Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is circulating a letter urging New York lawmakers to rally around the embattled Puerto Rican Day Board, which has been stung by boycotts for planning to honor pardoned terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera.
The move comes as outraged Hispanic police groups and Goya Foods pulled support from the 60th national Puerto Rican Day Parade to be held on June 11th for honoring Rivera.
The pardoned man, who has been linked to one of deadliest terrorist groups ever to target New York City, is being honored with the parade’s first “National Freedom Hero” award.
“Please join me in signing on to the attached letter to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Board expressing support for their decision to honor Oscar Lopez Rivera during this year’s 60th National Puerto Rican Day parade,” Mark-Viverito said.
“As countless families continue to struggle in Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, Oscar is a reminder of the hope that has always anchored the Island.
The Board’s decision to honor him is something that should be celebrated and supported. Yet, unfortunately, one of the parade’s main sponsors has backed out of supporting this longstanding tradition,” she said.
Mark-Viverito, a Puerto Rican native, requested that public officials send their electronic signature to her office to be added to the letter.
“We march to honor our history and uplift our people. . . .We stand in solidarity with Oscar and express our full support for the Board’s decision to recognize and uplift the legacy of Oscar Lopez Rivera,” she said in the letter.
Rivera 74, had his 70-year sentence commuted by outgoing President Barack Obama in January after serving nearly 36 years in prison following his conviction of conspiracy and sedition charges for his ties to the Puerto Rican nationalist group, FALN, which was responsible for more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and 80s — including the 1982 blast at NYPD headquarters that left an officer maimed and a 1975 attacked that killed four at Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District.
Mark-Viverito visited Rivera on Wednesday in Puerto Rico, after he was freed from house detention. She giddily snapped pictures of the man many Puerto Rican nationalists hail as a freedom fighter.
