‘Right-wing’ plot vs. parade: Viv

CITY COUNCIL Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito charged “ultraright-wing” forces are behind a campaign to discredit the Puerto Rican Day Parade over its decision to honor a nationalist sent to prison for his involvement with a militant group.

Several corporate sponsors, NYPD and FDNY groups, and even the Yankees have dropped out of the parade after it named Oscar Lopez Rivera, recently released from from prison after President Barack Obama commuted his sentence, the parade’s first National Freedom Hero.

Mark-Viverito, a supporter of Lopez Rivera, pinned the blame on factions within the island’s pro-statehood party.

“A lot of the campaign putting

O R O W

pressure on the sponsors to withdraw, etc., is being manipulated and organized and orchestrated from an ultra-right-wing element on the island,” she told reporters Wednesday. “The statehood party is very much threatened by what this parade represents and what Oscar Lopez Rivera represents. And so now they’re engaging in trying to force companies to withdraw, and making certain threats if they don’t do so.”

Lopez Rivera served 35 years of a 55-year prison sentence for his involvement with FALN, which claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings.

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