146 CENTRO JOURNAL !"#$%& ''! • ($%)&* + • ,-*+(. 2013 From Freedom Fighters to Patriots: The Successful Campaign to Release The FALN Political Prisoners, 1980–1999 MARGARET POWER ABSTRACT This article explores why President Clinton sanctioned the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners in 1999 given that nineteen years earlier, the U.S. government, media, public opinion, and even some of the pro-independence Left had excoriated them as terrorists. To explain Clinton’s decision and the shift in much of public opinion, this article traces the political contours and development of the campaign to release the prisoners. It divides the campaign into two phases. From 1980 to 1990, the campaign argued that a state of war existed between Puerto Rico and the United States, defined the prisoners as prisoners of war, and linked support for the prisoners to the FALN and armed struggle. From 1990 to 1999, it framed the prisoners’ release as a fundamental human rights issue and called on Puerto Ricans to embrace the prisoners as part of the Puerto Rican family and nation. This change allowed the campaign to become broader, more inclusive, and successful. [Key words: FALN, campaign, political prisoners, soli- darity movements, pro-independence politics] The author (
[email protected]) is a Professor of History at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is the author of Right-Wing Women in Chile: Feminine Power and the Struggle against Allende, 1964–1973 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002) and co-editor of Right-Wing Women around the World: From Conservatives to Extremists (Routledge, 2002) and New Perspectives on the Transnational Right (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).