Thousands marched in Puerto Rico and hundreds marched in New York City on Saturday, September 23rd to remember and denounce the FBI killing of independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, who died a year ago to the date. The date also marked the 168th anniversary of El Grito de Lares when Puerto Ricans rebelled to demand independence from Spain in 1868. While hundreds in NYC marched from Times Square to the United Nations singing, dancing and chanting “La lucha sigue, Filiberto Vive” and “Todo boricua machetero”, in Lares, Puerto Rico the chants and message were the same.

“These terrorists, that Yankee empire that wants to instill fear in us, they should know better. We won’t surrender,” Rosa Meneses, president of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, told supporters massed in Revolution Plaza, in the western mountain town of Lares.

What is interesting regarding the coverage of the events and issues surrounding Filiberto’s death and El Grito, is how confused people are about what the exact nature of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States is. The International Herald Tribune writes:

Most Puerto Ricans are split between those who support making the island a U.S. state and those who favor keeping its status as a U.S. commonwealth, which it has been since 1952. Puerto Ricans voted to keep that status and reject statehood in nonbinding referendums in 1967, 1993 and 1998.

Its nearly 4 million people have been U.S. citizens since 1917, but are barred from voting for president, have no voting representation in Congress and pay no federal income taxes.

Non-binding meaning that the those votes ammount to nothing more than a glorified opinion poll that many Puerto Ricans do not even bother to participate in because of the fact that legally (or ilegally depending on how you look at it) the only entity that has the power to change the status of Puerto Rico is the U.S. Congress where Ricans have no voting representation.

Isn’t Democracy grand?

Some amazing pics from the NYC rally, which I was honored to be present at, can be seen at Virtual Boricua.

Via / International Herald Tribune