On Tuesday, President Obama also commuted the sentence of longtime Puerto
Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, who has been imprisoned for
about 35 years, much of the time in solitary confinement. In 1981, López Rivera
was convicted on federal charges including seditious conspiracy—conspiring to
oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico by force. In 1999, President Bill Clinton
commuted the sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but López Rivera refused to
accept the deal because it did not include two fellow activists, who have since
been released. Under Obama’s commutation order, López Rivera will be released on
May 17. Oscar’s brother José López Rivera joins us from Chicago, as well as
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González.
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