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Heriberto Marín

AKA: Heriberto Marín Torres
Released
Full name:Heriberto Alfonso Marín
Date of birth:23. 11. 1928
Age:97
Gender:Male
Race:Hispanic
Era:1950s
State:Puerto Rico
Time Imprisoned:
9 Years
Support
Anti-War Puerto Rican Independence Anti-Nuclear
Heriberto Marín

Biography

Heriberto Marín Torres (born November 23, 1928, in Barrio Coabey, Jayuya) was one of the youngest fighters of the 1950 Nationalist insurrection — a Nationalist cadet who helped Blanca Canales raise the Puerto Rican flag during the October 30, 1950 Jayuya Uprising. Arrested days later, he was sentenced to life and served about nine years at La Princesa prison in San Juan before his release amid international pressure, and he later chronicled the uprising in his memoir "Coabey: el valle heroico."

One of approximately 1,500 activists arrested between 1999 and 2003 for civil disobedience at the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The campaign — sparked by the April 19, 1999 death of civilian Navy security guard David Sanes Rodríguez when an errant Marine F/A-18 bomb struck his observation post — drew Puerto Ricans of every political stripe (independentistas, statehooders, the Catholic Church, fishers, environmentalists) into a sustained nonviolent direct-action campaign demanding the Navy leave Vieques. Defendants were prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico under 18 U.S.C. § 1382 (entering a military reservation) and typically served 30 to 90 days in federal custody, most often at MDC Guaynabo. The Navy formally ceased operations on Vieques on May 1, 2003. Listed as a current prisoner in Nuclear Resister Issue #121 "Inside & Out" prisoner roster.

His memoir cited by Dávila Marichal describes initial surrender at Coabey, confinement on the Jayuya hotel terrace and transport to Miramar. It also reports an initial release after several days, then a separate rearrest after returning to Jayuya and two months in Arecibo jail before charges. This contradicts treating the entire early period as uninterrupted; no inferred dates or revised total are entered.

José Manuel Dávila Marichal, Organizando la revolución: El Ejército Libertador del Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico y la insurrección nacionalista de 1950 (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid doctoral thesis, 2020), physical/printed page 482–483, 527; SHA256 be07767792e7789d4683e0c5787caac280ca95b7f4c93adf2fbfbab5e7a48eb4.

Case

Charges: Participation in armed uprising (Jayuya Uprising, October 30, 1950)
Arrested: Nov 3, 1950
Incarcerated: Nov 3, 1950
Released: Nov 3, 1959
Sentence: Sentenced to life; served about nine years at La Princesa prison, San Juan, before release amid international pressure (which he attributed in part to the quiet intervention of Pope Pius XII)