Juan Mari Bras | Independence leader, 82

Juan Mari Bras, 82, an elder statesman of Puerto Rico's independence movement who gave up U.S. citizenship in an act that inspired hundreds of other activists, died Friday at his home in the San Juan suburb of Rio Piedras, said Elaine Mulet Hocking, a spokeswoman for his Hostosiano independence movement.

He had lung cancer and had recently fallen, she said.

A writer and law professor, Mr. Mari Bras was involved in the independence cause from his days as a teenage student activist. He founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and was a cofounder of the small but influential Independence Party.

He dedicated his later years to seeking unity among the varied pro-independence factions in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory whose four million residents are American citizens but cannot vote for president.

Mr. Mari Bras traveled to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1994 and renounced his American citizenship while claiming the right to continue living in Puerto Rico.

The State Department initially approved Mr. Mari Bras' petition but reversed its decision in 1998, the centennial year of the U.S. invasion that resulted in the seizure of Puerto Rico from Spain. U.S. officials told Mr. Mari Bras he was again a U.S. citizen because he had not registered as a resident alien.

As the result of legal challenges stemming from that case, the island government in 2007 issued its first certificate of Puerto Rican citizenship to Mr. Mari Bras.

In 1973 he also became the first Puerto Rican to lobby the United Nations for the island's independence.

He is survived by his wife and five children. Another child, Santiago Mari Pesquera, was slain in 1976 while Mr. Mari Bras was campaigning for governor on a Socialist Party ticket. The case was never solved. - AP