Oscar Lopez and Jose Velez Acosta

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
http://www.prolibertadweb.com
ProLibertad [at] hotmail.com
Bronx 718-601-4751
Manhattan 212-927-9065
New Jersey 201-435-3244
_______________________________________________________________________________

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is calling on all our allies and supporters
to join us in wishing Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND HAPPY THREE KINGS!!

On January 6th, 2006, Oscar will be turning 63 years old!! We encourage all
freedom-loving people to write to Oscar and let him know that people are
thinking of him.

Oscar Lopez Rivera
#87651-024
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47801

Oscar Lopez Rivera was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico on January 6,
1943. At the age of 12, he moved to Chicago with his family. He was a
well-respected community activist and a prominent independence leader for
many years prior to his arrest. Oscar was one of the founders of the Rafael
Cancel Miranda High School, now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High
School and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center. He was a
community organizer for the Northwest Community Organization (NCO), ASSPA,
ASPIRA and the 1st Congregational Church of Chicago. He helped to found
FREE, (a half-way house for convicted drug addicts) and ALAS (an educational
program for Latino prisoners at Stateville Prison in Illinois).

He was active in various community struggles, mainly in the area of health
care, employment and police brutality. He also participated in the
development of the Committee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists. In
1975, he was forced underground, along with other comrades. He was captured
on May 29, 1981, after 5 years of being persecuted by the FBI as one of the
most feared fugitives from US "justice".

Oscar, who has a daughter named Clarissa, is currently serving a 55-year
sentence for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was convicted of
conspiracy to escape along with Jaime Delgado, (a veteran independence
leader), Dora Garcia, (a prominent community activist) and Kojo
Bomani-Sababu, a New Afrikan political prisoner.

Oscar was one of 12 Puerto Rican political prisoners offered some form of
leniency by the Clinton Administration in the fall of 1999. According to the
Chicago Sun Times, he "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." Oscar is presently in prison in Terre
Haute, Indiana and his release date is 7/27/2027.
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Vieques Political Prisoner Jose Velez Acosta is scheduled to be released on
Jan. 27th, 2006 from prison. We encourage people to write to Jose as well
and to wish him a happy and speedy reintegration back into society.

Jose Velez Acosta #23883-069
Jose Velez Acosta has family in Puerto Rico and the Bronx. He has three
daughters who live with their mother in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was
sentenced to 33 months in jail. He will be released on 1/27/2006.

José A. Vélez Acosta
#23883-069
FCC United States Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, Florida 33521-1033