Organizers of the Days of Action against the Blockade of Cuba which took place this past week in Washington D.C. issued a statement in response to Cuban President Raul Castro’s humanitarian gesture of releasing 3,255 prisoners in anticipation of the visit of Pope Francis. The organizers made a call to President Obama to follow Cuban President Raul Castro’s lead and release some of the more than 2.5 million prisoners currently in jails and prisons in the United States.
To mark Pope Francis’s visit to Cuba, the Cuban government announced the release of 3,522 people in that country’s jails. This humanitarian gesture included prisoners over 60, those younger than 20, those with chronic illnesses, women, and those close to their release dates.
“Why can’t Obama follow the Cuban example before Pope Francis arrives in the US on Sept. 22?” asked Alicia Jrapko, a spokesperson for the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity for the Peoples, a co-sponsor of the Days of Action in Washington this past week.
The United States, Jrapko pointed out, has the dubious distinction of having the largest per capita prison population in the world. US prisons are overflowing with people who are primarily incarcerated for nonviolent offenses, drug charges, or simply for being mentally ill and poor. The vast majority of those incarcerated are people of color.
“As his presidency winds down, Obama could do the right thing by releasing an equal percentage of the prison population as the Cubans did,” agreed Gail Walker of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, another of the groups who organized the Days of Action. “Now that would be a humanitarian gesture that a war-torn world could appreciate and a gesture of justice to the visiting Pope. It would amount to freedom for tens of thousands of people.”
Obama could start by releasing political prisoners like:
- Black activist and journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, whose health is in rapid decline from untreated Hepatitis C,
- American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, who just spent his 71st birthday in prison, and
- Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Puerto Rican Independence activist who has spent 34 years in prison on conspiracy charges.
Days of Action against the Blockade was comprised of three days of events whose goal is to pressure the United States to end its failed blockade against Cuba. The events were co-sponsored by: International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity for the People, IFCO/Pastors for Peace, the Institute for Policy Studies, the National Network on Cuba, and the Venceremos Brigade.
