This year the parade, an annual festival and outpouring of pride for Puerto Ricans that drew an estimated 2 million people, was marked by widespread expressions of support for the fight to end the decades-long use of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques for target practice by the U.S. Navy.

That battle has become a focal point in politics, both in that Caribbean nation and in U.S. cities with large Puerto Rican communities, since April 1999, when a U.S. warplane on training exercises dropped a bomb that killed Vieques resident David Sanes. The bombing range there was subsequently occupied by protesters until May 4 of this year, when FBI agents and U.S. marshals backed by U.S. marines evicted the protesters. Demonstrations have continued since then.

Parade organizers officially dedicated this year's event to the people of Vieques and to Pedro Albizu Campos. The lead floats and contingents featured several blocks of marchers campaigning for the removal of the U.S. military from Vieques and the release of pro-independence political prisoners.

At the head of the parade was an "Albizu Vive" (Albizu Lives) float featuring a larger-than-life statue of Albizu Campos, the historic leader of the Puerto Rican struggle for independence from U.S. colonial rule, who was jailed for many years by the U.S. government for his anti-imperialist activities and died in 1965.

The 40-block parade route was plastered with signs, on police barricades and held aloft by people in the crowd, that read "Peace for Vieques." Some spectators brought homemade placards. The Vieques contingents drew waves of loud applause and cheers, with only a small handful of spectators giving the thumbs-down.

One of the most popular contingents was made up of several dozen Vieques fishermen and other residents of the island. Hundreds of other political activists came from Puerto Rico to take part in the parade and other events, the most prominent being the Hostos National Congress and the Socialist Front. The Vieques Support Campaign in New York had a large contingent as well.

Pro-Libertad, a New York–based committee campaigning for the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, had a colorful float featuring the pictures and the names of six jailed independentistas. They carried a banner declaring "Faltan seis" (Six are left), referring to the fact that 11 of 17 political prisoners--many of whom spent two decades in prison--won their freedom last year through an international defense campaign.

Other groups marching with banners and signs in the parade included the Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialists, Pastors for Peace, Workers World Party, and the Committee for the Return of Elián González to Cuba.

One youth, Angel Pérez, said he was marching in the Albizu Vive contingent because "people should have the right to live where they want peacefully. It's been a long time since they [the Navy] invaded, but that doesn't matter. It's time to stop the bombing now."

Maritza Rosado, a Manhattan teacher, said she was marching to demand independence for Puerto Rico. She joined the contingent from the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), which this year had a sizable presence, both from the island and chapters in New York.

Along the side of the parade, Kimberly Irizarry, 21, had come with four other family members from the Bronx. She held a sign in Spanish that said, "Our island Puerto Rico has no price." It referred to efforts by the Clinton administration to offer millions of dollars to Vieques residents if they agree to the U.S. Navy staying on their land.

The Vieques and other political contingents at the parade were the culmination of a week of forums, panel discussions, picket lines, poetry readings, and other political events. One was a forum at the headquarters of Local 1199 of the hospital workers union, featuring a panel of trade union officials on the situation facing the labor movement on the island. Several meetings featured PIP leader Rubén Berríos.

Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, was featured at a number of public events, including a June 10 forum sponsored by the Vieques Support Campaign and Charas, a community center. Also speaking was Lolita Lebrón, one of the five Nationalist Party activists who spent more than two decades in U.S. prisons for their involvement in a 1954 armed protest in the U.S. Congress. She was welcomed as a heroine by many along the parade.

The previous day, several dozen people picketed outside a Bronx courthouse demanding trespassing charges be dropped against seven activists who unfurled flags and signs protesting the Navy's presence on Vieques during a May 5 Yankees-Orioles game. A new court date was set for July 10.  
 
 
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