Obama Commutes Sentence Of Oscar Lopez Rivera, Puerto Rican Nationalist Tied To Terror Attacks
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jan 18, 2017 3:50PM
President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican nationalist who has served 35 years in prison over his connections to the FALN, a Puerto Rican paramilitary group responsible for scores of bombings and violent attacks in the U.S. in the '70s and '80s.
Lopez Rivera was serving a 70-year sentence on charges of plotting to overthrow the U.S. government, among other charges, due to his ties to the FALN, after being sentenced in 1981. He is now due to be released from prison this May.
The FALN was responsible for over a hundred high-profile bombings and attacks around the country, particularly the bombing at New York City's Fraunces Tavern in 1975 that killed four, a bombing at the location of the now PrivateBank Theatre in Chicago, and separate bombings on several New York City government buildings in 1982. Lopez Rivera was not found in court to be responsible for the Frances Tavern bombing but was held responsible for other crimes, including interstate transportation of firearms and explosives.
Throughout the FALN's seven-year bombing spree, the deadliest of any group's in the radical underground of the 1970s, public opinion polls showed that a majority of Puerto Ricans opposed independence from the U.S.
President Bill Clinton originally offered clemency to Lopez Rivera and other jailed FALN members in 1999, on the condition that he renounces the group's actions. Lopez Rivera did not accept the clemency offer, though a dozen other FALN members did, because the offer was not extended to all FALN members. But now Lopez Rivera, 74, is the only FALN member still in prison.
The People's Law Office celebrated the news in a statement Tuesday:
"Heeding the will of the Puerto Rican people, who spoke from the Island and the diaspora in one, united voice; Pope Francis; Jimmy Carter; Nobel Peace Prize Laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu; the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU; the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda; René Pérez, Lin Manuel Miranda; much of Latin America; and millions of other voices, the president has granted an unconditional commutation which will result in Mr. López Rivera’s release no later than 120 days from now, or May 17," the statement says. "Oscar is grateful for all the love and solidarity - in Puerto Rico, in the United States, and throughout the world - that made this happen."
Family of the victims of the Fraunces Tavern bombing denounced Clinton's clemency offer and opposed the idea of Obama commuting Lopez Rivera's sentence in 2016.
"Lopez Rivera has never admitted to or accepted responsibility for his terrorist activities nor expressed any remorse for the harm they caused," they wrote in a joint letter to Obama in November. "Many of the claims of those pressing for Lopez Rivera’s release are blatantly false. Oscar López Rivera is not a political prisoner or a freedom fighter, he is not innocent of the commission of violent acts, and he is not guilty merely by association."
Chicago's Puerto Rican community celebrated the news Tuesday evening in Humboldt Park and elsewhere.
At an unplanned celebration in a neighborhood community theater, a crowd of Chicagoans chanted "Obama finally listened and let Oscar out of prison," and "Que bonita bandera," which means "what a beautiful flag" in Spanish, the Tribune reports. Former FALN members and two of Lopez Rivera's siblings were in attendance.
On Twitter, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda celebrated the news and said he would perform in a show in Chicago for Lopez Rivera.