FALN members still espouse violence
March hits strings tied to clemency
Lamenta PIP ausencia de Rosselló, Calderón y otros en marcha pro excarcelación

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 30 de Agosto, 1999. update 8/30/99.

Chicago Sun Times 8/30/99
Report: FALN members still espouse violence
August 30, 1999
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL STAFF REPORTER

While demonstrators rallied in Humboldt Park Sunday for 11 imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalists offered clemency if they renounce violence, a published report is expected to disclose that some prisoners have been recorded saying they still espouse violence.

Newsweek magazine's Sept. 6 issue, on newsstands today, reported the existence of secret audiotapes made by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in which some of the prisoners say they would return to violence if they were released.

However, supporters of the prisoners were skeptical about the report: "The majority of what has been stated by the Justice Department, the Bureau of Prisons, for example, is not based on fact," said Pedro Rodriguez, the brother of one of the prisoners. Rodriguez added that the group renounced violence last year in a document sent to the White House.

Linked to a spree of guerrilla acts in Chicago and elsewhere two decades ago, none of the 11 Armed Forces of National Liberation members were convicted in cases involving death or serious injury, though in some instances they were imprisoned for armed robbery and supplying resources.

On Aug. 11, President Clinton offered clemency to 16 FALN members if they renounced violence. Eleven of them would be freed if they took the offer.

Like other parolees, they would not be allowed to associate with people who have a criminal record unless they have their parole officer's permission.

"They're sisters, they're in the same cell right now," said Fernando Rodriguez, 44, referring to his sisters, Alicia and Ida Luz Rodriguez, two of the 11 people offered clemency. "But when they get out, they can't talk to each other."

The march started in a plaza in the 2600 block of West Division, at a statue of Pedro Albizu-Campos, considered one of the fathers of the Puerto Rican independence movement.

The two-block-long procession of more than 300 backers marched from Division to the Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown, where FALN member Jose Solis Jordan is held.

Solis is a former assistant professor at DePaul University convicted of a botched 1992 bomb attack against a military recruiting center at 3907 N. Cicero.

Chicago Tribune 8/30

March hits strings tied to clemency
By Tom Ragan
Tribune Staff Writer
August 29, 1999

Ida Luz and Alicia Rodriguez are sisters who grew up in Chicago but have spent the last two decades behind bars for crimes they committed while they were members of FALN, a Puerto Rican independence group.

Arrested in Evanston in April 1980 with nine other FALN members on charges of firearms possession and conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government in the name of the island's independence, the sisters, now in their mid-40s, could be released soon.

That's because the sisters are among the 16 Puerto Rican prisoners recently offered clemency by President Clinton on Aug. 11. But there's a catch: Because they are members of the nationalist group, whose acronym in Spanish stands for Armed Forces of National Liberation, they cannot talk to one another if they are freed from their northern California penitentiary.

"Now that doesn't make much sense, does it?" said Fernando Rodriguez, 44, their brother, who spoke on his sisters' behalf at a rally held outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago on Sunday.

"At least right now, they're in the same cell," he added. "We were thinking it would be nice to piece our family back together, but the conditions of clemency aren't helping us much."

Rodriguez was one of an estimated 250 protesters who staged a 4-mile march that started in Humboldt Park and ended at the federal prison downtown two hours later--where one FALN prisoner, a former DePaul University professor, is serving time.

Though Jose Solis Jordan is not among the 16 prisoners offered clemency by Clinton--he was sentenced to 51 months in prison on July 8 for the 1992 attempted bombing of a military recruiting center in Chicago--protesters decided to lend him their support as well, saying it was all for the same cause: Puerto Rican independence.

Protesters carried Puerto Rican flags. Megaphones were passed around. Leaflets were handed out. Slogans like "U.S. Justice is a lie!" were chanted in both Spanish and English.

They called on President Clinton to release the prisoners with no conditions attached, saying the sentences were much too stiff to begin with--prison terms that ranged from 20 to 90 years.

Another one of the conditions is that the political prisoners renounce violence, something they have not outright agreed to yet, which has held up the talks.

Not everyone who participated in the protest was of Puerto Rican descent. Middle-class Anglos from such neighborhoods as Wicker Park and Humboldt Park turned out to show their support, as did dozens of Mexican immigrants.

Prisoners' families say they got caught up in a movement that reached a peak in the mid-1970s. But the movement has existed since 1898, when the U.S. invaded the island and eventually seized control and made it a commonwealth.

Some Puerto Rican residents on the island and in Chicago, however, wouldn't mind it becoming a state, which has created tension among certain factions. And there are some who like the way things are now: Puerto Rico as a commonwealth.

Currently, the island has no political representation--only a resident commissioner, who is allowed a voice in the U.S. House of Representatives but no vote.

"They did nothing less than what George Washington did to destroy colonization at the time of the American Revolution," said Zenaida Lopez, 48, of the prisoners.

Talks among the 16 prisoners will resume Tuesday, according to Aleajandro Molina, a Humboldt Park activist and member of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners.

One family member, Pedro Rodriguez, 32, of Chicago, said his brother Alberto Rodriguez, 46, is having a hard time deciding what to do.

On one hand, if he agrees to the clemency, then he will be subjected to a life outside of prison where he cannot speak his mind freely or associate with any members of FALN, he said.

On the other hand, he could serve the remainder of his 20-year term, and walk away with no conditions.

Already, his brother has served 16 years in prison in Texas while his two children have grown up in his absence.

El Nuevo Dia 29 agosto
PIP Nueva York

Lamenta el PIP ausencia de Rosselló, Calderón y otros líderes políticos en marcha pro excarcelación incondicional de presos independentistas domingo, 29 de agosto de 1999

Por Ismael Torres

SAN JUAN - El ex senador Fernando Martín lamentó la ausencia de dirigentes políticos como la alcaldesa Sila María Calderón y el gobernador Pedro Rosselló de la marcha que realizaron miles de personas para demandar la excarcelación incondicional de 15 independentistas presos en cárceles federales, sentenciados a condenas que oscilan entre 15 y 90 años de prisión por delitos de sedición.

"Es lamentable que no estén aquí, lo que demuestra además que no apoyan la libertad incondicional de estos puertorriqueños", dijo el también vicepresidente del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP), uno de varios dirigentes que participaron en la marcha.

La marcha, bajo la consigna "Ya es hora de traerlos a casa", recorrió las calles de esta ciudad culminó frente al edificio que alberga las oficinas de las principales agencias federales en Puerto Rico.

Entre los manifestantes figuró la ex presidiaria nacionalista Lolita Lebrón, quien criticó las condiciones impuestas en la clemencia ejecutiva ofrecida recientemente por el presidente de Estados Unidos, Bill Clinton.

"Son onerosas, un insulto a la dignidad de este pueblo que tiene un derecho inalienable a luchar por su liberación", dijo Lebrón quien cumplió 25 años de cárcel por comandar un grupo nacionalista que atacó a tiros el Congreso de Estados Unidos, en marzo de 1954. Lebrón y sus cuatro acompañantes fue indultada incondicionalmente en el 1979 por el entonces presidente Jimmy Carter.

Agregó que Estados Unidos no "tiene fuerza moral para acusar de terrorista a ningún puertorriqueño que lucha por la independencia, porque los norteamericanos nos invadieron y nos ocuparon hace cien años".

"Por eso, estos luchadores son presos políticos", dijo.

Entre las pancartas en la marcha, se destacaba una del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) que exhortaba a Clinton a otorgar un indulto incondicional a los presos independentistas.

"Clinton: recibiste indulto total, dale indulto total también a ellos", rezaba la pancarta que llevaba un exaltado grupo de jóvenes independentistas que gritaba a su vez consignas de "libertad, libertad".

La concurrida marcha contó entre sus más llamativas demostraciones con la de un joven que montado en zancos y cubierto una túnica azul simulaba la Estatua de la Libertad que en su mano derecha ondeaba la bandera puertorriqueña y las fotos de los 15 independentistas.

El congresista demócrata de Chicago, de origen puertorriqueño, Luis Gutiérrez, de donde son oriundo la mayoría de los independentistas presos, pidió al presidente Clinton que le de la libertad incondicional para que "la paz y la armonía llegue a Puerto Rico", un territorio norteamericano en el Caribe desde 1898 cuando pasó a los Estados Unidos como resultado de la Guerra Hispanoamericana.

"El mensaje más importante enviado por esta marcha es que los queremos en casa ya, y que no deben haber excusas para dejarlos libres", dijo el congresista en medio de aplausos.

El cantante y compositor puertorriqueño Robi Draco Rosa se unió también a la actividad y apoyó la excarcelación incondicional. "Estamos aquí para apoyar estos esfuerzos", dijo el artista, coautor de canciones como "La vida loca", y "La copa de la vida", interpretadas por el cantante Ricky Martin.

La Policía no ofreció estimados de asistencia, aunque el inspector Gilberto Díaz Pagán dijo que por la actitud de los organizadores, la asistencia era la que esperaban.

Nieves Falcón, por su parte, estimó en 150 mil los asistentes, aunque otros asistentes estimaron entre 20 mil y 25 mil la asistencia.

El presidente del Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, Eduardo Villanueva Muñoz, dijo entretanto, que la marcha de hoy "es el mensaje más importante que se ha transmitido para que los liberen incondicionalmente a todos", dijo.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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