Puerto Ricans To Be Freed Friday
Independentistas presos saldrán en libertad mañana viernes

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 10 de Septiembre, 1999. No Subject.

Puerto Ricans To Be Freed Friday
By JAMES ANDERSON Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Eleven Puerto Rican nationalists granted a controversial pardon by U.S. President Bill Clinton will be freed Friday, a spokesman for the jailed men and women said.

"This is the beginning of the next phase of the fight," Professor Luis Nieves Falcon told a news conference.

He said that fight would include efforts to bring the prisoners to Puerto Rico.

To date, 14 of the Puerto Ricans have accepted the clemency offer -- 11 who will be freed Friday, one who must still serve five more years, and two who are not in prison but had their fines reduced.

"The 11 will be released tomorrow. The timing is not exactly known," Falcon said. They have been held in several prisons around the mainland United States for some 20 years in connection with a wave of bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Their acceptance Tuesday of the conditions for clemency -- symbolized by signing a renunciation of violence -- capped a stormy three weeks since Clinton made the offer. The offer was met by criticism that the administration projected softness on terrorism and that the decision might even have been aimed at helping would-be senatorial candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's chances among New York voters of Puerto Rican descent.

Eleven of the prisoners are serving sentences ranging from 35 to 90 years in connection with a wave of some 130 bombings from 1974 to 1983. Clinton's administration said the clemency came as a recognition that the sentences were too harsh. The decision angered victims of the explosions, which killed six people and maimed dozens.

The prisoners, most of whom lived in New York City and Chicago, belonged to two groups seeking independence for Puerto Rico, a Spanish-speaking Caribbean island of 3.8 million people that has been ruled by the United States since 1898. Its people are U.S. citizens who serve in the military and receive billions in federal funds -- but they cannot vote for a U.S. president and have only a non-voting delegate in Congress.

The prisoners were neither involved in any killings nor convicted in the bombings. They were convicted of seditious conspiracy and possession of weapons and explosives. But critics note that the bombings stopped after they were captured.

Nieves Falcon said two of the prisoners have said they want to remain with their families in Chicago. He said only one of nine others who want to live in Puerto Rico has received permission to do so. He said he expected the eight would have to return initially to the cities of their arrest -- New York and Chicago.

`We are worried about their security because of the hysteria that this has generated in the United States," he said. "I really believe that they will be safer in Puerto Rico."

In Puerto Rico, they are regarded as national heroes and are expected to come home to a massive welcome, despite the paltry support for their cause of independence on the island.

The campaign to free the prisoners received broad popular support here and a boost last year, when the island marked 100 years as a U.S. territory. AP-NY-09-10-99 0004EDT.

11 de los independentistas presos saldrán en libertad mañana viernes
Jueves, 9 de septiembre de 1999,
Por Ismael Torres

SAN JUAN (AP) - Once de los 12 independentistas presos que aceptaron la oferta de clemencia ejecutiva del presidente Bill Clinton saldrán este viernes, de sus respectivas prisiones, anunció este jueves noche el portavoz del Comité Pro Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico, Luis Nieves Falcón. De los nueve que habían solicitado venir a residir a Puerto Rico, sólo uno, Adolfo Matos, podrá hacerlo, mientras que los ocho restantes tendrán que retornar a las ciudades donde fueron arrestados originalmente, Chicago y Nueva York, dijo.

Los otros dos presos viajarán a Chicago, donde tienen su residencia. Nieves Falcón dijo que la salida de los reos fue acordada este jueves en una reunión con el Buró de Prisiones.

"Ahora a prepararnos para recibirlos", dijo el también profesor universitario en una conferencia de prensa.

Dijo que Adolfo Matos, el único autorizado hasta ahora para venir a Puerto Rico, podría estar llegando a San Juan el sábado o domingo.

Los puertorriqueños, que fueron encarcelados por cargos de sedición y violaciones a las leyes de armas, son miembros de grupos guerrilleros pro independencia que ejecutaron una ola de atentados con explosivos en Estados Unidos en los años 70 y 80.

La oferta presidencial, hecha hace casi un mes, tiene como condición que cada independentista preso declare que no practicará la violencia si sale en libertad.

Clinton fue criticado por líderes del opositor Partido Republicano y ciertos funcionarios del sistema judicial y agencias policiacas, quienes afirman que su oferta fue hecha para ayudar a su esposa, Hillary Clinton, a ganar votos entre el 1.300.000 puertorriqueños que viven en Nueva York.

El Congreso estadounidense condenó este jueves por abrumadora mayoría la oferta de clemencia del presidente Clinton.

Los congresistas aprobaron por votación de 311-41 una resolución de censura contra la decisión presidencial.

La mayoría de los 16 puertorriqueños a quienes se ofreció la clemencia son miembros del grupo Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, FALN, que ejecutó más de 130 atentados con explosivos en Estados Unidos durante los años 70 y 80.

Sólo uno, Oscar López, no aceptó la oferta de Clinton, que hubiera reducido su sentencia carcelaria de 25 a diez años. Entretanto, Juan Segarra Palmer podrá salir libre dentro de cinco años.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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