Many people are surprised that there are political prisoners in the United States. What? In the home of the brave and the land of the free? Yes, and the overwhelming majority of them are people of color who are incarcerated for the simple fact of wanting freedom and liberty for their community.

One of these political prisoners is Puerto Rican Carlos Alberto Torres. Carlos is scheduled to meet with the Federal Parole Board on Monday January 19, 2009.

Carlos Alberto Torres was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on September 19, 1952. His parents moved to New York, finally settling in Chicago. He studied in the University of Illinois in Carbondale and Chicago. He studied sociology at Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carlos Alberto was involved in the struggles to recruit more Latin@s to the University, against racism, and police abuse. Carlos was one of the founders of the Rafael Cancel Miranda Puerto Rican High School now known as the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School and participated in the Committee to Free the 5 Nationalists.

In 1976, Carlos was forced to go underground and was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. He was captured along with other comrades and sentenced to 78 years on charges of seditious conspiracy, among other charges.

Although the Clinton Administration offered clemency to 12 Puerto Rican political prisoners in the fall of 1999, no leniency was granted to Carlos Torres, whom prosecutors described as a leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), an underground organization which fought for Puerto Rico’s independence in the 1970s and ’80s. His release date is 2024. He is currently in prison in Oxford, Wisconsin.

The National Boricua Human Rights Network, El Comite de Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico (The Puerto Rican Human Rights Committee), and The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign, are calling on all supporters of the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners to sign a letter of support and mail it to:

Jan Susler (Lawyer)
1180 N. Milwaukee Ave. 3rd Fl.
Chicago, Il 60622

You can find a copy (PDF) of the letter here.

Via / Prolibertad