Sponsors abandon Puerto Rican parade in NY after nationalist honored

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Fri May 26, 2017 | 3:51pm EDT

Sponsors abandon Puerto Rican parade in NY after nationalist honored

By Timothy Mclaughlin

Sponsors have been fleeing next month's National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City since organizers decided to honor an activist recently freed after more than three decades in prison for ties to a nationalist group that carried out more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Oscar Lopez Rivera, 74, was convicted in 1981 of numerous charges, along with other members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), who sought to secure Puerto Rican independence from the United States.

Rivera's sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama, and the prisoner was freed this month. He is to be honored as "National Freedom Hero" at the June 11 parade, which makes its way up Fifth Avenue and draws millions of onlookers.

However, some view Rivera as a terrorist. Several sponsors this week pulled financial support for the parade.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-puertorico-parade-idUSKBN18M2FI

[nycbos]

1. How many innocent people were killed in these bombings?

How many innocent people were killed by the IRA during The Troubles.


It is disgusting me honor Rivera or the IRA.

[secondwind]

2. He paid his dues.