Puerto Rican Political Prisoner has cancer/PR events NYC

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

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PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONER NORBERTO GONZALEZ CLAUDIO DENIED MEDICAL ATTENTION!

The Committee to Support Avelino and Norberto González Claudio, The Caribbean and Latin American Coordinating Committee of Puerto Rico, The Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico, The Resistance Collective, The Socialist Front, The New School, The Movement for Socialism, The National Hostosiano Independence Movment, The Socialist Movement of Workers, The Puerto Rican Independence Party of Puerto Rico,  The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, and The Revolutionary Party of Puerto Rican Workers-Macheteros, and The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign in New York City announce that during the opening of the Festival for Claridad Newspaper in Puerto Rico, they will launch a campaign to denounce the inhuman treatment that political prisoner Norberto González Claudio is currently receiving and to demand that he receive urgently needed medical attention.  The aforementioned organizations will request that the House and Senate of Puerto Rico approve the concurrent Resolution 500, that has been presented by Senator María de Lourdes Santiago in the legislature.

Norberto González Claudio was arrested May 10, 2011, for an expropriation that was carried out by the Macheteros (Machete Wielders) in 1983 in Harford, Connecticut, as part of the struggle for the Independence of Puerto Rico.  At the time of his arrest Norberto was in an excellent state of health and was wearing an orthopedic show.  In the course of his detention it was “discovered” that Norberto had a lesion in his leg that a biopsy established was cancerous.

His orthopedic shoe was taken away, they refused to provide him with one and they have prevented his family from providing him with another one.  The little medical attention to treat the cancerous lesion has been limited and deficient and it has also been revealed that he has not received any treatment for yet another lesion that is potentially cancerous.

At present, Norberto is in the process of being transferred to an institution where he will complete his sentence.  It has been the custom of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to submit it’s Puerto Rican political prisoners to lengthy and discriminatory processes of transfer during which they are sent from prison to prison for long periods of time. 

In this process they are kept incommunicado from their families, their lawyers and they are denied the most minimum medical attention and the medications that they have been prescribed.   We recall the treatment that Avelino González Claudio, Norbertos’ brother and comrade in struggle, who was also arrested in excellent health and was released suffering from Parkinsons Disease, was denied medications, suffering from a possible tumor in his back -- that they refused to treat.

The absence of medical evaluation and treatment for cancerous lesions and the denial of an orthopedic shoe, clearly place the life of Norberto González Claudio in danger.

We hereby denounce these flagrant violations of the human rights of this patriot and announce the commencement of a petition campaign to bring a halt to this abuse.

Contact:

Elda Santiago, Wife of Norberto González Claudio,  (787) 479-0730

Benjamin Ramos, ProLibertad NYC, 718-601-4751

WE URGE ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS AND ALLIES TO DOWNLOAD OUR TWO LETTERS AND MAIL THEM OUT TO THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS AND THEIR SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE. 

THOUSANDS OF OUR UNITED VOICES WILL HELP OUR BROTHER NORBERTO  SURVIVE!  SEND OUT YOUR LETTER AND FORWARD THIS EMAIL FAR AND WIDE SO OTHERS CAN DO LIKEWISE!

ONE LETTER MEANS NOTHING! THOUSANDS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!

Free All Political Prisoners!
www.jerichony.org

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
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