January 17, 2017 - NHLA Welcomes Presidential Pardon of Oscar Lopez Rivera

NHLA WELCOMES PRESIDENTIAL PARDON OF OSCAR LÓPEZ RIVERA
Puerto Rican activist will be reunited with family after 35 years in prison

WASHINGTON—The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 40 of the nation’s preeminent Latino advocacy organizations, welcomed President Obama’s decision to commute the sentence of Oscar López Rivera so that he will be released from custody in May of this year. Last month, NHLA joined hundreds of organizations and leaders in Puerto Rico, on the mainland United States, and from around the world, in calling on President Obama to release López Rivera.

López Rivera, who is now 74, has been in federal prison for over 35 years, 12 in solitary confinement, for his connections with a militant Puerto Rican independence organization. Prior to his conviction, López Rivera served in the U.S. Armed Forces and was a committed community organizer in Chicago, building coalitions to improve the lives of Latinos in the city. For many years, he has disavowed violence as a means for seeking political change.

“President Obama’s decision to commute Oscar López Rivera’s sentence is an act of grace welcomed by the Latino community and is a testament to a campaign of persistence and unity led by our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters. We thank President Obama for taking this action before leaving office,” said Hector Sanchez, NHLA Chair and Executive Director of the Labor Council For Latin American Advancement.

“Our community is shedding collective tears today at this joyous news. Oscar was serving an unjust and incomprehensible sentence for a non-violent crime. This is a man who fought for his country and didn’t deserve to be incarcerated for so long. We are now able to look at President’s Obama legacy in a different light. For in freeing Oscar López Rivera in such a reconciliatory act, the President freed both the prisoner and the unjust system that kept him behind bars. There is much to fix in our justice system, but today is a day of joy and celebration,” said Juan Cartagena, NHLA Criminal Justice Committee Chair and President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

"It is hard to contain the joy that I as many thousands of Puerto Ricans and others feel at hearing the news of President Obama's commutation of Oscar Lopez Rivera's sentence. The cause of Lopez Rivera's freedom after 35 years in federal prison has united the Puerto Rican people, both in Puerto Rico and the diaspora, more than any other cause in decades. It also garnered broad national and international support from figures such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Bernie Sanders and even Pope Francis. I must admit that there were times that hope seemed to fade. But the perseverance and hard work of thousands of people who worked tirelessly for his release over so many years, was finally rewarded. We are grateful to President Obama for listening to the clamor for Lopez Rivera's release, and we are overjoyed for his family, especially his daughter Clarisa. Oscar Lopez Rivera will finally be free to join them and once again walk the streets of his beloved hometown of San Sebastian," said NHLA Board Member Ronald Blackburn Moreno.

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The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda is composed of 40 of the leading national and regional Latino civil rights and public policy organizations and other elected officials, and prominent Latinos Americans. NHLA coalition members represent the diversity of the Latino community – Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Latino Americans. NHLA’s mission calls for unity among Latinos around the country to provide the Latino community with greater visibility and a clearer, stronger influence in our country’s affairs. NHLA brings together Latino leaders to establish policy priorities that address, and raise public awareness of, the major issues affecting the Latino community and the nation as a whole. For more information, please visit: www.nationalhispanicleadership.org.

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