Editorial
October 1999
Clinton's selective clemency
The release of the 11 Puerto Rican prisoners of the FALN is a welcome
victory for their long-time supporters in the independence movement, as
well as for the movement in solidarity with all political prisoners in the
U.S. It is more than a painful irony that it follows so closely upon the
unjust sentencing of José Solís Jordán, who on July 7 was given 51 months
in prison on trumped-up charges of bombing a military recruitment center in
Chicago.
In granting clemency, albeit with some outrageous strings attached like the
denial of the right of free association, Pres. Clinton cited the example of
former President Carter's release of Puerto Rican Nationalists during his
administration. It would be helpful to go back to Carter's own motives for
that act of clemency in order to understand better why Clinton has acted.
At that time, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that
release would be seen as a good will gesture toward Latin America, as well
as "remove a propaganda issue from the agenda of various international fora
which is used each year against us and is increasingly used as an example
of the inconsistency of our human rights policy."
This kind of strategic thinking surely goes much farther toward explaining
Clinton's current decision than does the Right's speculation about winning
Puerto Rican voters for Hillary Clinton's senatorial campaign. The 1998
general strike in Puerto Rico and the large demonstrations against the U.S.
military presence in Vieques probably have much more to do with the timing
of it.
The current House committee hearings on this issue are of a piece with the
earlier maneuvers of Kenneth Starr, Henry Hyde and their cohorts-with
violence now in place of sex to juice up their reactionary agenda. The
massacre in Waco is being used for the same ends, with the authoritarian
Right screaming so hypocritically about the perfidy of Clinton's Justice
Department.
The truth is far better revealed in this event by silence, that is, the
silence which is surrounding the case of José Solís. The Right is saying
absolutely nothing about the Justice Department's conduct in this regard-of
the terrifying invasion by heavily armed FBI commandos of the Solís family
home; of a trial in which no evidence was actually presented but the word
of a paid informer-who received $119,000-and an alleged accomplice who
couldn't remember names or dates; or of a jury with no Spanish speakers
which was asked to judge a taped conversation conducted largely in Spanish.
Who would have expected any better from the Right? They aren't the friends
of human freedom. The real surprise is how little the broad Left has had to
say on the Solís case. His fate should be of importance to all those who
care about human rights, the rights to think, speak, and write as one
chooses without having to fear imprisonment. Prof. Solís is a significant
academic and thinker, for whom decolonization begins with the mind. He is
being unjustly persecuted by the U.S. government for his views in favor of
Puerto Rican independence, which were used against him at his trial.
Prof. Solís is as well a person of the Left. He has received support from
labor unions in Puerto Rico and was a participant in the 1998 general
strike, walking the picket lines in an effort to create unity between
intellectuals in the academic community and workers. True internationalism
would compel an interest on the part of U.S. activists in a case like this.
Perhaps the relative silence about this can be explained if we look at how
so much thinking on the issues of internationalism and revolution mirrors
the same tired rhetoric of the Right and how much needed rethinking remains
undone. A COINTELPRO document from 1960, from J. Edgar Hoover, shows the
roots of today's campaign against INDEPENDISTAS in the effort to combat
the influence the Cuban Revolution was having in Puerto Rico and elsewhere
and, as well, the "inevitable communist and/or Soviet effort to embarrass
the United States."
The Right has today replaced Communism with so-called "terrorism," or
whatever else, as the demon that drives its historical agenda. These are
the counsels of the living dead. But movements for human freedom can't be
satisfied just to be the reversed mirror image of the Right; they need to
embody creativity and a real vision of the future. In this respect, some of
the most hopeful signs have come from the willingness of the FALN prisoners
to openly question some aspects of their political past.
As Alberto Rodríguez put it, "We thought we either held on to our old
views and became dinosaurs and obsolete, or we adapted to reality. It was
not that we sort of had this spiritual transformation and renounced
violence. But from a political perspective, to influence the process of
Puerto Rico's decolonization, we had to change."
Even earlier, a statement was released by Oscar López Rivera, a founder of
the FALN who isn't included in the clemency, calling on the independence
movement to give greater support to José Solís. It also called for some
serious rethinking in the independence movement.
A question for the future is, can some needed dialogue and rethinking, an
effort to work out new pathways to freedom and self-determination, begin to
be worked out at the same time as we work to build solidarity with José
Solís? It isn't just about breaking down a silence in general, but breaking
down internal and historic barriers within the movement itself.
We urge our readers to begin by showing solidarity with the Solís family,
which has been hit very hard by legal costs and loss of income. Checks can
be sent to:
Martha González-Solís
Urb. El Senoral
Calle Fray Granada #2006
San Juan, PR 00926
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