Lolita Lebron | Puerto Rican activist, 90
Lolita Lebron, 90, a Puerto Rican independence activist who spent 25 years in prison for participating in a gun attack on the U.S. Congress a half-century ago, died Sunday in San Juan of complications from respiratory disease.
Lolita Lebron, 90, a Puerto Rican independence activist who spent 25 years in prison for participating in a gun attack on the U.S. Congress a half-century ago, died Sunday in San Juan of complications from respiratory disease.
Ms. Lebron was a leading figure in the small but passionate nationalist movement in the U.S. territory. In 1954, she and three other nationalists entered the U.S. Capitol with automatic pistols and opened fire from an upstairs spectators' gallery onto the crowded floor of the House, firing nearly 30 shots. They unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and Ms. Lebron shouted, "Viva Puerto Rico libre!" (Long live free Puerto Rico!) No one died, but five U.S. representatives were wounded.
She later said that she never intended to kill anyone and that all four nationalists expected to be killed in the assault. She and the others received lengthy prison sentences. President Jimmy Carter granted them clemency in 1979.
Back in Puerto Rico, she continued to attend political rallies on the island. In 2001, she was arrested at age 81 for cutting through a fence on Vieques island to protest the 1999 death of a guard killed by an errant bomb dropped during a U.S. Navy training exercise. She was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
- AP