Word: rican
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Four Puerto Rican terrorists go home to a heroes' welcome...
...brief moment last week San Juan's international airport took on the atmosphere of a revolutionary carnival, as some 5,000 Puerto Ricans gathered to welcome an American Airlines jet. Young couples swayed to the rhythm of revolutionary songs, vendors did a brisk business selling tiny Puerto Rican flags, and young leftists passed out leaflets calling for armed struggle...
Earlier in the week, at receptions in Chicago and New York City, they had demanded Puerto Rican independence and refused to rule out violence. During a press conference at the U.N., Collazo said, "I decide whether terrorism is necessary after I return to Puerto Rico." Lebrón added, "I am a revolutionary and a member of the atomic age ... I hate bombs but we might have to use them...
Such words raised concern on the U.S. mainland and in the island commonwealth, where the independence movement has won few votes and terrorism none. Puerto Rican Governor Carlos Romero Barceloó an ardent proponent of statehood, had opposed the release of the prisoners and pointedly left San Juan for a visit to the mainland to avoid the whole fuss over their return. Their release coincides with the campaign that will culminate in Puerto Rico's first presidential primaries, to be held in February and March of 1980. With straight faces, White House aides deny any link between the release...
Last week President Carter granted clemency to the four Puerto Ricans remaining in prison. He had freed the fifth, Cordero, in 1977 because Cordero was dying of cancer. The White House cited "humane considerations" in freeing the terrorists. But the clemency also could help Carter politically among Hispanic voters in both Puerto Rico and the U.S. It was possible, too, that the release might make Fidel Castro more willing to respond to U.S. pleas that three Americans and a Puerto Rican charged with espionage be released from his jails...