April 4th Commemoration of the Capture of the Patriotas
Join NBHRN on Saturday April 4th, 2009, 6:30pm • Batey Urbano 2620 W. Division
$10 admission
- Various Cultural and Hip-Hop performances throughout the night!!
- Updates on the Struggle in Vieques and the campaign to free the remaining Puerto Rican Political Prisoners.
- Special Guest Speakers former Political Prisoners Lucy Rodriguez and Luis Rosa
In 1999, under immense pressure from the Puerto Rican community President Bill Clinton commuted the prison sentences of 12 of 15 Puerto Rican men and women arrested in the early 1980s. All of the prisoners where long considered political prisoners and prisoners of war. Convicted of seditious conspiracy (that is, of conspiring to use force against the authority of the United States over Puerto Rico), they had served 16 and 19 years of prison sentences ranging from 35 to 90 years. NBHRN continues to struggle for the release of two remaining political prisoners from that grouping, Oscar Lopez Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres. On April 4th, we commemorate the capture of these prisoners to assure that our community remembers its rich history of resistance.