Possible freedom in September
They should all come out
Big push for the demonstration
Lista de prisioneros políticos puertorriqueños
Arzobispo de San Juan lamenta liberación condicionada

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 12 de Agosto, 1999. Latest articles.

"Possible freedom in September"
(translated from the original Spanish)
Wednesday, August 11, 1999
by Leonor Mulero, El Nuevo Día

Washington: In September, at least the majority of the 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners could be free, according to sources near to the process, optimistic as a result of White House counsel's recommendation to free almost all of them.

Meanwhile, the prisoners' attorney Jan Susler said that the office of White House counsel told her that "we are near the end of a very long process." Jeffrey Farrow, co-chair of the White House Working Group on Puerto Rico, said that "we are reaching the end," added the attorney.

But, in an interview from Chicago, Susler expressed "cautious optimism. We want to hear directly from the horse's mouth a response to our petition for their release." The "horse" is president Bill Clinton.

José Serrano, congressman from New York, said that "we are near something important. I feel a knot in my stomach." He indicated that "there have been serious conversations at the level you mentioned." But he warned that "there are still people opposed to this. I don't know who they are, but they're out there."

White House counsel Charles Ruff recommended, before leaving his post, the release of 13 of the 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners. Ruff left his recommendation in a Memorandum that would reach president Bill Clinton. Farrow did not return repeated calls from this paper on Tuesday.

Jim Kennedy, spokesperson from the office of White House Counsel, said yesterday that the office was not in a position to make comments on the information in the Memo from Ruff. "We are not in a position to comment," said Kennedy. He indicated that, at the appropriate time, the office would announce its position.

"They should all come out"

While expressing caution, since "we aren't in a position to say more than should be said," Serrano indicated that the position of the three Puerto Rican congressional representatives is that all the political prisoners should be freed together. The other congressional representatives are Nydia Velázquez and Luis Gutiérrez.

That is Susler's position. "We petitioned Clinton for all 15 political prisoners. There is no way to rationally discriminate. Them should come home together. This is a humanitarian issue. We hope he will be generous and courageous and make a complete act of justice."

Various federal sources trust that at least the majority of the Puerto Rican political prisoners will be free in September.

The Puerto Rican city councilman from the Bronx, José Rivera, took up the prisoners with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who expressed this Tuesday that "I understood the message." Rodham Clinton aspires to be senator for New York.

Serrano justified asking Rodham Clinton's help with the freedom of the prisoners and the Navy leaving Vieques. "If it's reasonable that Jews ask me what I think of the state of Israel, I think it's correct to ask candidates to federal posts about Vieques and the political prisoners, and that their response be a primordial part of the decision whether or not to support them," said Serrano.

Although he wants all 15 prisoners to come out at the same time, Serrano is not assuming a position of waiting until they can all be freed at the same time if the alternative is offered that some come out before others. "We will keep working for the others' release," he added.

Communication with the prisoners

Susler was in communication with the prisoners this Tuesday to discuss the terms of the possible release. Juan Segarra Palmer, who is held in Coleman, Florida, found out from a fellow prisoner who, after hearing the news on the radio, went crying to tell him he wouldn't leave with the others, said Susler. "What Segarra did was console his fellow prisoner."

Oscar López Rivera just listened carefully while the attorney spoke to him. "I told him what you reported (in the newspaper) and what our sources have said. He showed incredible integrity, learning" (that they didn't want to let him go), according to Susler. López Rivera and Segarra Palmer would not come out, according to Ruff.

As for the version that the White House proposes the freedom of the political prisoners to encourage a more moderate position on the presence of the United States Navy in Vieques, Serrano added that this strategy won't be effective.

"Whoever believes that the congressional representatives are going be grateful for the freedom of the prisoners and forget about Vieques is very mistaken," said Serrano.

The president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC), Manuel Mirabal, wrote this Tuesday to president Bill Clinton to insist that all the Puerto Rican political prisoners be released from prison.

"We are profoundly concerned that the recommendation does not include all the men and women who have already served between 16 and 19 years of their sentences," said Mirabal.

"Big push for the demonstration"
(translated from the original Spanish)
Wednesday, August 11, 1999
by Amelia Estades Santaliz, El Nuevo Día

The march "Freedom for our own", convoked by the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico in favor of the freedom of the political prisoners, takes on greater importance now, when president Bill Clinton has on his desk the recommendation from the office of White House counsel, according to various leaders committed to the cause.

The march is scheduled to take place the 29th of this month. It will leave from Plaza Barceló in Barrio Obrero and end at the federal courthouse on Chardón Avenue.

The suggestion that Charles Ruff made to the President, according to El Nuevo Día sources, is that 13 of the 15 political prisoners be freed, excluding Juan Segarra Palmer, who, it was indicated, was the intellectual author of the armed robbery of $7.2 million from Wells Fargo, which took place September 12, 1983, and Oscar López, considered to be the leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN).

"At this time the march takes on even greater importance than before. We are going to express our criteria, the people will express all that they feel. This united participation of the people will communicate to the President the recommendation of the Puerto Rican people that he free all the political prisoners," declared Luis Nieves Falcón, coordinator of the committee.

Nieves Falcón, attorney Juan Mari Brás, and professor Julio Muriente, president of the New Independence Movement (NMIP), all maintain that it is discriminatory and unjust to free only 13 of them. Even so, they would receive open arms those who are freed.

"The freedom of all the Puerto Rican political prisoners is the wise and just decision that president Bill Clinton should take in response to the unified demand of the people.

Libertad a 11 de los presos

El Nuevo Día Interactivo - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Lista de prisioneros políticos puertorriqueños
miércoles, 11 de agosto de 1999.

Prisioneros políticos puertorriqueños a quienes el presidente Bill Clinton les ofreció conmutar sus condenas, mayormente por conspiración, si aceptan algunas condiciones:

Con derecho a la libertad inmediata, una vez que renuncien al uso de la violencia:

Edwin Cortés. 35 años de prisión. Elizam Escobar. 60 años de prisión Ricardo Jiménez. 90 años de prisión. Adolfo Matos. 70 años de prisión. Dylcia Noemí Pagán. 55 años de prisión. Alicia Rodríguez. 55 años de prisión. Ida Luz Rodríguez. 75 años de prisión. Alberto Rodríguez. 35 años de prisión. Luis Rosa. 75 años de prisión. Alejandrina Torres. 35 años de prisión. Carmen Valentín. 90 años de prisión.

Tienen que cumplir tiempo adicional antes de ser liberados: Oscar López Rivera. 55 años de prisión. Juan Enrique Segarra Palmer. 55 años de prisión. Se les perdonaría el resto de la multa que les falta pagar una vez que renuncien al uso de la violencia: Antonio Camacho Negrón. Sentencia: 15 años de prisión por conspiración y traslado interestatal de dinero robado. Roberto Maldonado Rivera. Norman Ramírez Talavera.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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