Biography
Lureida Torres was a twenty-six-year-old New York City schoolteacher and a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), on the staff of the party's newspaper Claridad, when she was jailed in 1976 for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury. Imprisoned in New York on June 24, 1976 for civil contempt, Torres had declined to testify before a grand jury that was ostensibly investigating bombings by the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) — an inquiry the PSP and independence leader Juan Mari Bras denounced as a "fishing expedition" and "witch-hunt" against the Puerto Rican independence movement, noting that neither Torres nor the party had any connection to the FALN.
A federal judge rejected the argument that her continued jailing was purely punitive, and a national "Campaign to Free Lureida Torres" organized demonstrations and a petition drive directed at U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi. Torres, who said she would never testify, was released on October 28, 1976 after completing a four-month sentence.
The September 24, 1976 report records the August Socialist Workers Party convention sending solidarity greetings to Torres, a Puerto Rican Socialist Party member imprisoned since June for refusing cooperation with a grand jury. It documents the contemporary defense campaign and continued confinement at reporting time, without changing her separately established June 24 admission and October 28 discharge. Source: https://themilitant.com/1976/4036/MIL4036.pdf#page=24
The Militant of July 9, 1976 reports that Lureida Torres was imprisoned on June 24 after surrendering to federal marshals following a Foley Square picket that day. It describes the Supreme Court’s rejection of her request to remain free during appeal and quotes her refusal to provide information about supporters of Puerto Rican independence. That June 24 account differs from the June 26 admission stated elsewhere in this profile; the discrepancy remains unresolved. The article’s anticipated October 28 release was tied to the grand jury’s expiry and does not establish when she physically left custody.
