Vieques Mayor Freed From Jail, to Continue Anti-Navy Protests
The mayor of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques was released from a federal detention center Tuesday after serving a 120-day sentence for trespassing on military lands to protest U.S. Navy bombing on the island.
The sentence given to Damaso Serrano was the longest handed down by the federal courts in San Juan against a first-time offender arrested during Vieques protests.
“I feel strengthened and I will continue to fight to get the Navy out of Vieques,” said Serrano as he was greeted by about 100 well-wishers outside the federal detention center in suburban Guaynabo.
In August, U.S. District Judge Jesus Castellanos argued that Serrano, as the island’s leader, was inciting others to commit crimes by trespassing on Navy land during bombinJWercises in late April.
Serrano, a 53-year-old Vietnam veteran, was elected mayor of the island’s 9,100 residents last year. He is a member of Gov. Sila Maria Calderon’s anti-U.S. statehood party. Calderon has also pushed for an end to the bombing.
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