RIGHTS-PUERTO RICO: FALN Members Agree to Clemency Offer

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Sep 7 1999 (IPS) - Twelve Puerto Rican nationalists, who have been in US jails for nearly two decades, decided Tuesday to accept President Bill Clinton’s offer of conditional amnesty, while two others rejected it, their lawyers said.

Three weeks after Clinton offered amnesty to the Puerto Ricans, most of them members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), their joint lawyer, Jan Susler, announced in Chicago that they would accept the government’s terms.

That acceptance in turn would see the immediate release of the prisoners, who have been jailed since 1980 for their involvement in a series of robberies by the FALN during its effort to win Puerto Rico’s independence from the United States.

None of the prisoners have been charged with the 130 bombings carried out by the FALN between 1974 and 1983, in which six people died and dozens more were injured.

The conditions for their amnesty include a renunciation of violence, a commitment not to associate with accused terrorists – including each other – and acquiescence to mandatory drug testing. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a supporter of the prisoners’ release, called the conditions “humiliating.”

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Tuesday that lawyers for the individual suspects had made clear that 12 would accept the offer and two would reject it. Two other prisoners who are not in jail have until Sep. 10 to accept the amnesty, which would reduce fines they have to pay.

The prisoners, who have been called “prisoners of war” by leftist supporters in Puerto Rico, had to respond to Clinton’s offer by Friday or risk having it withdrawn.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first lady and a possible candidate for a Senate seat in New York next year, had already urged the White House to rescind the offer, arguing, “It’s been three weeks, and their silence speaks volumes.”

The first lady was under pressure from her likely Republican challenger, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who accused the White House of offering the amnesty to help bolster Hillary Clinton’s popularity in next year’s election with New York’s 1.3 million Puerto Ricans.

“I think there have been many who have thought to inject politics…and all I can say is that they’re wrong,” Lockhart said in response to those charges.

In any event, Hillary Clinton’s announcement that she wanted the amnesty offer withdrawn has hurt her among New York’s Puerto Rican leaders, who reacted angrily to her comments.

Representative Jose Serrano of the Bronx argued that she had ensured that many Puerto Ricans would not vote for her, while New York State Assemblyman Ramon Diaz warned pointedly that the White House shouldn’t expect that Puerto Ricans will vote for Clinton simply “because she is a Democrat.”

The traditionally pro-Democrat Puerto Rican community has been upset by the White House amnesty offer in several ways.

First, amnesty supporters like Serrano and his Congressional colleague Nydia Velasquez argued that the prisoners had already served more jail time than is usually applied to their crimes, and deserved an unconditional amnesty.

Human rights advocates worldwide, including former President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had also asked for an unconditional offer.

President Clinton’s backtracking – particularly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Justice Department revealed that officials from those agencies had recommended that no amnesty be offered – also angered some activists.

Juan Manuel Delgado, a Puerto Rican historian who had led efforts to win the prisoners’ release, contended that the prisoners should not be treated as people who must renounce terrorism to be freed. “They are patriots and not terrorists,” he argued.

Juan Gonzalez, a journalist for the New York Daily News, noted that the prisoners had already renounced the use of violence in a joint action three years ago. The current deal, however, requires them to sign a statement formally affirming their rejection of violence.

After most of the prisoners were arrested in 1980, they received sentences of between 35 and 90 years for their actions. Their supporters have argued that the sentences were disproportionate to their crimes and reflected a bias against Puerto Rican nationalism.

Puerto Rico was seized by the United States in its 1898 war against Spain, and has been a US colony since then. In several recent referenda, Puerto Rican voters have widely opted to maintain the colony’s current status as a “free associated state” while rejecting both US statehood and independence.