{"id":973,"date":"2013-11-20T20:35:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T01:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=973"},"modified":"2013-11-20T22:36:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T03:36:02","slug":"free-oscar-lopez-rivera-the-longest-held-political-prisoner-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"Free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera: One of The Longest Held Political Prisoners in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_975\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philvelez.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/oscar_lopez_rivera.jpeg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-975\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-975 \" alt=\"oscar_lopez_rivera\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philvelez.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/oscar_lopez_rivera-300x174.jpeg?resize=300%2C174\" width=\"300\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philvelez.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/oscar_lopez_rivera.jpeg?resize=300%2C174&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philvelez.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/oscar_lopez_rivera.jpeg?w=330&amp;ssl=1 330w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of hispanicallyspeakingnews.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A unity march to free <a title=\"Oscar Lopez Rivera - Wikipedia Page\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oscar_L%C3%B3pez_Rivera\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera<\/a> is scheduled for this Saturday, November 23 in New York City. L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera is a Puerto Rican independence fighter that has been jailed for 32 years. He is said to be &#8220;among the longest held political prisoners in the history of Puerto Rico and in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 1981, L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera was charged with &#8220;seditious conspiracy&#8221; in connection with his involvement in the Armed Forces of National Liberation (or FALN), a Puerto Rican separatist group that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>According to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the sentences received by L\u00f3pez Rivera and the other Nationalists were judged to be &#8220;out of proportion to the nationalists&#8217; offenses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera&#8217;s imprisonment has been <a title=\"Oscar Lopez Rivera - Huffington Post\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/05\/29\/oscar-lopez-rivera-protest-puerto-rico_n_3354462.html\" target=\"_blank\">protested<\/a> this year in Puerto Rico and <a title=\"Rep. Luis Guiterrez - It's Time to Release Oscar Lopez Rivera\" href=\"http:\/\/wnpr.org\/post\/rep-gutierrez-its-time-release-oscar-l-pez-rivera\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez<\/a> recently told WNPR News that it&#8217;s time to release L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera.<\/p>\n<p>This Saturday&#8217;s march begins at 11AM\u00a0 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center in the Lower East Side and will end at the Continental Army Plaza in Brooklyn. The march is being organized by the <a title=\"Community Coalition for the Freedom of Oscar Lopez Rivera. \" href=\"http:\/\/www.iacenter.org\/actions\/rivera110613\/\" target=\"_blank\">Community Coalition for the Freedom of Oscar L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera<\/a>. For more information email virtualboricua(at) gmail.com.<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to share this blog post widely and &#8220;Like&#8221; the <a title=\"Free Oscar Lopez Rivera Now Facebook Page\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/freeoscarlopezriveranow\" target=\"_blank\">Free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera Now<\/a> Facebook Page.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fphilvelez.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D973&amp;layout=standard&amp;&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=dark\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;height:20px;margin-top:5px;\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A unity march to free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera is scheduled for this Saturday, November 23 in New York City. L\u00f3pez\u00a0Rivera is a Puerto Rican independence fighter that has been jailed for 32 years. He is said to be &#8220;among the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=973\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-puerto-rico"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera: One of The Longest Held Political Prisoners in the World - V&eacute;lez&#039;s View<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=973\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera: One of The Longest Held Political Prisoners in the World - V&eacute;lez&#039;s View\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A unity march to free Oscar L\u00f3pez Rivera is scheduled for this Saturday, November 23 in New York City. 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