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Vol. 81/No. 25 July 10, 2017
NY Puerto Rican Parade welcomes Oscar López
NEW YORK — A "Welcome Oscar López-Decolonize Puerto Rico" contingent of
several hundred people marched prominently in the National Puerto Rican
Day Parade here June 11. Many, including independence fighter López,
recently released after nearly 36 years in U.S. prison, wore shirts with
the Puerto Rican flag depicted in black and white. This has become a
symbol in Puerto Rico of widespread protests against savage cutbacks
decreed by a U.S. fiscal control board empowered by Washington to make
the island's people pay on the $74 billion debt to bondholders and hedge
funds. Among the marchers were pro-independence groups, members of the
UGT health care workers union in Puerto Rico, and Osborne Hart,
Socialist Workers Party candidate for New York mayor.
A campaign against the fight to end U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico
and López's participation in the parade — led by the New York Post, the
Daily News and a number of area politicians — resulted in the parade
being smaller than in past years. Major corporate sponsors, including
Goya, Coca-Cola, AT&T and JetBlue, along with New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo, withdrew support. Many along the parade route cheered as López
passed by, while a smaller number booed.
Nearly 900 people heard López speak June 8 at Hostos Community College
in the Bronx, part of his four-day tour in New York. Others attended a
dance in his honor in El Barrio and a cultural program at El Maestro
Cultural Center in the Bronx.
— SARA LOBMAN
Related articles:
Opponents of US colonial rule in Puerto Rico speak out at the UN
‘Fight for workers power is road to independence’
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