The republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed that day from the City Hall of Lares. A rebel army of 400 soldiers, including many agricultural wage workers, was organized but quickly defeated by the Spanish military. The revolt in Puerto Rico, called Grito de Lares, was followed three weeks later by the Grito de Yara in Cuba, which launched a 10-year war for that nation's independence.
This year's Grito de Lares celebration was "the largest in the last 20 years" reported El Nuevo Día, one of Puerto Rico's largest dailies. Many estimated that more than 10,000 people streamed in and out of the plaza throughout the day. The cars backed up on the main roads leading into the town indicated as much.
Eric Jiménez, from the Orlando Committee to free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, came to Lares this year as he has for all but one of the last 18 years. "This is different," he said. "First of all, the groups are all together unlike in previous years when the Puerto Rican Independence Party [PIP] had their rally at one time and a separate rally was held another time." He went on to point out the rise in nationalism that he saw directly tied to the overwhelming support for the release of the political prisoners and the fight in Vieques. "There are many more youth this year than I've ever seen," he said.
The U.S. military has used part of Vieques, a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, as a live fire range for decades. According to the Navy itself, in one 16-year period combat aircraft dropped 135,574 nonexplosive bombs and 39,358 live ones on the 899 acre "live impact area" on Vieques. In those 16 years Navy warships fired 97,830 rounds from ships' 5-inch guns and millions of rounds of smaller rifle fire.
Since April 19 of this year, however, the Navy has suspended bombings on Vieques in the face of widespread public anger and protests. It was on that day that a Navy warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on an observation post, killing 35-year-old Vieques resident David Sanes and wounding four others. Protesters quickly set up several makeshift camps in the restricted zone to deter the Navy from resuming its target practice.
Reports in the press the same day as the Lares activities said that a special panel set up by U.S. president William Clinton to study the Vieques situation had called for resuming live-fire training, supposedly with a reduced number of bombs and fewer bombing days than the scheduled 180 per year. The report is said to call for the Navy to leave Vieques within five years, if the Pentagon can find a "suitable" alternative site.
Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and a featured speaker at Grito de Lares, denounced this report. He explained that the fight for the freedom of Vieques was part of the fight to demilitarize all of Puerto Rico. "There are those who see the Navy ships as their fleet; our fleet is made up of the humble fishermen who block those ships," he declared.
Guadalupe warned that U.S. authorities may move to arrest those encamped on the Navy occupied territory on Vieques. To enthusiastic applause he said, "When the arrests start we have to be ready to mobilize.…This is for the liberation of all of Puerto Rico."
Many thousands of participants signed petitions saying they were committed to entering the Navy's restricted areas in solidarity with the several encampments there that are organized by unionists, fishermen, and members of the PIP.
Nine former political prisoners who had just been released under a "clemency" offer by the Clinton administration, are now living in Puerto Rico. They were invited as guests of honor at the Grito de Lares commemoration, but due to the onerous conditions put on their release by U.S. authorities they were unable to attend. A number of these independence fighters sent messages to the rally. The crowd's sustained applause for each message showed that the ex-prisoners were heroes to those in attendance. The same was the case when messages were read from Antonio Camacho Negrón and José Solís Jordan, two of the six independence supporters who remains in jail in the United States. William Morales, an independentista who lives in Cuba, also sent a message. Morales escaped from a New York prison in the 1980s.
Former prisoner Elizam Escobar wrote that it was a difficult decision not to attend Grito de Lares, but they couldn't do it without being seen as breaking the Clinton administration's conditions of parole, which limit their right of association.
Luis Rosa, another recently released political prisoner, called for the continued fight to free the remaining six prisoners. He said that those who came out of prison did so to continue the struggle. "Our fight is ongoing." He added, "We are with you in Lares and in Vieques."
A message from Edwin Cortes said that the conditions placed on him and the other prisoners demonstrated "colonial arrogance and racism against us." Ex-prisoner Adolfo Matos also sent a message to the rally.
Barlaam Cintrón, a student from San German, had been at previous Lares celebrations. "This is better this year," he said, "because so many things have drawn people here. People still come here for tradition, but also for Vieques and the prisoners. The big majority of students are for getting the Navy out." On the prisoners, he said, "The U.S. government is trying to change peoples minds but we know they are fighting for freedom and aren't terrorists."
Ninety-one-year-old Puerto Rican nationalist Fernando Milan Suárez told the Militant, "There is a growth of consciousness in the youth, a proclamation of our sovereignty."
Another participant in Grito de Lares was Zenaida Rivera, a retired worker from the Electric Power Authority. Commenting on an article in the Militant about coal miners in the U.S. fighting against company attacks on health coverage for retirees she said, "They are doing the same here." She explained that her union, the electrical workers union UTIER, is in the process of negotiating a new contract and has been working for 22 months under the old one. The company is demanding that the new contract cut health benefits for retirees.
On September 21, UTIER called a 12-hour work stoppage and held an assembly where a strike authorization vote was unanimously approved. The vote authorizes the union leadership to call a strike at any time. UTIER has about 5,000 members. The company and the union remain far apart on a number of issues, including wages. UTIER is fighting for a four-year contract with hourly raises of 84 cents the first year and 79 cents in the remaining years, with retroactive raises to May of 1998. The company is proposing a six-year contract with raises of 37, 43, and 49 cents every two years with no retroactive pay.
Rivera said that during the 1998 strike by telephone workers opposed to the government privatizing the telephone company, which included a two-day island-wide general strike, she participated with her union in support rallies, visited the picket lines, and made financial contributions.
The remarks of one of the last speakers at the rally got a warm response from many in the crowd. Marcos Díaz, the president of the Federation of Pro-Independence University Students (FUPI) said of the Grito de Lares rally, "This is an advance." It is a show of strength following the telephone strike and the murder of David Sanes in Vieques, he said. "The Navy should leave the entire Caribbean. It's better that they never practice."
Díaz continued, "Today the colonizers are in crisis. Health care is a luxury. The police are more brutal. We need to organize ourselves everywhere until total liberation. Long live free Puerto Rico!"
Two of the biggest ovations at Grito de Lares were for the announcements that Lolita Lebron and Rafael Cancel Miranda were present. They each spent a quarter-century in U.S. jails for their uncompromising fight for the independence of Puerto Rico. Lebron was quoted in the press as announcing the formation of an organization of women from different countries in the Americas to support the fight to get the Navy out of Vieques.
Betsy Stone and Ron Richards contributed to this article.
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