La Respuesta & National Boricua Human Rights’ Social Media Campaign to Free Oscar López Rivera

Dec 23, 2014
5:20 PM

With speculation that there is some type of progress in the case of Oscar López Rivera, the following press release was shared with Latino Rebels earlier this week.

Birth of a Patriot, Star of a Nation

La Respuesta magazine and National Boricua Human Rights Network call for a social media campaign on January 6, 2015 calling for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera.

Versión en español

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (December 2014) – La Respuesta magazine and National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN) are calling for a worldwide social media campaign on January 6, 2015 urging U.S. President Barack Obama to release political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. In honor of the man who has withstood thirty-three years in prison – more than any other Latin American political prisoner – the campaign is called “Birth of a Patriot, Star of a Nation”.

The worldwide campaign calls for 100,000 messages to the twitter accounts of the President and Justice Department on January 6, 2015, Oscar’s birthday and the Day of the Epiphany/Three Kings, the holiest day in his Puerto Rico homeland. We also call on participants to share “virtual gifts” in the form of photographs, videos, and writings on their social media pages in honor of Oscar’s birthday.

Call To Action

Are you a poet? Artist? Photographer? Chef? Athlete? Dancer? Educator? Student? Health worker? Laborer? Mother? Father? Whatever you are or do, wherever you are, write a post, take a photo, record a video – dedicate one act of your day as a “virtual gift” to Oscar and to raise awareness and support for the international campaign working for his release.

FREEOSCAR

Post one of your poems, share a picture of your art or photography, cook and photograph a meal, run a few miles and write about it, record yourself dancing, take a selfie with a sign… Get creative and let the world know that you demand the release of Puerto Rican patriot Oscar López Rivera!

Oscarsmall

This January 6, 2015, on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or any other platform you use, post using the hashtags #FreeOscarLopez and #Gift4Oscar (#RegaloPaOscar for Spanish-language messages). On Twitter, make sure to tag @BarackObama and @TheJusticeDept so those with the power to release him hear our demands. We encourage you to begin planning your action to make sure we are all heard in unison on January 6, 2015.

About Oscar López Rivera

Bronze star-awarded Vietnam veteran; Chicago community activist and institution builder; advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico; U.S. government-held political prisoner for over thirty years. These are the most common cited facts given about Oscar López Rivera, and they are reasons many, including Nobel Prize laureates, elected officials, scholars, and community leaders, are compelled to join in the demand for his release.

Oscar, born on Three King’s Day, is the Puerto Rican nation’s shining star, able to unite a people facing the divisive effects of a more than one-hundred year colonial occupation. Now, more than ever, the Puerto Rican people have come together in a way that presents U.S. President Barack Obama every reason to exercise his power of pardon and release Oscar, as presidents before him have done in the case of Puerto Rican political prisoners, first in 1979, then again in 1999. To learn more about Oscar and to read his original essays, visit: Oscar’s Corner

La Respuesta and National Boricua Human Rights Network calls on the general public to send the clear message: RELEASE OSCAR NOW, 33 YEARS IS TOO MUCH!

About La Respuesta magazine and National Boricua Human Rights Network

La Respuesta preserves, documents, and re-imagines the Puerto Rican Diaspora by critically engaging its social, political, cultural, spiritual, and community dimensions. Visit us at: larespuestamedia.com.

National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN) is an organization composed of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. and their supporters that educates and mobilizes the Puerto Rican community, the broader Latin American community and other people of conscience regarding issues of justice, peace and human rights. Visit us at: boricuahumanrights.org

Contact: Xavier Luis Burgos, Editor-In-Chief of La Respuesta / xavi@larespuestamedia.com