LATIN Americans celebrated the impending freedom of Oscar Lopez on Tuesday after it was announced that the Puerto Rican independence leader, who has served more than three decades behind bars, is to be released this year.

Mr Lopez is set to walk free from a US jail on May 17 after outgoing US President Barack Obama commuted his 55-year sentence to the 36 years he has already served.

Puerto Ricans celebrated in the streets of the Spanishspeaking US island territory.

Some wept with joy upon hearing the news while others headed to all-night parties announced on social media. Mr Lopez’s freedom was announced along with that of US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

The 74-year-old’s lawyer Jan Susler said: “He’s very, very grateful. One of the things he said was: ‘Tomorrow’s my daughter’s birthday.

What an amazing present for her’.” Mr Lopez was convicted in 1981 on one count of “seditious conspiracy” for supposedly plotting against the US, and he was later convicted of conspiring to escape from Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

He was part of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), which the US accuses of carrying out more than 120 bomb attacks in cities across the states in the 1970s and ’80s. The prisoner has repeatedly denied involvement in these attacks.

Mr Lopez rejected a 1999 clemency offer from then-president Bill Clinton as it excluded two of his comrades, who have since been released.

“He wants to live in Puerto Rico, and people there really want him to come home,” Ms Susler said.

Puerto Rico, which lies between the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands, lacks the status of a state and cannot elect voting members to Congress.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro thanked Mr Obama for the freedom of his “Puerto Rican brother.

“This news makes me tremble, it really gladdens me,” he said, even though “we are critics of President Obama, we have had harsh words with him.

“We have to give thanks to the social movements of the world that we have come together and united in demand for what Obama conceded today — freedom for our Puerto Rican brother Oscar Lopez Rivera.”

High-profile figures who campaigned for the liberation leader’s release include former US president Jimmy Carter, Pope Francis and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.