Download and sign the letter to President Obama urging him to release Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. After signing please mail the original document to:
National Boricua Human Rights Network
2739 W. Division Street
PASEO BORICUA
Chicago, IL 60622
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September 22, 2015
Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Re: Oscar López Rivera
87651-024, FCI Terre Haute
Dear President Obama,
I write to urge you to immediately release Oscar López Rivera, who has served 34 years in prison for his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico.
He is deserving of commutation for many reasons: his 70 year sentence is disproportionate: he was not convicted of harming or killing anyone; at 72 years old, he has spent almost half his life in prison; his co-defendants, released long ago, are productive, law-abiding citizens; he is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Support for his release is broad and growing in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and internationally, and includes labor (AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)); the New York City Council, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; churches and religious leaders including the United Church of Christ in the U.S. and the Catholic Bishops of Puerto Rico; the United Nations Decolonization Committee, five members of Congress, the governor of Puerto Rico, six presidents of Latin American nations, as well as four of your fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
We applaud your promise to commute more sentences, your expressed understanding that the constitutional power of pardon is the appropriate remedy for correcting the wrong of disproportionate sentences, your most recent commutation of the disproportionate sentences of 46 people convicted of drug related offenses, and your declaration that, “I believe that at its heart, America is a nation of second chances, and I believe these folks deserve their second chance.”
We are at a loss to understand why you have not commuted Mr. López Rivera’s sentence, and encourage you to grant him immediate release. His family and supporters await him with open arms.
Yours truly,
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