Letter from federal prisoner Ramsey Muniz:
For the first time in twenty years I have begun to pray and ask God for my freedom now! I have told God that I have suffered more than any other human being in the prisons of America, and that I feel the essence and pain of my beloved brother, Nelson Mandela. He was confined in the prisons and dungeons of Africa for over 20 years, and at this very moment he is fighting for his life. I prayed and cried for Nelson Mandela, and I ask our brothers and sisters to please take the time and go to a church and light a candle for him. Ask God to keep him alive for we need him at this very moment in our lives.
I demand my freedom now! I want my freedom now! Twenty years of suffering for an unjust incarceration is beyond the constitutional definition of “cruel and unusual punishment.” How much more must I suffer for something I did not do, and why?
I demand my freedom now and I ask that my brothers and sisters not ask or request, but begin to demand that I be a free man now! During the last 20 years I never even asked God to help bring about my freedom. For the first time throughout the morning, I felt as if God wanted for me to ask for my freedom, because the time has come for me to be a free man once again.
The message received is that we as Hispanics, Latinos, Mexican Americans, and Chicanos, are now in a strong political position to tell the Untied States government that justice needs to be addressed in the death sentence unjustly imposed on Ramiro “Ramsey” Muiz. We cannot allow this injustice to continue, for I do not want to die inside the prisons of America. My brother, Nelson Mandela, who struggled for his freedom and for his people, knows how it feels.
It is all about freedom, justice, and love, I demand my freedom now! I want to be a free man in this world once again.
We will share this sense of urgency with religious institutions, civil rights organizations, as well as national Hispanic, Latino, African American, and women organizations.
I continue to be strong spiritually, just as my brother Nelson Mandela has been to this very hour and minute, for I can feel the essence of his love and freedom.
Amor,
Ramsey
MoPress 