12 Puerto Rican Political Prisoners Accept Clemency Offer

Meet the compañeros/as at the gates to welcome them home to their community. Contact your local support committee to find out how to show support and celebrate this historic moment in your area.

Twelve Puerto Rican political prisoners signed the documents required by the White House for its offer of conditional clemency; eleven of them were be released (see update), while one, Juan Segarra Palmer, will serve another five years and have his fine dropped. The eleven are Alicia and Ida Luz Rodríguez, Elizam Escobar, Ricardo Jiménez, Adolfo Matos, Dylcia Pagán, Luis Rosa, Carmen Valentín, Alberto Rodríguez, Alejandrina Torres, and Edwin Cortés.

Oscar López Rivera declined the White House offer to reduce his sentence from 70 to 60 years. Antonio Camacho Negrón refused the offer to commute his fine of $100,000; his release date is 2002.

The signing came 20 years to the day after President Jimmy Carter gave amnesty to an earlier generation of Puerto Rican political prisoners -- Lolita Lebrón, Irving Flores, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Oscar Collazo.

For more information (in Spanish), see El Nuevo Día Interactivo.

Excerpts from Chicago Sun Times story, "Terrorists Accept Clemency"
September 8, 1999
By Lynn Sweet, Staff Reporter

The 11 FALN prisoners eligible for immediate release accepted President Clinton's conditional offer of clemency on Tuesday, with one more inmate agreeing to the same terms to be released in five years. The impending release of the Puerto Rican nationalists marks "an unprecendented historic moment," said lawyer Jan Susler, who represents 15 FALN inmates, including two who turned down Clinton's offer and another who was not granted any leniency. ... Susler said the same campaign that pushed for the release of the FALN prisoners -- a coalition of political, legal, civil rights and religious groups -- will continue to press for a deal to free those left behind. ... Eight of the 11 to be immediately released -- the exact date is to be determined by the Bureau of Prisons -- originally were from Chicago. The lawyers and family members said they expected only two to return to Chicago to live, Alejandrina Torres and Alberto Rodriguez.

If Alberto Rodriguez gets out of prison before the weekend, "his immediate plan was to take in his son's football game," said his brother, Pedro. Rodriguez has been incarcerated since 1983, shortly after the birth of his son, Ricardo, now a junior at Lane Technical High School who plays varsity football, said Pedro Rodriguez.

"I am happy, very happy that they are coming home," said Josefina Rodriguez, the mother of sisters Ida Luz and Alicia Rodriguez, who have been serving their time in the same California prison. "I am sad because their companeras [friends] are being left behind."

Ida Luz Rodriguez, who is serving a 75-year sentence, defended her past actions in a prison interview Tuesday with a San Francisco television station. She said members of the group considered themselves patriots, not terrorists.

"I guess if George Washington would have lost to the English, history would have treated him as a terrorist," she said.

Oscar Lopez declined the president's offer, which still would have him left with 10 years to serve on conspiracy to escape charges. Now he faces at least 20 more years in prison. His sister, Zenaida Lopez, said he turned the offer down because he would be on parole. "Accepting what they are offering him is like prison outside of prison," she said. Zenaida Lopez said her brother "was in total agreement" with the decision of the 11 others to take the conditional clemency.

Antonio Camacho Negron also refused to sign the agreement because he had only a few years left to serve on his sentence, Susler said. Juan Enrique Segara-Palmer will be released in five years, with portions of his 20-year sentence left intact. No leniency was granted to Carlos Torres, whom prosecutors described as the leader of FALN.

The prisoners and their supporters hesitated to accept the deal because they were granted parole, which restricts their activities and puts them under the supervision of a parole officer, instead of the commutation they had sought. The 12 inmates each signed a one-page, five-paragraph document sent to the White House on Tuesday in which they requested clemency. They renounced the "use, threatened use or advocacy of the use" of violence for any purpose, including concerning the status of Puerto Rico; acknowledged they could not posses a weapon or "destructive device," and said they would abide by the conditions imposed by the Parole Commission.

Susler and Deutsch said the prisoners feared harassment from law enforcement agencies that objected to the release. Deutsch said lawyer groups in the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico will monitor law enforcement efforts. ...

For the full Sun Times story, go to www.suntimes.com/output/news/faln08.html (in new window)

Back to index page. Last updated 11 September 1999.