Puerto Rico Freedom Struggles

Bad Bunny's new album, which elevates the artists and musical traditions of Puerto Rico and its diaspora, comes at a time of intense concern over the effects of climate crises and gentrification. 

In Puerto Rico, debates over energy sovereignty and the political struggle for self-determination take center stage in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

What does the controversy about Oscar López Rivera’s participation in this year’s Puerto Rican Day parade tell us about Puerto Rico’s anti-colonial struggle?

Translating is a dangerous act of resistance, and Juan knew that danger all too well, but never stopped striving to avoid losing anything in that translation.

Monday, May 24 marked the sixth week of a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico after protests began on April 21. Students are protesting $100 million budget cuts, increases in tuition, and changes to the university program. The student strike was intended to be only a 48 hour stoppage, but university officials were unwilling to negotiate with students. Now, after six weeks, the strike continues amidst reports of police brutality. International support is increasing for the students, including from New Yorkers who held a rally on May 18.

"It appears to us to be a reinitiation of the harassment of independentists."1 —U.S. Congressman José Serrano, speaking to FBI director Robert Mueller An unexpected knock on the door . . . men in trench coats handing you a grand jury subpoena . . . .  If you're involved in the movement for the independence of Puerto Rico, this isn't just a not-so-fond memory of the COINTELPRO era.  It's 2008 in New York City, and you are Christopher Torres, a young social worker; Tania Frontera, a young graphic designer; or Julio Pabón Jr., a young filmmaker from the Bronx.

Protests against the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for subpoenas granted to activists in a grand jury trial investigating the Boricua Popular Army–Macheteros will be held in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, and California, as well as Puerto Rico. The protests will be held January 10 in Puerto Rico, and the following day simultaneous protests will be held across the United States. The protests are promoting non-collaboration with the grand jury.

Groups and individuals from diverse sectors of the Puerto Rican pro-independence movement and the Boricua Community in general, are urgently meeting in Puerto Rico and throughout the Diaspora to organize against the latest offensive by the U.S. Department of Justice, after being informed that several young Boricua pro-independence activists from New York City have been subpoenaed to appear before a Federal Grand jury investigating the Puerto Rican Independence Movement in general, and in particular, the Ejercito Popular Boricua (EPB: Popular Boricua Army), the Macheteros.