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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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Before you write the prisoners:
It is important to know that it takes time for your letter to reach a prisoner and to receive a response from
him or her. If you do not receive a quick response, do not give up!! Continue to write to him or her until you receive a response.
If you are going to send a prisoner money for his or her commissary, it must be in the form of a money order (Postal
or Western Union) with their name and prisoner number. Do not send cash and avoid sending them personal checks.
If you are going to send them reading materials (Books or magazines); you must make sure that it is a paperback
edition. If you are sending a magazine you must remove all the staples and metal clips. The envelope you send it in must have
the staples and metal clips removed as well.
Oscar Lopez Rivera
#87651-024
FCI Terre Haute
PO Box 33
Terre Haute, IN, 47808
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Before you send money to the Prisoners:
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has changed the guidelines for sending federal prisoners commissary. If anyone wants
to send money to our patriots, it must be sent to the following address and in the following manner:
Federal Bureau of Prisons
(Prisoner’s name and Prison Number)
PO Box 474701
Des
Moines IA 50947-0001
You must send all funds to the mailing address (above) and adhere to the following instructions:
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will only approve/accept the following items, which it calls “Negotiable instruments”:
Money Orders, government checks, Foreign Negotiable Instruments or Business checks. NOTE: No Personal Checks; they will be
sent back to you.
Print the prisoner’s committed name and register number (prison number) on the funds.
The name and return address of the sender must appear in the upper left hand corner of the envelope to ensure
that funds can be returned when necessary.
Don’t send items other than funds top the above provided address. The BOP will discard letters, pictures
and anything else you send.
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