecticut on September 12, 1983, along with other Puerto Ricans and two North Americans. The operation was carried out by a clandestine organization fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico, the PRTP-Macheteros. Avelino was not arrested at the time. However, more than 20 years later, he was arrested in Manatí­, Puerto Rico, on February 7, 2008.

Avelino was born in the town of Vega Baja on October 8, 1942. As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, he became a member and then vice-president of the Pro-Independence University Federation (Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia-FUPI). In the mid-1960’s, he married and moved to New York City, earning his living on Wall Street, and working with the Puerto Rican community, joining and then leading the Vito Marcantonio Mission of the Movemiento Pro-Independencia (MPI) in New York. He and his family of four children returned to Puerto Rico, where he worked in the independence movement, including administering the political journal Pensamiento Crí­tico (Critical Thought).

When the arrests of 1985 took place, and Avelino was not arrested, he assumed the identity of José Ortega, and, while the FBI pursued him, he lived a quiet life, working as a computer teacher to support his family and contributing constructively to his nation, seeking to improve the services provided by the Department of Education.

The charges against those arrested in 1985 had various results: Carlos Ayes, Filiberto Ojeda, Juan Segarra, Norman Ramirez and Roberto Maldonado went to trial in 1989; Ivonne Meléndez Carrión also went to trial—some were acquitted, others convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from one year to 55 years; while Orlando González, Hilton Fernández Diamante, Jorge A. Farinacci, Isaac Camacho, Elí­as Castro and Angel Días Ruiz negotiated a plea agreement in 1992. They were sentenced to terms of five years in prison. Two others have never been arrested: Avelino’s brother Norberto and Victor Gerena, and are being sought by the FBI.

Avelino is currently being held in Somers, the state of Connecticut’s supermax prison, far from his family and his nation, where he is locked down 23 hours a day, with no access to family visits or phone calls, in conditions which are calculated not only to interfere with his ability to prepare a defense, but which are tantamount to torture. He is awaiting trial in federal court in Hartford.

Articles on Avelino González Claudio