Letters
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],...
...U.S...
...For example, Boricua First, which was founded in 1994, did not initiate the campaign...
...This is not only an inaccurate characterization but it accepts imperialist propaganda...
...All of the captured were Puerto Rican independentistas-independence freedom fighters...
...Although a there were a few comments 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 continue to be run by the state and the rich...
...And yes, "only a few left-leaning Puerto Rican organizations" kept the campaign for his freedom-and for the freedom of those arrested over the next seven years-alive...
...That a magazine with the prestige of NACLA publishes an article that accepts imperialist arguments is distressing...
...It was the military 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 finally free those nationalists who had been imprisoned for 25 to 29 years...
...The photograph of the May Day 1995 protest on page 17 was by David Bacon/Impact Visuals...
...Instead, they were put before 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 surrounded the courthouse...
...In the 1980s the few organizations supporting the campaign to free the incarcerated patriots faced federal grand-jury witch hunts and even imprisonment for refusing to cooperate with the federal authorities illegally investigating the independence movement...
...As a cultural organizer working on Cuba, I have found the Internet to be an invaluable tool...
...therefore an independent entity, not a U.S...
...Myrna Rodriguez New York City The Internet I was somewhat confused by the thrust of the recent article on cyberculture in Latin America ["Latin America Online," Nov/Dec, 1996...
...Referring to the United States of North America as the "mainland" accepts the colonial argument...
...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...
...And speaking of education, the graphic on page 11, "A Continent in Arms," is actually "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...
...She seems to insinuate that shorter sentences would have been acceptable, thereby tacitly acknowledging their guilt...
...The Campaign to Free Puerto Rican POWs and Political Prisoners actually has a history of almost two decades...
...Yet, it has repeatedly called for the prisoners' release...
...None of the illustrations showed PeaceNet's pages, Prensa Latina's site, or any other activist use of the web...
...Puerto Rican independentistas rendered the same unconditional support to those nationalist prisoners...
...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 inaccuracies and omissions...
...Fuentes claims...
...Certainly not...
...The defendants demanded trial by an international court of law, which the United States refused...
...These men and women are freedom fighters, not terrorists, just like members of the African National Congress in South Africa...
...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...
...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 material on Puerto Rico...
...Had no organizations existed to support our patriots-who were subjected to physical and psychological torture-when they were captured from 1978 to 1985, they would not be alive today...
...That the article does not do justice to the facts also disturbs...
...In turn, our campaign is rooted in the older Campaign to Free the Five Nationalists who had been imprisoned since the 1950s...
...Big news...
...Lincoln Cushing Berkeley, CA...
...Is the Puerto Rican Bar Association a left-leaning organization...
...We are grateful to the few who did confront the challenges of very difficult times...
...It began in 1978 when William "Guillermo" Morales was captured in Queens, New York, and declared himself a "Prisoner of War...
...The use of this word displays a colonized mentality...
...Such reportage can only serve to alienate the progressive Puerto Rican and Latino community...
...Puerto Rico is an occupied sovereign state...
...Further, the author seemingly approves of calling them terrorists...
...state...
...I am disappointed 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...
...Finally, FALN stands for the Armed Forces for National Liberation not the Armed Front for National Liberation, as published...
...Or is the key point that they were sentenced at all...
...courts and convicted 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...
...Is the length of the jail sentences a key point as Ms...
...While I wholeheartedly 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...
...There is no mainland, only a colonial occupying power...
...The photograph of Arnoldo Alem&n on page 2 of the Jan/Feb issue was by John Mitchell...
Vol. 30 • March 1997 • No. 5
