FALN may be violent again
Legal Visit To Each Of The Prisoners
Dialog Before They Decide
PIP Laments Absence Of Rosello, Calderon
La Casa Blanca no sabe si existen

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 31 de Agosto, 1999. update 8/31.

FALN may be violent again
UPI Reuters States News Service
Updated 7:25 PM ET August 30, 1999

NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) Some members of the Puerto Rican nationalist group, FALN, a Spanish acronym for Armed Forces of National Liberation, may return to violence if freed from prison, according to a report in Newsweek.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is reported to have audio tape recordings of telephone conversations of some of the prisoners saying they "will return to violence."

President Bill Clinton offered 16 of the group's members clemency _ most of whom are serving lifetime prison sentences if they would renounce violence. So far none have taken the offer.

The group takes responsibility for 130 bombings and acts of violence in the 1970s and 80s. Sen. Paul Coverdell, (R-GA), who heads a subcommittee on terrorism, says he may hold hearings on what information Clinton used to make his clemency decision.

LEGAL VISIT TO EACH OF THE PRISONERS

August 29, 1999...... El Nuevo Día

Jan Susler, attorney for the Puerto Rican independentist prisoners, is on a trip through 11 prisons of the United States to discuss with the 15 prisoners, the conditions of commutation of sentence that was offered by Bill Clinton.

Fourteen of the fifteen political prisoners participated in the beginning of this week in a conference call with Susler. The prison authorities where Antonio Camacho Negron is eing imprisoned did not give him permission to participate in the call, it was indicated.

The defense expects to have other conference call to discuss the offer of commutation of sentences. Eleven prisoners would be released from prison, if they accept the conditions imposed by Clinton. The defenders of the prisoners consider that these conditions extend the prison to the free world. Clinton offered a reduction of sentences to another two prisoners and did not offer clemency to another two.

Susler personally visited Oscar Lopez and Ricardo Jimenez, at the prison at Terre Haute, Indiana. The attorney is now visiting the other prisoners. The fifteen prisoners are dispersed in eleven prisoners, as a result, Susler's trip will take approximately two weeks. The prisoners are considering seriously the offer of clemency and are not in an attitude of absolute negativity, it was indicated.

BUT they are attempting to reach a decision in a group (collective decision). Alberto Rodriguez had sought conditional parole, which is basically what Clinton is offering. However, Rodriguez, who has served 19 years in prison, has not accepted the offer of clemency because he wants to consult with his compañeros in the struggle.

DIALOG BEFORE THEY DECIDE

Sat. August 28, 1999... El Nuevo Día.. by Mildred Rivera Marrero LUIS NIEVES Falcon, of the Committee Pro-Human Rights of Puerto Rico announced that on the following 2nd of Sept., he would initiate a round of visits to the political prisoners that would last three weeks. After this, they will try to reach a decision on the offer made by president Clinton.

Nieves Falcon made the announcement in the middle of the activity of the Campaign: Freedom for Ours, in which participated representatives of international groups that struggle for the political prisoners of countries such as Palestine, Spain, and Northern Ireland.

At the same activity, there was discussed the situation of the prisoners and the processes of freedom in those nations.

The civic leader said that the eleven political prisoners to whom had been extended a conditional offer have begun to analyse it to see which conditions they could accept and which they could not.

He indicated, accompanied by members of the families of some of the prisoners, that the evaluation of the offer would culminate after these visits and that it would be sometime after this that the Boricuas would announce their decision.

Before leaving for the United States, the organization would communicate by phone with the prisoners, assured Nieves Falcon.

Responding to the questions of the journalists, the leader indicated that the Boricuas had not decided if they would make a collective decision or if they would make them in individual character.

One of the significant points of yesterdays discussions was revealed by Brian Gormally, of the Northern Ireland Associates for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, when he affirmed the northamerican government is behind the efforts to free the political prisoners of Northern Ireland, but without conditions.

To free eleven of the 15 political prisoners, president Clinton, imposed conditions so that they would affirm that they actions were criminal and that they commit themselves not to communicate with convicts, among others.

In the evening, there was celebrated in the Convention Center of Tropimar, at which Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez was the principal speaker. The events will terminate with tommorrow's march, which will leave from Barrio Obrero and proceed to the Federal Court Building.

PIP LAMENTS ABSENCE OF ROSELLO, CALDERON

29 August 1999, El Nuevo Dia, by Ismael Torres

SAN JUAN.., The ex-senator Fernando Martin lamented the absence of political leaders, such as the Mayor Sila Maria Calderon and the governor Pedro Rossello in the march that was realized by thousands of persons to demand the unconditional freedom of 15 independentists imprisoned in federal prisons, sentenced to terms that vary from 15 to 90 years in prison for the crimes of sedition.

"It is lamentable that they are not here, what it demonstrates beyond that they do not support unconditional liberty of these Puerto Ricans" said the also vice president of the Puerto Rican Independentist Party, one of the various leaders who participated in the march.

The march, under the slogan, "IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME", took place through the streets of this city, culminated in front of the building that houses the offices of the principal federal agencies in Puerto Rico.

Among the demonstrators, was the nationalist ex-prisoner, LOLITA LEBRON, who criticized the conditions imposed on the executive clemency offered recently by the president of the united states, Bill Clinton.

"They are burdensome, they are an insult to the dignity of this people which has an inalienable right to struggle for their liberation", said Lebron, who served 25 years in prison for commanding a nationalist group that attacked with bullets the Congress of the United States in Marcho 1954. Lebron and her four accomplices were granted unconditional clemency in 1979 by then president Jimmy Carter.

She added that the United States does not have "the moral force to accuse any Puerto Rican who struggles for independence of being a terrorist, because the north americans invaded and occupied our country for over one hundred years."

"Because of that, these freedom fighters are political prisoners" she said.

Amongst the banners of the march, one that stood out was that of the Puerto Rican Independentist Party which demanded that Clinton concede an unconditional pardon to the independentist prisoners.

"Clinton: you received total clemency, grant them total clemency also" read a banner that was carried by an excited group of young independentists, who at the same time chanted the slogan: "Freedom, Freedom".

The strongly attended march counted among it's more demonstrative calls a youth on stilts, covered with a blue tunic that symbolized the Statute of Liberty in whose right had waved the Puerto Rican flag and pictures of the 15 independentists.

The democratic congressman from Chicago, of Puerto Rican origen, Luis Gutierrez, from where many the majority of the imprisoned independentists are from, asked president Clinton that he grant them unconditional freedom so that "peace and harmony can come to Puerto Rico", a northa merican territory in the Caribbean since 1898 when it passed to the United States as a result of the Spanish-American War.

"The most important message sent by this march is that we want them back home now, and that there can be no excuses for not letting them free" said the congressman, in the middle of applause.

The Puerto Rican singer and composer, Robi Draco Rosa joined in the activity and supported the call for unconditional freedom. "We are here to support these efforts" said the artists, co-author of songs such as "La Vida Loca", and "La Copa de la Vida", interpreted by the singer, Ricky Martin.

The police did not offer an estimate of the crowd, even though inspector Gilberto Diaz Pagan, said that given the attitudes of the organizers, the attendance met their expectations.

Nieves Falcon, for his part, estimated about 150 thousand participants, while others estimated the attendance at between 20 and 25 thousand.

The president of the Bar of Attorneys of Puerto Rico, Eduardo Villanueva Munoz, said, that today's march "is an important message that is being transmitted that all be freed unconditionally".

P.I.P. Nueva York

La Casa Blanca no sabe si existen
martes, 31 de agosto de 1999
Por Leonor Mulero
El Nuevo Día

WASHINGTON - El Negociado de Prisiones y la Casa Blanca dijeron ayer desconocer la existencia de grabaciones telefónicas en las que presos políticos puertorriqueños hayan dicho que volverán a la lucha violenta de ser excarcelados.

"No tenemos conocimiento alguno de tales grabaciones. Esa información no salió de aquí", dijo Scott Wolfson, portavoz del Negociado de Prisiones, sobre información publicada en Newsweek.

Jeffrey Farrow, copresidente del Grupo de Puerto Rico en la Casa Blanca, señaló que "el Departamento de Justicia no nos informó de ninguna grabación. No tenemos conocimiento de que exista".

Newsweek escribió que el Negociado tiene grabaciones telefónicas en las que algunos de los prisioneros supuestamente dijeron en la cárcel que "tan pronto cuando salgan, regresarán a la violencia". Newsweek, que no identifica a su fuente del orden público, dijo que el Negociado se opuso fuertemente a la clemencia a 16 convictos independentistas, 15 de ellos presos.

Wolfson dijo que el Negociado graba todas las conversaciones telefónicas de todo prisionero. Si hay contenido delictivo, el Negociado las refiere al Departamento de Justicia, añadió.

Informaciones incorrectas

Preguntado si el Negociado encontró contenido delictivo en las conversaciones de los presos boricuas, Wolfson insistió en que no tiene conocimiento de tales grabaciones.

Wolfson comentó que la información publicada en Newsweek no menciona la fecha, la hora ni la persona con quien estarían hablando cada preso cuando se grabó la conversación.

De no existir tales grabaciones, Newsweek no sería la única publicación estadounidense que haya publicado información equivocada o fuera de contexto sobre los presos políticos puertorriqueños. El periódico The Wall Street Journal escribió en un editorial que el presidente Bill Clinton había ofrecido clemencia a Víctor Gerena, supuesto participante en el robo de más de $7 millones a la Wells Fargo. Pero Gerena es prófugo de la justicia.

Cierta o falsa, ese tipo de información pone en mala lupa a la Casa Blanca. Se comenta que en la Casa Blanca hay preocupación creciente por el giro negativo que ha tomado la oferta de clemencia.

La prensa estadounidense ha publicado datos del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) que vinculan a estos presos independentistas con varias muertes y heri dos en atentados de diversos grupos de la organización Fuerzas de Liberación Nacional (FALN). Sólo algunas publicaciones, como The Washington Post, han aclarado que ninguno de estos presos está relacionado con esos muertos y heridos.

El intenso debate sobre la oferta de clemencia ha tomado auge por la lucha entre la primera dama Hillary Rodham Clinton y el alcalde de Nueva York, Rudolph Giuliani, por llevarse el asiento senatorial que deja el demócrata por Nueva York, Daniel P. Moynihan.

Los republicanos acusan a Clinton de buscar los votos para su esposa y amenazan con promover en el Congreso una resolución en contra de la excarcelación. El intenso ataque del FBI a la clemencia a los presos se produce cuando esa agencia esta bajo fuego por nuevas revelaciones sobre su participación en el incidente de Waco, Texas, que en 1993 concluyó con la muerte de 80 miembros del culto davidiano.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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