People turned out on short notice. Within hours of the announcement that Edwin Cortés would arrive the evening of September 10, hundreds of people had gathered to await his arrival.

Young people carried portraits of the prisoners mounted on 10-foot poles. Throughout the evening and the next day the youth carrying the posters changed, but they were always among the most active as they marched and danced around the crowd. The portraits had been carried in the August 29 march of thousands in San Juan demanding the unconditional release of the prisoners.

There were more than 500 people present when Cortés emerged after 11 p.m. Those in attendance included prominent independence supporters Lolita Lebrón, Jorge Farinacci, and Hilton Fernández. Cortés climbed onto an improvised stage to give brief remarks. He drew applause when he thanked Luis Nieves, one of the central leaders of the campaign to free the prisoners, and even more cheers when he called on the U.S. Navy to leave Vieques.

The next morning the crowds gathered hours before any of the former prisoners appeared. They set up camp with folding chairs and coolers waiting to welcome home Adolfo Matos, Carmen Valentín, Dylica Pagán, Ida Luz Rodríguez, Alicia Rodríguez, and Elizam Escobar as they arrived throughout the day. Ricardo Jiménez and Luis Rosa arrived the next afternoon, September 12.

The arrivals were purposely staggered to avoid charges of violating the parole conditions, which include a prohibition on associating with others convicted of felonies. Formal negotiations over the exact nature of these conditions will begin in a few days.

Some 40 residents of the town of Lajas came to welcome Matos on a bus provided by the municipal government.

Antonio Torres and Laura Rivera were among the members of the Federation of Pro-Independence University Students (FUPI) who came from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. "It’s part of our duty" to be here, explained Rivera. She commented that there is a changing attitude and that youth are more open than before to supporting independence for Puerto Rico.

Both Rivera and Torres took part in the actions last year during the general strike in opposition to the sale by the government of the telephone company to the U.S.-based company GTE. "We did not succeed in stopping the sale," said Rivera, "but we gained for the people — a people more united."

It was a "test of fire," added Torres.

Responding to the widespread argument that a connection to the United States is needed to maintain the standard of living in Puerto Rico, Torres said that an independent Puerto Rico would have trade with countries all over the world. It is up to Puerto Rico who to trade with, he said.

At this point Eyerí Cruz, a first-year student at Río Piedras and a FUPI member, joined the discussion. He said Washington’s trade laws are restrictive and create dependency. We need "to remove this dependency," he insisted.

FUPI currently has chapters on eight campuses, including at private universities where it has not traditionally existed. Prior to the current upsurge in the independence movement, FUPI had shrunk to only one chapter.

Rebecca Vázquez, 22, from the Mayagüez chapter of FUPI, said the organization has staged a protest against the U.S. Army’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the Río Piedras campus and is planning a protest in Mayagüez. Members of her chapter had joined with the labor movement not only around the sale of the phone company but the privatizations of hospitals as well, Vázquez said.

In discussions, placards, and the news media there has been a broad discussion of the definition of terrorist. A sign at the airport action read in English, "U.S. bombs Puerto Rico with uranium and napalm, who is the terrorist?" One chant in Spanish was, "NATO forces are the real terrorists."

A column by J.M. García Passalacqua in the San Juan Star was headlined, "Why the Puerto Rican 16 are not terrorists." García is not a supporter of complete independence but rather supports a "compact of free association" where Puerto Rico would be formally independent but would agree in advance to accept U.S. domination in certain areas such as military and economic policy.

García wrote about the murder of two independentistas by the police at Cerro Maravilla in 1978. He said Americans should learn how the FBI’s COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) operation was used to illegally attack the independence movement. He noted that the police have files on 175,000 people solely for their political views.

At 4:15 p.m. September 11 Elizam Escobar stepped out of the terminal building at the Muñoz airport and spoke. First he mentioned his comrades who are still in jail. Then he called for the U.S. Navy to leave Vieques.

"Our collective decision" to take the opportunity to walk out of prison, despite Clinton’s onerous conditions, "was the best for the independence struggle," Escobar said.

He pointed out that even the Israeli regime released 200 Palestinian prisoners with less conditions than the Puerto Ricans. He also mentioned that the night before he had received a warm welcome in Chicago not only from Puerto Ricans living in that city but Mexicans and North Americans as well.

Within days of their release, the nine independentistas had their first meeting with parole officers. Most of them then announced they would attend the September 23 Grito de Lares, a pro-indepen-dence celebration held in the town of Lares. They said they received explicit agreement from parole officials that they will not be prevented from attending, or even addressing, the event.

Escobar said he would also visit Vieques in support of the fight to get the U.S. Navy out.  
 
 
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