Oscar López Rivera, Puerto Rico’s oldest political prisoner, is to finally be set free on May 20th, 2017. As of today, López Rivera has been imprisoned for 35 years for non-violent crimes, those of which were motivated by his involvement in the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña – The Armed Forces of National Liberation). Oscar López was born in Puerto Rico on January 6, 1943.
In 1981, López Rivera and several other members of the FALN were convicted and sentenced to prison for seditious conspiracy. López Rivera sentence was originally of 55 years, but president Barack Obama commuted his sentence on January 17, 2017. After serving 35 years of imprisonment, Oscar López Rivera is set to go back to his home in Puerto Rico this upcoming May.
(The FALN was a paramilitary organization that, throughout direct sets of action, advocated for the complete independence of the [still] colonized island of Puerto Rico. It was founded by Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, deceased, and maintained operations from 1974 to 1983)
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Oscar’s recent interest in the media is a result of the different movements that have appeared since early 2012 that have been advocating for his release. The use of different hashtags, the diverse celebrity involvement (e.g. Lin Manuel Miranda), the effortless yet routinely-made-activities on the island and the countless attempts to get the president’s attention finally paid off. López Rivera’s release would serve as a beacon of hope for Puerto Ricans that live in the mainland, like myself, and for those who live far from the island but still care deeply for the things that affect their family and friends. As of recently, Puerto Rico has been imposed a fiscal control board, and the recent gubernatorial elections have left much of the younger population feeling hopeless and detrimental state.
If Oscar’s return means anything, and this section is for the readers that aren’t aware of the current socio-economic and political position Puerto Rico is currently in, is that there are still things worth fighting for- even for us. And it is possible that his triumphant return to both family and friends is of little to no interest for those who don’t know (and potentially don’t care) about this small piece of land that we, alongside Oscar, call home, but to every troubled individual that is trying to keep it together in the very difficult context that Puerto Rico is currently going through, López Rivera’s company is enough to keep us moving forward. A cause worth fighting for is also(or at least tends to be) the one with the best of results.
Oscar, we can’t wait to have you back home.