Tlahui-Politic. No. 7, I/1999


Advocates for the political prisoners
Monday, March 29, 1999
By Julio Ghigliotty
Of El Nuevo Día

Información enviada al Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico a 29 de Marzo, 1999.

The mayor of San Juan, Sila María Calderón, yesterday asked president Bill Clinton to release the 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners "as a humanitarian act to advance the cause of peace and reconciliation among the Puerto Rican people."

Calderón made the request in a letter sent to the President of the United States, in which she seeks the commutation of the sentences of these Puerto Ricans who have served no less than 14 years in federal prisons for crimes committed as part of their struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico.

"None have prior offenses. None were convicted of activities that caused bodily harm. Their behavior in prison has been described as 'exemplary'," wrote Calderón, according to a release from the Press Office of the city of San Juan.

"It is my belief that both their sentences and the time they have served, have been enough punishment for their crimes. While I do not agree with their ideas or with the means they have employed, I believe these people were not motivated by a desire for revenge or personal gain, but by their political beliefs," said the Mayor.

Calderón thus joins other Puerto Rican political leaders of every ideology, in Puerto Rico as well as in the United States, seeking the release of the political prisoners. Among those are the president of the House of Representatives, Edison Misla Aldarondo, who is among the leadership of the Republican Party in Puerto Rico.

The resident commissioner Carlos Romero Barceló, however, opposes their release, and governor Pedro Rosselló has maintained neutrality on the issue. The movement to free the 15 prisoners got a boost last year when it was announced that the White House would be evaluating a statement of amnesty for them.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of the Human Rights Committee in Puerto Rico, professor Luis Nieves Falcón, announced that the group will celebrate an ecumenical service for the freedom of the political prisoners Sunday, April 4, the date which marks the 19th year in prison for the majority of the 15 prisoners.

The ecumenical service will be celebrated in the University Methodist Church on Ponce de León Avenue in Río Piedras. Nieves Falcón said in a press release that religious leaders from a diversity of religious institutions have already confirmed their participation, including the Catholic Church, the United Evangelical Church, the Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Church, the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Conference of Religious Men of Puerto Rico, which includes, among other orders, the Fransiscans, the Jesuits, the Capuchins, and the Dominicans.

The prisoners are Luis Rosa, Carlos Alberto Torres, Ida Luz Rodríguez, Carmen Valentín, Alejandrina Torres, Antonio Camacho Negrón, Alicia Rodríguez, Oscar López Rivera, Alberto Rodríguez, Ricardo Jiménez, Adolfo Matos, Juan Segarra, Elizam Escobar, Dylcia Pagán and Edwin Cortés.

From: National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners prpowpp@aol.com
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