Nov. 6th-All out for Avelino Gonzalez Claudio

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
http://www.prolibertadweb.com
ProLibertad@hotmail.com

ALL OUT TO CONNECTICUT ON NOVEMBER 6TH!!

Arrested earlier this year, Avelino is incarcerated in a state prison in the city of Hartford; in “maximum security” with 23 hours of isolation in a jail cell and with one hour to get fresh air.

They propose to judge him, as they have his comrades in struggle, far away from his Puerto Rican homeland. The U.S. government must recognize Avelino’s status as a fighter for independence and a political prisoner, as he demanded in its imperial courts!

Avelino needs our support! His hearing is set for November 6th, 2008! We cannot let our brother face the court alone! Take the day off from school or work and come with us!

ALL OUT TO CONNECTICUT ON NOVEMBER 6TH!!
Contact ProLibertad to get on the Freedom Vans: 718-601-4751


Who is Avelino Gonzalez Claudio?

Avelino was born in the town of Vega Baja on October 8, 1942. As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, he became a member and then vice-president of the Pro-Independence University Federation (Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia-FUPI). In the mid-1960’s, he married and moved to New York City, earning his living on Wall Street, and working with the Puerto Rican community, joining and then leading the Vito Marcantonio Mission of the Movemiento Pro-Independencia (MPI) in New York. He and his family of four children returned to Puerto Rico, where he worked in the independence movement, including administering the political journal Pensamiento Crí­tico (Critical Thought).

In August of 1985, Avelino González Claudio was accused of participating in the planning and authorization of an operation to secure $7,117,000 from a Wells Fargo armored truck in Hartford, Connecticut on September 12, 1983, along with other Puerto Ricans and two North Americans. The operation was carried out by a clandestine organization fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico, the PRTP-Macheteros. Avelino was not arrested at the time. When the arrests of 1985 took place, and Avelino was not arrested, he assumed the identity of José Ortega, and, while the FBI pursued him, he lived a quiet life, working as a computer teacher to support his family and contributing constructively to his nation, seeking to improve the services provided by the Department of Education. However, more than 20 years later, he was arrested in Manatí­, Puerto Rico, on February 7, 2008.

Avelino is currently being held in Somers, the state of Connecticut’s supermax prison, far from his family and his nation, where he is locked down 23 hours a day, with no access to family visits or phone calls, in conditions which are calculated not only to interfere with his ability to prepare a defense, but which are tantamount to torture. He is awaiting trial in federal court in Hartford.