BY ERNIE MAILHOT
MIAMI - As the Militant went to press May 7, members of
the Orlando, Florida, chapter of the Committee for the
Release of the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners were
traveling to Miami to join activists here in a picket line
at the Federal Building demanding the release of Puerto
Rican independence fighter Antonio Camacho Negrón.
The groups initiating the protest included the Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba, the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community, and the Socialist Workers Party.
Camacho, who was released from a U.S. jail in February after 10 years imprisonment as one of the "Hartford 15" defendants, was recently re-arrested in Puerto Rico. Accused by U.S. officials of violating his parole conditions because he has continued to publicly campaign for Puerto Rican independence, Camacho was removed from Puerto Rico and flown to Miami, where he is now incarcerated.
In a message to the May 7 picket, the jailed activist's sister, Marilyn Camacho, stated, "Antonio Camacho's incarceration and extradition clearly illustrates the colonial status of Puerto Rico. It is a new assault on the independentista movement and on the political organizations fighting for the self-determination of the Boricua nation. It demonstrates the United States's total control over the political and judicial systems of the island despite its claim to being the number one democracy in the world."
Right-wing groups in the Miami Cuban-American community have been building a counterprotest against the picket to free Camacho.
Ernie Mailhot is a member of the International Association of Machinists.