The most disturbing effect of this controversy has been what it has revealed about the U.S. political climate regarding Puerto Rico. One has to wonder--if this issue dealt with the lives of prisoners of another ethnicity or nationality that is prominent in New York--would President Clinton then be accused of trying to win that group's votes for his wife? Could the core of this reaction be the threat of a non-white group having grown in numbers and risen in power and prominence in one of the U.S. major cities?

It is a harsh accusation, but I am finding it difficult to explain why an issue that can be reduced to a simple question (were the sentences given to the prisoners appropriate for the crimes committed?) has not only become a political hot potato, but become one for a politician who was not even responsible for the decision made.

Meanwhile, the larger historical framework surrounding the controversy, such as the United States' very recent imperialist past (and some might argue present) in Puerto Rico and the treatment of Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens in the United States has been shunted aside in favor of blanket accusations about the tolerance of violence and the cat-and-mouse game of political point-scoring. What was an opportunity for Americans, particularly politicians, to educate themselves about Puerto Rico's history and its complicated relationship with the United States, as well as about the status and treatment of Puerto Ricans in the United States today, has turned into yet another opportunity to point fingers, sling mud, and vilify a particular group of Americans.

I am not in favor of using violence to advance political causes, and neither is the vast majority of the Puerto Rican population. To characterize the support for the Puerto Rican prisoners as a defense of violence or terrorism would be a mistake. Rather, the support has emerged out of a sense that the prisoners were unjustly sentenced by a system that has often judged members of minority groups by harsher standards.

By granting the prisoners clemency, President Clinton has acknowledged that the justice system can make mistakes and affirmed that in a true democracy, an individual cannot be sentenced for political viewpoints or unproven assumptions about his or her intentions. It remains to be seen if the treatment of the released prisoners in upcoming years will reflect this affirmation, but for now I consider it a step forward to have the lives and rights of Puerto Ricans, United States citizens for the past 80 years, considered on the same level as those of other Americans, even as the controversy that has exploded around the issue points out to me how far we all still have to go.

Kiara Alvarez Ferrer '01 is a literature concentrator in Adams House. She is from San Juan, Puerto Rico and is secretary/treasurer of Fuerza Latina.