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Puerto Rico

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Expressing the sounds of her beloved Puerto Rico, hundreds of people singing plenas and chanting about her valiant character accompanied independence fighter Lolita Lebrón to her final resting place in the Old San Juan Cemetery. She was buried close to her dear Maestro, Don Pedro Albizu Campos. As she had requested, the burial took place just over 24 hours after her death....
There are no vacations yet for the students who won a two-month strike at the University of Puerto Rico. Instead, they have continued organizing and demanding that the administration fulfills the agreement....
Jubilantly chanting, “Victory, victory, victory for history!” and “Eleven campuses, one UPR!” students at the University of Puerto Rico on the 58th day of their strike emerged from a final negotiating session with the Board of Trustees having won an agreement. It still has to be ratified at an assembly of the students as a whole....
University of Puerto Rico students, labor unions, the Socialist Students Union, the Committee against Homophobia and Discrimination, UPR high school students and others held a big demonstration with a march from Munoz Rivera Park to Fortaleza — the governor’s mansion.

Gov. Luis Fortuño held a news conference at the same time to present his hostile version of the strike to the public. The governor accused the students of being “violent.” He also said that “external elements” - meaning the unions as well as left and pro-independence organizations, all of which have been in solidarity with the strikers — should not “interfere.”...

Thousands of Puerto Rican students, sons and daughters of the working class and some already workers themselves, anticipated May Day actions by defiantly challenging the University of Puerto Rico’s board of administrators and the island government in mid-April when they called a student strike to defend affordable public higher education on the island....
Puerto Ricans have resisted U.S. culture and the imposition of English-only in schools, and over the years have formed liberation organizations such as the Nationalist Party, the FALN and the Macheteros. Now the movement and its allies are calling for the FBI and the U.S. Navy to get out of Puerto Rico. International solidarity is needed....
Last Friday, September 23, 2005, while the pro-independence movement in Puerto Rico was commemorating the 137th anniversary of El Grito de Lares, the day the first Republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed in 1868, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, respected and legendary leader of the liberation movement was being assassinated by FBI sharpshooters just a few miles away in the western coast of the island. ...
The International Action Center, an organization with over 15 centers throughout the United States, denounces the Bush Administration's announcement that the FBI has issued an arrest warrant for ANTONIO CAMACHO NEGRON a Puerto Rican pro-independence leader and former political prisoner....
Vieques is an island municipality of Puerto Rico, separated from it by 6-8 miles of sea. It measures 21 by 4 miles, with an area of 33,000 sq. acres. Population: 9,400 inhabitants who live in the narrow, middle strip of land sandwiched between two U.S. large Naval facilities. ...

International Action Center • Solidarity Center • 55 W. 17 St., Suite 5C • New York, NY 10011
Phone 212.633.6646 • E-mail: iacenter@iacenter.org • En Español: iac-cai@iacenter.org