Americans as diverse as President Obama, and now our President-elect Trump, are joined by both progressive and conservative journalists in demanding with a sense of superior morality that other countries release their political prisoners. In fact, with the death of “El Commandante,” Fidel Castro, we hear Trump and many Cuban citizens call on Raul Castro to release all political prisoners if they want to maintain diplomatic relations with our country.
I ask myself, “How is it that we cannot see the hypocrisy in our calls for “moral” action in the face of our own moral turpitude?” We hold some of the longest held political prisoners in the world! There are many, but for the purpose of this blog, I will focus my attention on Puerto Rican Political Prisoner, Oscar Lopez Rivera. Mr. Lopez Rivera has been held in prison for over 34 years. That is at least seven years longer than the beloved Nelson Mandela! Oscar Lopez Rivera has been imprisoned for close to 35 years under the charges of “seditious conspiracy” – a purposely vague and long prison sentence charge imposed on an individual when there is no clear reason to do so. Mr. Lopez-Rivera’s “crime” is that he wanted sovereignty for his homeland, Puerto Rico. In other words, he believes in a Democratic system. His real crime is that his views are not congruent with that of U.S. policy. If there is not concrete evidence available to prosecute an individual in our justice system, our hypocrisy as a country is revealed!
We call for the sovereignty of the Ukraine from the menace of Russia, and like many countries we attempted to “liberate,” the United States launched a multi-billion-dollar war to liberate Kuwait from Iraq in 1990-91, with over 100,000 casualties. Indeed, literally in the name of “spreading Democracy,” Operation Iraqi Freedom, a pre-emptive war which followed between 2003-2010, cost the United States over 4,000 American casualties and killed and misplaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens while costing the U.S. up to 6 TRILLION dollars. Meanwhile, we hold perhaps the longest held colonies in the world! For example, Puerto Rico has been a U.S. colony for the last 118 years! It is possible that most Americans don’t even know that the U.S. STILL holds colonial territories! I suspect that most Americans don’t know that we actually hold political prisoners. Oscar Lopez Rivera was never charged with any violent crime, yet we continue to imprison him. As the United States Government has clearly demonstrated repeatedly, the right of self-determination for all countries is dear to the heart of the U.S.
The burning question therefore remains: why then, does a country with the most fervent desire than any other country on Earth to spread Democracy and Democratic principles, even at the cost of our economy and countless casualties, do we deny this right to Puerto Ricans? We ask that president Obama consider this question and act before he leaves office. President Obama, who values our history and our principles and is a beloved voice of diplomacy the world over, please look to your own country and see clearly why the incredible Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed upon you. Mr. President, release Oscar Lopez Rivera – the great Puerto Rican patriot from prison! If you would like to join the campaign please click on: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/…/president-obama-free-osc…