Ruben Berrios

Rubén Berríos Martínez is the longtime president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). On May 1, 1999, less than two weeks after Puerto Rican civilian David Sanes was killed by errant U.S. Navy bombs at the Vieques training range, he led the first major civil-disobedience encampment on the bombing range. He remained on the range for nearly a year. On May 4, 2000, U.S. Navy and federal agents arrested him and other peace-camp residents for trespassing on U.S. military property. He served four months in federal prison. The four-year Vieques campaign succeeded in forcing the U.S. Navy to withdraw from the bombing range on May 1, 2003 after 60 years. Hundreds of Vieques protesters were arrested and jailed during the 1999-2003 campaign.

The Militant reported that Ruben Berrios Martinez, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, and fourteen other independence supporters were sentenced on February 18, 1971 to three-month prison terms for demonstrating in the U.S. Navy target zone on Culebra earlier that year. The article connects the protest to opposition to expanded Navy land use. This is an earlier Culebra prosecution, distinct from his later Vieques imprisonment; the nominal three months do not establish actual admission, release or time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1971/v35n12-apr-02-1971-mil.pdf#page=24

The Militant’s report of the September12,1971 Puerto Rican independence march identifies Berrios as PIP president and a speaker alongside MPI general secretary Juan Mari Bras. The march protested the U.S. governors’ conference and commemorated Pedro Albizu Campos. The article’s unnamed leafleting arrests are not attributed to Berrios. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1971/3535/MIL3535.pdf#page=24 (PDF1, printed24; issue date absent).