By: Iliana García Giraldino

Oscar Lopez Rivera will be in November in Cuba

celebration in ICAP for the definitive freedom of the Boricua patriot

Phone contact between Oscar and Fernando

The sea and the monarch butterflies are partying

Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera thanked Cuba for solidarity in a telephone call this Wednesday with Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), during a ceremony in celebration of the definitive freedom of the Puerto Rican patriot, who will visit Cuba in November to personally thank the accompaniment to the struggle for his release.

Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, who was definitively released this Wednesday after more than 35 years as a political prisoner in the United States, will visit Cuba in November to personally thank the people who accompanied the struggle for his release. The news was heard in a telephone conversation between the Puerto Rican patriot and Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), during a jubilant meeting with more than 200 people at the organization's headquarters, where there have been carried out over the years numerous acts in support of this cause.

Fernando, who had been a companion for four years in Oscar's cell, after several unsuccessful attempts to connect by telephone - which increased the anxiety of the audience and himself - finally managed to communicate and exclaimed: "Brother, how are you, good to hear your voice again!", and then explained to Oscar the celebration that was taking place at that time at ICAP.

He conveyed to the Puerto Rican hero the emotion of everyone to know him in total freedom, following his militancy for the independence of his beloved homeland, and expressed the joy in Cuba that he will receive with love in November.

In this same place, on previous occasions I announced that on this terrace we would see you enter victorious someday, because we were always sure of the victory, of your cause, which is the cause of the independence of Puerto Rico, Fernando added.

Oscar's responses were not heard by the amplification of the act, so Fernando was telling them. The Puerto Rican patriot sent a greeting to the Cubans expressing his gratitude for supporting the cause of his release.

At the end of the telephone contact, Fernando asked Oscar "Do you hear the applause and exclamations of all here?", while the audience continued a loud ovation and repeated "Viva Oscar!

Remembering the time spent together in the prison and the feeling of frank brotherhood and camaraderie between them, Fernando, smiling, recommended that Oscar take care of himself and not forget to continue making bars "and rice with pigeon peas."

Then Edwin González, delegate of the Mission of Puerto Rico in Cuba, intervened, affirming that after years of struggle the great Puerto Rican patriot is finally free. He found a happy people because of this event, and also a colony in crisis, he said, asserting that Oscar remains a militant, ready to continue the struggle for independence of his beloved island.

It was another day of burning solidarity, of enthusiasm for the new victory, of happiness for Oscar, his daughter Clarisa and all his relatives, for the joy of all those who in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the United States and the world demanded the release of the Boricua patriot, who, after many, many years of confinement - 12 alone - can walk the streets of his country, approach the coast and enjoy the landscape, as he dreamed so much behind the bars. The sea and the monarch butterflies, which he has longed for, are also celebrating today.