Puerto Rican Prisoners
A lthough we were pleased with
your interest in the campaign
to free Puerto Rican prisoners of
war and political prisoners [“It’s
Time to Let Them Go,” Nov/Dec,
1996], we are concerned about
some of the article’s factual inaccu-
racies and omissions. For example,
Boricua First, which was founded in
1994, did not initiate the campaign.
The Campaign to Free Puerto Rican
POWs and Political Prisoners actu-
ally has a history of almost two
decades. It began in 1978 when
William “Guillermo” Morales was
captured in Queens, New York, and
declared himself a “Prisoner of
War.” U.S. propaganda portrayed
him as a “mad bomber terrorist,”
and when his case was brought to
the Queens Federal Criminal Court,
hundreds of local police and federal
agents with high-powered guns sur-
rounded the courthouse. And yes,
“only a few left-leaning Puerto
Rican organizations” kept the cam-
paign for his freedom-and for the
freedom of those arrested over the
next seven years-alive. All of the
captured were Puerto Rican inde-
pendentistas-independence free-
dom fighters.
In the 1980s the few organiza-
tions supporting the campaign to
free the incarcerated patriots faced
federal grand-jury witch hunts and
even imprisonment for refusing to
cooperate with the federal authori-
ties illegally investigating the inde-
pendence movement. Had no orga-
nizations existed to support our
patriots-who were subjected to
physical and psychological tor-
ture-when they were captured
from 1978 to 1985, they would not
be alive today. We are grateful to the
few who did confront the chal-
lenges of very difficult times.
In turn, our campaign is rooted in
the older Campaign to Free the Five
Nationalists who had been impris-
oned since the 1950s. Puerto Rican
independentistas rendered the same
unconditional support to those
nationalist prisoners. It was the mil-
itary and political activities of the
Armed Forces for National
Liberation (FALN) and the Boricua
People’s Army (Los Macheteros)
along with international pressure
that forced President Carter to final-
ly free those nationalists who had
been imprisoned for 25 to 29 years.
Ana M. Lopez
National Committee to Free
Puerto Rican Political Prisoners
and Prisoners of War
New York City
It was refreshing to see an issue of
the NACLA Report include mate-
rial on Puerto Rico. While I whole-
heartedly agree with the general
conclusion of the article that our
political prisoners and prisoners of
war must go free now, I would like
to make a few comments.
Referring to the United States of
North America as the “mainland”
accepts the colonial argument.
Puerto Rico is an occupied sover-
eign state. There is no mainland,
only a colonial occupying power.
The use of this word displays a col-
onized mentality. The defendants
demanded trial by an international
court of law, which the United
States refused. Instead, they were
put before U.S. courts and con-
victed of seditious conspiracy. But
they can not be guilty of such a
crime because Puerto Rico-as
specifically recognized by the
United Nations-is a colony and
Continued on page 43
Errata
The article “Beyond Borders” by Ruben Martinez in the Jan/Feb issue was trans- lated from the Spanish by Mark Fried. The photograph of Arnoldo Alem&n on page 2 of the Jan/Feb issue was by John Mitchell. The photograph of the May Day 1995 protest on page 17 was by David Bacon/Impact Visuals.
therefore an independent entity, not
a U.S. state. Further, the author
seemingly approves of calling them
terrorists. This is not only an inac-
curate characterization but it
accepts imperialist propaganda.
These men and women are freedom
fighters, not terrorists, just like
members of the African National
Congress in South Africa.
Is the length of the jail sentences a
key point as Ms. Fuentes claims? Or
is the key point that they were sen-
tenced at all? She seems to insinuate
that shorter sentences would have
been acceptable, thereby tacitly
acknowledging their guilt. Also, to
state that only a few left-leaning
organizations kept the issue alive
and that the mainstream avoided the
issue until very recently is simply
not true. Is the Puerto Rican Bar
Association a left-leaning organiza-
tion? Certainly not. Yet, it has
repeatedly called for the prisoners’
release. Finally, FALN stands for
the Armed Forces for National
Liberation not the Armed Front for
National Liberation, as published.
That a magazine with the pres-
tige of NACLA publishes an article
that accepts imperialist arguments
is distressing. That the article does
not do justice to the facts also dis-
turbs. Such reportage can only
serve to alienate the progressive
Puerto Rican and Latino com-
munity.
Myrna Rodriguez
New York City
The Internet
I was somewhat confused by the
thrust of the recent article on cyber-
culture in Latin America [“Latin
America Online,” Nov/Dec, 1996].
Although a there were a few com-
ments about the Internet’s value as
an organizing tool for progressives,
the bulk of the article seemed to
support the thesis that it is simply
one more medium which will con-
tinue to be run by the state and the
rich. Big news. None of the illustra-
tions showed PeaceNet’s pages,
Prensa Latina’s site, or any other
activist use of the web.
As a cultural organizer working
on Cuba, I have found the Internet
to be an invaluable tool. I am disap-
pointed to see an article like this,
which does not even list the address
of a single progressive website, missing out on the opportunity to
concretely educate its readers about
some of the options. And speaking
of education, the graphic on page
11, “A Continent in Arms,” is actu-
ally “International Week in
Solidarity with the People of Latin
America,” a Cuban poster by Asela
Purez, published for OSPAAAL
(Organization in Solidarity with the
People of Asia, Africa and Latin
America). That is the sort of thing
one might find out from looking at
progressive resources such as our
website on the Cuba Poster Project
(www.zpub.com/cpp).
Lincoln Cushing
Berkeley, CA
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