Plans to honor militant touches off backlash

Puerto Rican Day parade organizers are sticking with their decision to honor a freed militant despite criticism.

Organizers of New York City’s Puerto Rican Day parade are sticking with their decision to honor a freed militant who once embraced armed resistance to U.S. rule of Puerto Rico, despite a promised boycott by Hispanic police officers and criticism from salsa star Willie Colon.

New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill on Monday became the latest person to say he wouldn’t march in the parade because of the decision to recognize Oscar Lopez Rivera, who served decades in prison for his involvement in The Armed Forces of National Liberation, or FALN.

During the 1970s and 1980s, FALN claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including a blast that killed four people at New York’s historic Fraunces Tavern in 1975.

Lopez Rivera wasn’t convicted in any of the bombings, but a former FALN member testified that he instructed members on how to make bombs. He served 35 years until his sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.

The 74-year-old has thousands of supporters who see him as a political prisoner, jailed for seeking independence for Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

The board of directors of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade released a statement Monday defending their decision to name Lopez Rivera as “Procer de la Libertad” — National Freedom Hero — for the June 11 parade.