MESSAGE BOARD: FALN clemency controversy  ALSO: First lady calling Hispanic leaders about clemency controversy 12 Puerto Rican nationalists agree to 'unprecedented' clemency condition VIDEO CNN's Maria Hinojosa gathers reaction on the FALN clemency deal Windows Media 28K 80K

September 8, 1999
Web posted at: 10:13 p.m. EDT (0213 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The decision by a dozen members of the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN to accept President Bill Clinton's offer of clemency is sparking mixed reaction in New York, home to 2.5 million Puerto Ricans.

"We're elated that our brothers and sisters are coming out -- the sooner the better," said Esperanza Martell, a supporter of Puerto Rican independence.

"We are so happy. This means so much to us as the Puerto Rican people," said Marina Elena Montalvo, owner of La Taza de Oro, one of the city's oldest Puerto Rican restaurants.

But to Diana Berger, whose husband died in an FALN bombing, the president's decision is incomprehensible.

"I truly believe they are terrorists. They are not political prisoners. They were not convicted of minor crimes," she said.

And Anthony Senft, a former police detective wounded in a FALN attack, wonders "who is going to be responsible if they go back and set bombs again?"

New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir also criticized the clemency offer.

"These are not freedom fighters. These are not political activists. These are criminal terrorists," he said.

In the 1970s and 1980s, FALN, which supports independence for Puerto Rico, is believed to have set off 130 bombs in the United States, most in New York and Chicago.

Eleven members of FALN -- convicted of seditious conspiracy but not of violent crimes -- are expected to be released over the next several days. As a condition of their clemency, they had to agree to formally renounce violence and not to consort with other felons.

Another FALN member had his sentence reduced and will be free in five years. Two others refused to accept Clinton's offer of clemency, and two have yet to decide.

"These are men and women who are not considered criminals by anyone in our community," says Juan Figueroa of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund. "These are men and women who we respect for their ideology and what they fought for."

The clemency controversy is part of a larger debate over the future of Puerto Rico, which has commonwealth status within the United States. Residents of the island are U.S. citizens, but, because Puerto Rico is not a state, they do not have voting representation in Congress and cannot vote for president.

In a recent plebiscite, Puerto Ricans voted to retain their commonwealth status rather than becoming the 51st U.S. state or an independent country.

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