IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT



JUNIOR ABRAMS, MASTER OF CEREMONY:

The Puerto Rico Bar Association is honored to have him as one of its orators this morning.

In 1974 United States President Gerald Ford appointed him to the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

In 1984 he was appointed appellate judge for the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals, making him the first Latino to hold that position.

From 1994 until 2001 he served as chief judge of the Court of Appeals.

He has been a member of the Puerto Rico Bar Association since he began his career as an attorney in 1958.

I present to you our first speaker this morning, the Honorable Judge Juan R. Torruella Del Valle.

(Extended applause) 1:05

THE HONORABLE JUDGE JUAN R. TORRUELLA:

Thank you very much for such a warm introduction; and good morning to everyone.

Before I begin, I would like to express my most sincere appreciation for inviting me to be with you today and for allowing me the opportunity to address you this morning about subjects that I hope will be of some interest to you.

I particularly want to express my gratitude to our president, Attorney Anthony Bimbela and his companions; and especially to the Bar Association for their courtesy and the hospitality they have shown my wife and me today.

Being here today is an experience with airs of déjà vu coming at the end of my almost 60 years of having been admitted to the practice of law in Puerto Rico and of my continuous membership in this Institution.

It is--

(Applause) 2:45

It is a great pleasure for me to find myself among so many old friends and colleagues. Before getting started, however, I must give two warnings: First, it is worth clarifying that my expressions today constitute exclusively my private opinion, and I reserve the right to change it at any time I am--

(Laughter) 3:28

-- I am convinced otherwise.

I should also emphasize that nothing I say today reflects a fully formed opinion regarding the legality or constitutionality of the recent PROMESA legislation.

I am not raising those issues here, nor is this the appropriate forum for me to discuss or opine about the legal validity that said legislation may have.

Of course, this does not mean I do not have personal preferences or annoyances regarding it and that I cannot express them publicly.

But with regard to my official actions, the personal has to be set aside, and you can be certain that I will do so if the time comes.

Secondly, due to the time limitations and limitations of your patience, today I will speak only in broad terms about the two topics that I’m going to be addressing.

So I apologize beforehand for any gaps that may exist in my exposition.

I intend to talk about two matters today: The first has to do with Puerto Rico and the crossroads in which we find ourselves. This condition itself has two sides: one is of a constitutional juridical nature; and the other one is of an economic nature. But both have one single root, and they are clearly intertwined by the colonial condition of Puerto Rico--

-- with the United States.

Although it has been a while since I, like other Puerto Ricans, have been voicing my point of view to the effect that Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States-- and it could be validly argued that for me to repeat that opinion here is unnecessarily redundant-- given the recent events that affect the country, I want to establish without a doubt not only the existence of said condition, but also briefly establish the grounds that lead me to that conclusion; and more so to the topic of Puerto Rico’s current critical situation, I want to set forth what I believe are the factors which establish a casuistic relationship between the colonial condition and our economic crisis.

I will start with the definition of what a colony is; and to do that, I will quote the UNESCO Social Sciences Dictionary, which sets forth that a colony is-- and I want to use the exact language, which is in English-- “A territory subordinate in various ways, political, cultural, and economic, to a more developed country in which supreme legislative power and much of the administration rests with the controlling country, which is usually of a different ethnic group from the colony.”

In my opinion, the importance of that definition requires that I repeat it translated into Spanish by me: and it is that a colony is a territory subordinate in various ways, political, cultural, and economically, to a more developed one in which supreme legislative power and much of the administration rests with the controlling country, which is usually a different ethnic group than that of the colony.

If that definition does not describe the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States to a “T,” please tell me where I am mistaken.

(Applause) 8:44

But let us not rely upon a mere dictionary definition.

If there still exists any doubt regarding the plenary, omnipotent and colonial power that the United States Congress has and exercises over Puerto Rico as a result of the interpretation the United States Supreme Court has given to the territorial clause of the Constitution and of the nefarious Insular Cases which it decided, this doubt was put to rest for a long time to come by said Court when it decided the Sánchez Valle and Franklin cases.

And more so, the sequel to this, which is the act by Congress of approving the so called PROMESA Act-- a name which makes me ask myself every time I hear it: Promise of what, to whom?-- when it--

(Applause) 10:08

-- when said statute imposes a seven-person “Junta” politically chosen by Congress and President Obama with omnipotent powers over the government democratically elected by the People of Puerto Rico to decide, approve and/or disapprove everything that is normally up to the government of Puerto Rico, including its executive branch, legislative branch, and probably the judicial branch as well; and the cost of which is imposed upon the People of Puerto Rico, regardless of the condition of penury that that institution is supposedly coming to correct.

(Applause) 10:58

I ask myself the question again: If PROMESA does not confirm the existence of our colonial relationship with the United States, tell me where my mistake lies.

In truth, this Act makes holding elections in November superfluous.

(Applause) 11:29

Even more than superfluous, it makes them irrelevant.

A reading of that legislation clearly shows that the main purpose of PROMESA is to establish a collection agency to collect the monies that are owed to the bondholders.

(Applause) 12:02

So the best thing would be to cancel the election and not try to govern the country with a castrated government.

With the money that would be saved, the debt would be paid for more quickly. (Applause) 12:39

And we would get rid of these impositions of that by the Congress.

Irrespective of the of the composition of the “Junta” and the good-faith, talent and expertise of its members, or that some of them may be locals, the imposition of that “Junta” over Puerto Ricans with the powers that are granted to it by PROMESA represents the most denigrating, disrespectful anti-democratic and colonial act that has ever been seen--

(Applause) 13:17

-- that has ever been seen in the course of our entire relationship with the United States.

And it brings to mind what empires did with their colonies in the 19th century and before.

The use of the term “Junta” is particularly unfortunate because it brings to mind the coup d’états typical of the banana republics, many of which were promoted by interests similar to the ones that are behind the closed-door maneuverings in Congress-- which resulted in PROMESA-- and all of which is a description not far from what PROMESA does with its “Junta”: To stage a coup d’état on democracy in Puerto Rico.

(Applause) 14:27

To me, the most useless thing about PROMESA above and beyond everything I’ve already said is that it solves nothing; it doesn’t even have the authority to deal with Puerto Rico’s fundamental problem, which is our colonial condition.

That problem--

(Applause) 14:59

That problem is not dealt with; but rather, what PROMESA does is-- it perpetuates it and it turns out to be only a new way of more directly and grossly administrating the colony.

(Applause) 15:17

Regardless of what our individual ideological leanings may be, how is it possible that we can docilely and submissively accept to be treated this way?

(Applause) 15:38

Apparently, we have fewer rights than we did at the end of the Spanish colonial era, when at least for a brief period of time we had representation in their parliament and an autonomous government which was in existence when General Miles disembarked in Guánica.

The colonial structure which has existed in Puerto Rico since 1898, for 118 years, and the cause for the economic disaster we currently suffer is the result not only of the period in which American imperialism reached its apex following the so-called Manifest Destiny doctrine, but it also coincides with the prevailing racism in the United States, even after the United States Civil War, and which still flourished post Spanish-American war.

Apropos of this last comment, I would like to quote historian Rubin Francis Weston in her book Racism in US Imperialism-- and I’ll have to quote in English because won’t come out right otherwise-- “Those who advocated overseas expansion faced this dilemma: What kind of relationship would the new people have to the body politic? Was it to be the relationship of the Reconstruction period, an attempt at political equality for dissimilar races? Or was it to be the Southern counterrevolutionary point of view which denied the basic American constitutional rights to people of color? The actions of the federal government during the Imperial period and the relegation of the Negro to the status of second-class citizenship indicate that the Southern point of view would prevail. The racism which caused the relegation of the Negro to a status of inferiority was to be applied to the overseas possessions of the United States.”

The so-called Insular Cases decided in 1901 by the United States Supreme Court validated the imperialist and racist philosophy of the time, establishing a new theory contrary to constitutional law in effect at the time by creating in the Harvard and Yale law reviews a concocted status for the territories acquired from Spain, the lands and inhabitants of which the Constitution of the United States would not apply, except as determined by Congress; and whose inhabitants would not be granted US citizenship automatically as in the past, but rather the status of nationals.

These territorial conquests would be denominated under the new term of unincorporated territories, title which de facto and de jure established a colonial condition with a disguised name.

As I stated earlier, this judicial juggling act was not only an invention whose goal was to constitutionally authenticate the imperialist agenda of the political administration in Washington at the time, but it also went against the constitutional law then in effect.

I am specifically referring to two cases: the first one was Loughborough v. Blake, which was decided in 1820 by then Chief Justice Marshall, whose facts raised exactly the same situation as the main case of the Insular Cases, Downes v. Bidwell, in which the issue to be decided was whether the United States Constitution followed the flag-- in other words, whether it applied in all places.

In that case, which also had to do with another territory, Washington DC, it was decided overwhelmingly that the Constitution did follow, that the Constitution did apply to the United States, that the term “United States” included its territories.

Thirty-six years later, in the Dred Scott case-- a case which has very bad reputation for other reasons-- the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Constitution applied to its territories-- in that case it was the Missouri territory, and the issue there was the issue of slavery-- and again, it was decided overwhelmingly that what had been decided in Loughborough was the applicable law.

There is particular language in that opinion which is very important, and I will read it to you, because it has to do with the power that Congress has under the Territorial Clause, which is the basis under which Congress acts with regard Puerto Rico and establishes PROMESA.

The Supreme Court states in Sanford: “There is certainly no power given by the Constitution to the Federal Government to establish or maintain colonies bordering on the United States or at a distance, to be ruled and governed at its own pleasure, nor to enlarge its territorial limits in any way except by the admission of new states. No power is given to acquired territory to be held and governed in a permanent colonial character.”

The Supreme Court goes on to say something that is very important, because it specifically interprets what the Territorial Clause’s power is: “That provision”-- in other words, the Territorial Clause-- “was to be confined to the territory which at the time of its independence from Great Britain belonged to or was claimed by the United States, and can have no influence upon a territory afterwards acquired from a foreign territory.”

The territory they were talking about was the area called the Old Northwest Territory, which covered Ohio, Indiana, et cetera, which was territory that was in dispute when the United States independence came about, because the British, particularly those from Canada, claimed that area.

And that was in dispute, and when the peace treaty was signed, the British transferred that territory to the United States. And it was only to that that the Territorial Clause applied.

In other words, the alleged basis for the constitutional power over Puerto Rico, the so-called Territorial Clause, is a false basis, because it existed in the Constitution only to deal with the territories that existed in 1791.

But the Insular Cases which were decided 5 to 4-- excuse me-- I think they put a bit of gin in this--

Laughter (24:27)

-- the Insular Cases were decided 5 to 4, and the opinion is plurality-- in other words, there is no majority opinion as such; the most forceful opinions are the dissenting opinions.

But the Supreme Court simply ignored the Loughborough and Dred Scott cases--

they said that what the Supreme Court had said in those cases was dicta-- and authorized the colonial system that exists in Puerto Rico until the present day, which I have referred to as and consider to be a regime of political apartheid-- in spite of the granting of citizenship under the Jones Act of 1917 or the so-called autonomy authorized under Law 600, which is subject to and emanates from the powers that Congress retains; a conclusion that has just been reaffirmed by the United States Supreme Court in the recent case of Sánchez Valle.

In retrospect, what the Supreme Court did in the Insular Cases was totally predictable, because you have to keep in mind that the composition of the Supreme Court that decided those cases was almost identical to that which decided the Plessy v. Ferguson case-- which, as you know, officially institutionalized racial discrimination in the United States and which remained until 1954, when the Supreme Court revoked Plessy in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

It’s a shame they didn’t take the opportunity to revoke the Insular Cases; but in spite of fact that there been rumors once in a while in certain decisions, for some reason, the Supreme Court does not want to touch that issue.

In my opinion, the Insular Cases are not only incorrectly decided constitutionally, but given the official position and their inaction in not correcting our colonial condition, the United States is in clear violation of several international treaties it has signed-- treaties which have been ratified by the Senate and as a consequence of which, according to the United States’ own Constitution and its Supremacy Clause, once a treaty has been ratified by the Senate, it becomes municipal law; in other words, it becomes the same as if it had been passed by Congress, as you very well know.

And those treaties-- I am referring specifically to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by the United States in 1992, jointly with 172 other nations-- and that treaty requires that the United States take the necessary steps under its political and constitutional system to ensure equality of political and civil rights for all its citizens.

The United States not only has not taken any steps to comply with this international obligation-- which is at the same time municipal law-- but its government has tenaciously opposed to its application in the courts; and unfortunately, the courts have upheld the United States government’s position.

Setting aside for the moment the constitutional stance that the Supreme Court has taken, which confirms the colonial relationship and which recently culminated with the Sanchez Valle case, Franklin and PROMESA, and going to Puerto Rico’s economic situation and its causes, we find that simultaneously with the decision in the Insular Cases, the economic exploitation of the new colonies begins by the same interests which had promulgated the Spanish-American war, which culminated with the invasion of Puerto Rico.

While under Spanish colonialism 90% of agriculture in Puerto Rico involved small farms which averaged 4.86 acres, worked on by their own owners and whose main product was coffee,

this changed abruptly, and by 1900 Puerto Rico had become a large sugar plantation, and its most fertile lands had passed into the hands of megabusinesses in Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York which achieved control over the vast majority of the fertile productive lands in Puerto Rico’s coastal lands and valleys.

These businesses produced dividends as high as 115% of the investment, and between 1923 to 1930 the four largest businesses paid dividends which were the equivalent of over $1 billion in today’s dollars.

Of course, these fortunes left Puerto Rico never to come back, which has been the pattern we have seen throughout all of Puerto Rico’s economic history until the present. An island which has produced and continue with the potential to produce a great deal of wealth, but which does not benefit the island and its inhabitants in proportion to what it represents for the absentee capitalists who exploit it.

Applause (31:42)

And this is one of the primary evils which have led us to where we are today. While US mega sugar companies gathered their great harvests, 80% of Puerto Rico’s rural population became landless and homeless tenant farmers totally dependent on their employers and receiving starvation wages.

Until 1915, they made 60 cents a day, it was a great event when it went up to one dollar a day that year.

Of course, this was during the harvest period, half of the year they were jobless.

In 1933, the per capita income was $122.

The rural countryside emptied as people moved to the cities in search of work and assistance, and as a result, the large slums like El Fanguito and Cantera rose in the face of the insular government’s inability to be able to deal with them appropriately with their scarce resources.

By 1910, almost the entirety of Puerto Rico’s trade was with United States, something which has not changed to this day, and which is typical of a colonial relationship.

As if this were not enough, in 1920 the United States Congress approved the Jones Act for maritime transport forcing the use of US flagships for transportation of all merchandise between Puerto Rico and the United States, which makes all products consumed or used in Puerto Rico more expensive, including food and clothing medicine, as well as placing products produced in Puerto Rico at a disadvantage.

It is estimated that from 1920 until the present the Jones Act has cost Puerto Rico $75.8 billion; more than the public debt which demanded from Puerto Rico at present.

Applause (34:10)

As a result of that legislation, Puerto Rico, with only 1% of the United States population, subsidizes 27.7% of the total cost of United States merchant marine transportation.

Meanwhile, we are the United States’ fourth largest market in the world.

But even more importantly, as a result of being a captive market, we are per capita largest market for the United States.

And let’s talk briefly about the 936 corporations which from Operation Bootstrap became Operation Booby-trap--

Laughter and Applause (35:12)

-- and the reason for that is that a large number of the 936 companies began manipulating their accounting in such a way that they attributed to their tax-exempt operation in Puerto Rico a large share of their worldwide profits.

In this way, Puerto Rico became the largest profit center in the world for these 936 corporations, which were almost completely exempt from taxes, not just local taxes but federal taxes as well.

In 1900 alone, excuse me, 1995, the net profits of these corporations totaled over $14 billion.

These manipulations, which were legal but not very ethical, and certainly ended up being counterproductive, cost the federal government up to $3 billion in uncollected taxes during several of the years in which Section 936 was in effect.

As a result of the abuse of a program which had been designed to create jobs in Puerto Rico, Congress put a stop to it and killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, thus ending the little industrial progress which Puerto Rico was able to accumulate without in any way substituting the opportunity recover that progress, and thus worsening Puerto Rico’s basic economic situation even more with the establishment of NAFTA and other similar treaties.

Another situation that has been approved by the Supreme Court which shows our colonial situation is the inequality it has authorized compared to the rest of the United States in regard to social programs.

The discrimination with regard to these programs is particularly unfortunate when you take into considering that it directly affects the citizens needing the most aid, which are the children, the elderly and the disabled.

What logical or moral reason could justify this patently discriminatory treatment?

If you read one of the cases that I was involved in the District Court that reached the Supreme Court and in which is the Supreme Court revoked me, you will see what the majority of the Supreme Court says as to why we cannot be equal to the rest of the United States in these amounts.

One of the reasons they give, unbelievably, is that that would give us too much money it would ruin our economy.

Laughter (38:25)

I’ve never been good in economics; so maybe that’s why I don’t understand that logic.

In response to the half truth that we don’t pay federal taxes and therefore that justifies that we do not receive equal treatment, I will confess the following-- or rather, I should say I answer the following: Until recently, the federal government held up to 14% of our best and most attractive lands to establish military bases-- which is especially crucial for an economy like the Island’s, with scarce geographical resources-- but even more importantly than the monetary contribution or the use of our lands is the service that Puerto Ricans have given to the United States Armed Forces in all armed conflicts since World War I.

The blood tax paid by Puerto Rico has received scarce recognition by the United States, which is particularly bothersome, considering that as second-class citizens we lack the political rights that would allow us to participate in the decisions which involve us in those wars.

In fact, in the Korean War, Puerto Rico was the second highest jurisdiction in the United States per capita in terms of casualties, and it was in that war that the 65th Infantry Regiment, composed almost entirely by Puerto Ricans which covered the Marine retreat from the Yalu River to the coast.

It was our soldiers of the 65th Infantry who were the last to be evacuated, fighting the Chinese until the Marines could leave safely.

But it was not until just a few months ago-- in June, if I’m not mistaken-- sixty-some years after the fact that the Congress finally recognized this heroic feat; the same Congress which turned around a short time later and stabbed us with PROMESA.

I will conclude this part of my presentation with an exhortation to all Puerto Ricans, because I am concerned with the discouragement that I perceive in the country, which is manifested not only in those of us who remain here, but clearly in the alarming number of those who have abandoned the Island in search fortune.

I’m not passing judgment on these decisions, which are basically very personal; but I cannot remain silent in the face of the pessimism they show, and which I observe is afflicting and paralyzing the Island.

In his masterpiece Harvest of Empire, by Puerto Rican historian Juan González, he states that too many Puerto Ricans succumb to a negative mentality with regards to what we can do collectively and individually.

González argues that this is a reflection of our colonial status, which provokes a collective sense of inferiority.

He asks whether that condition is not a strategy promoted by elements foreign to our Island, because how else could the possession and ruling of a colony be justified for so long if it weren’t by cultivating the image that Puerto Ricans are a group of heartless incompetents who cannot fend for themselves and who must be supervised as if we were a bunch of children.

Applause (43:32)

I need more gin.

Laughter (43:44)

Not only do I agree with González’s analysis but I will add that the best example of what I just said can be seen in what Congress intends to do by imposing PROMESA.

If those of us present are a reflection of the general population in terms of variety of ideologies, what there should be no doubt about is that regardless of these differences, what unites all Puerto Ricans is our love of Puerto Rico.

And what there should be no doubt about is the quarry of talent Puerto Rico has produced and has yet to contribute, despite our colonial condition and of the denigrating and derogatory manner in which the sources of power in the metropolis try to label us.

I don’t have time to provide a complete list but take note of the Puerto Ricans who have risen to a national and international prominences in the sciences, music, sports, business and practically all human activities, and in key positions in numerous national and international organizations of all kinds.

We are an island with few natural resources but with an unlimited source of human resources and with a great deal of courage.

I have seen what Puerto Rico can do when the country comes together and sets its mind to it.

I witnessed it up close at the 1992 Regatta Colón, one is the most spectacular nautical events held anywhere; and this is just one example among others that are more powerful.

One which qualifies and cannot be ignored, a very emotional one that we Puerto Ricans felt in our very marrow was the demonstration in Rio de Janeiro of our incredible sports talent and perseverance, which united all of Puerto Rico.

Applause (46:31)

I still get a lump in my throat when I talk about it.

I have always believed that sports, beyond being a recreational activity or a health benefit, are even more important as a classroom to help us face challenges in life.

Our star’s victory at Rio should teach us Puerto Ricans that there is no defeat if we don’t accept it.

Applause (47:13)

I tell you that this is the time to do what we can and have done in the past at other times of crisis.

We have to unite in the defense of our rights and act peacefully, because we are a peaceful people; but this does not mean that we should be docile and accept everything that they try to impose upon us.

Applause (47:48)

We have the advantage that we are defending our home and that above all our cause is just, and that gives us great power and unlimited moral strength.

We do not have political power because we are a colony, and it is also established that we do not have money.

But we do have the weapon that the weak have against the powerful, and that is our civil rights and civil resistance.

Applause (49:09)

With that weapon, Mahatma Gandhi defeated the British Empire in India.

Applause (49:22)

This is how Nelson Mandela was able to end apartheid in South Africa.

Applause (49:32)

And of course, this is the way the black people in the United States, led by Martin Lither King, were able to defend their rights to such a point that a black man is now President of the United States.

Applause (49:50)

I allow myself to suggest once again that we have to organize a civil resistance movement--

Applause (50:06)

-- involving not only the inhabitants of Puerto Rico but also our fellow countrymen in exile, and definitely the Latino population in the United States who nowadays are the largest minority in the nation and whose support might be a determining factor in the future of the United States.

As I have said on previous occasions, there is nothing like an attack on the pocketbook to bring attention to a problem and obtaining satisfactory results.

That is why I have thought about economic boycott as a powerful civil resistance weapon.

Applause (51:26)

I believe that depending on what happens in the near future, supporters of these movements should mobilize and act peacefully if necessary.

And I want to emphasize the part about peacefully, and this includes being respectful of those who differ from us.

And I emphasize this because I have seen some acts that worry me a little bit in this regard.

There is nothing like violence to take away legitimacy from event most just movements.

Applause (52:32)

And this is especially true in Puerto Rico when we have seen that violence is strongly rejected by Puerto Ricans.

We are up at bat. It’s the last inning. The score is tied. We have the winning run on third base. There are two outs and two strikes.

The hour of truth has come. Keep your eye on the ball and swing with all you’ve got.

Applause (53:25)

With this I will conclude my current formal comments-- and I will probably use up your patience-- I want to say something which has some relevance to what I have said today, but it requires special treatment and that I deliver it in English, because my audience is not just you here but it’s overseas as well.

And I wish to say it in English so that Bush there won’t be anything lost in translation.

President Obama, I respectfully request that you free Oscar López Rivera.

Applause (54:17)

Although I do not share his political ideology or condone any of the actions for which he was convicted and for which he has paid dearly with the deprivation of liberty for over 35 years, 12 of which have been in solitary confinement, I see no valid or useful reason for his continued incarceration.

I thus join the thousands of common citizens of all ideologies that have sought your indulgence in this matter, as well as many others who are more prominent in the public scenario, including former President Jimmy Carter; ten different Nobel Prize winners; Coretta Scott King; playwright musician actor Lin-Manuel Miranda; the present Governor of Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Congress; presidential candidate and US Senator Bernie Sanders; the mayors of Puerto Rico’s two largest cities, San Juan and Ponce; New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark; pop star Ricky Martin; and numerous other civic, sports, and arts personalities; all of whom have requested the release of Oscar López, and consider the reprieval of his sentence to an elementary and necessary act of justice for which your administration will forever be remembered and admired.

I must remind you of the fact that Oscar López is a veteran of our war in Vietnam, where he was sent after being drafted at the young age of 18, and served honorably and valiantly, being awarded the Bronze medal for bravery in combat.

Upon his return to his home in Chicago, confronted with the dire circumstances that faced the Puerto Rico minority in that city-- a situation which I am sure you are well aware of from your own experience as a community organizer in Chicago-- he became a community activist in an attempt to improve the conditions of his brethren there, an undoubtedly frustrating experience which must have largely contributed to his radicalization.

Although I do not belittle the seriousness of the crimes for which he was convicted and for which, as I have stated, he has paid dearly, in 1999, when his release was first considered by President Bill Clinton, President Clinton refuted his critics by saying that Oscar López was never convicted of any specific crime that resulted in death or injuries, or of any act of violence, facts that are often overlooked in the furor of controversy.

President Clinton further opined that Oscar López and other nationalists tried with him were sentenced out of proportion to the offenses for which they were convicted, a view with which I fully agree.

It is undisputed that Oscar López has now been imprisoned longer than Nelson Mandela in South Africa for acts of violent terrorism against the apartheid regime.

Yet even that despicable government freed Mr. Mandela.

Furthermore, Oscar López has been deprived of freedom longer than even the Weathermen who were convicted of engaging in terrorist acts in New York, and which in the course of an armed robbery two policemen and two private guards were murdered.

It would appear that a negative standard is being applied against Oscar López.

It should be noted that when President Clinton offered to release Oscar López, the offer was refused by him because he considered that as a prisoner of conscience, he could not accept this indulgence while others similarly situated were not also released.

These others have since been released, yet he remains in custody, notwithstanding that you recently released 218 federal prisoners.

There can be no present justification for Oscar López’s imprisonment.

I beseech you to please do what is just and right before you leave office.

Have this act of justice remain as a shining star in the legacy of your historic presidency.

I ask the President of the Bar Association to have this request sent to President Obama.

Applause (59:57)

Thank you for your patience.

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