Puerto Rico’s inalienable right to self-determination and independence reiterated in the UN

The UN Special Committee on Decolonization reiterated Monday, June 18, Puerto Rico’s inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 1514, on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples.

Puerto Rico: Obama continues to ignore pleas to free political prisoner Oscar López Rivera

San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 29, 2016

BY MATT PEPPE

Two and a half months ago, asked by award-winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda about imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar López Rivera – whose only crime, according to Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is “conspiracy to free his people from the shackles of imperial justice,” President Barack Obama told the [Broadway musical] Hamilton creator that he “had [the case] on his desk.”

35 years of unjust imprisonment: Free Puerto Rican patriot Oscar López Rivera from US jails

May 29, 2016 marked the 35th year of the unjust imprisonment of Puerto Rican freedom fighter Oscar López Rivera in U.S. jails. López Rivera was sentenced to 55 years in prison by the U.S. colonial power for his just and principled stands to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the Puerto Rican people and spent 12 years in solitary confinement for his political stand. Today, freedom and justice-minded people across the Americas and all Puerto Rican patriots are uniting to step up the work for Oscar López Rivera’s liberation. On the eve of the 35th anniversary of López Rivera’s imprisonment all-sided efforts were underway to demand his immediate release.

UN: Demand for self-determination of Puerto Rico

The United Nations once again became the scene of a resounding demand for Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination, during a Special Committee on Decolonization session | PRENSA LATINA

We dot the I’s: Obama, CNN and political prisoners

By TONY SEED (Published March 21, slightly revised by the author on March 26) 

According to CNN, Cuban president Raul Castro “refused to answer the question,” when US president Barack Obama called on Jim Acosta, the Senior White House Correspondent for CNN, a Cuban-American, to ask the first question in a joint press conference with President Raúl Castro at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana on March 21. (After the presentations by the two heads of state in the joint press conference, the floor was opened to questions from the large number of international and Cuban journalists.) Acosta cynically asked if Cuba would release political prisoners.

President Castro immediately replied:

“Give me the list of political prisoners and I will release them immediately. Just mention a list. What political prisoners? Give me a name or names. After this meeting is over, you can give me a list of political prisoners. And if we have those political prisoners, they will be released before tonight ends.”