Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Lopez’ sentence in January 2017. He was sent home then but under the condition that he remain under house arrest.
Expired today, May 17, according to a list of commutations announced by the White House.
Puerto Rico’s independence leader and longest held political prisoner in the U.S. from Latin America will be free.
The United States government announced Tuesday the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been imprisoned in the U.S. for 36 years for his struggle to free Puerto Rico from U.S. colonial rule.
Oscar López Rivera is now a former US held Puerto Rican political prisoner of war.
#FreePuertoRico
FBI Assassinates Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos
EL GRITO DE LARES & FILIBERTO OJEDA RIOS
September 23 has a deep, double meaning for Puerto Ricans.
It is the anniversary of El Grito de Lares, when nearly 1,000 men – many of them slaves – revolted against the Spanish on Sept. 23, 1868.
It is also the anniversary of the death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, who was shot – and forced to bleed to death – by the FBI on Sept. 23, 2005.
~War Against All Puerto Ricans~
Longtime Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios was killed by the FBI.
The shooting occurred Friday after FBI agents surrounded a house where he was staying. According to an autopsy, Rios bleed to death after being hit with a single bullet.
Officials didn’t enter his home many hours after he was shot.
The FBI claimed the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios fired first but independence activists accused the FBI of assassinating him.
For the past four decades Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S. colonial rule.
In 1967 he founded and led the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement.
He was later a key organizer with the FALN, the Armed Forces of National Liberation and then the Boricua Popular Army, also known as the Los Macheteros.
A sharpshooter, located on high ground, maybe in a helicopter, shot him. It was a single bullet through his neck or an area near the face.
He fell, and then for 12 straight hours, the F.B.I. refused to enter or let anyone enter the house waiting for Filiberto Ojeda Rios to bleed to death, which was exactly what the coroner certified the morning after the shooting:
Filiberto Ojeda Rios died of a single wound.
There was active bleeding caused by the projectile.
The bleeding lasted hours.
Filiberto didn’t receive any medical or any other help.
So, once again, it is clear this was a political assassination.
~Puerto Rico remembers Filiberto Ojeda eight years after his death~
(Eleven years, at the time of this writing)
~Published on Sep 23, 2013~
On September 23, 2005, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, was killed in Puerto Rico by US police forces.
Eight years after his death, he is remembered for his career as an insurgent. He founded the Boricua Popular Army also known as the “Macheteros” who fought for a decolonized, dignified and free Puerto Rico.
The US government persecuted him for more than a decade and accused him of being a terrorist.
It Is What It Is 