THE IMPRISONMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN FIGHTING COLONIALISM, 1898 - 1958 1898 - 1910
Puerto Rico is invaded and occupied by the United States military forces.		larger photo
		Treaty of Paris is signed by Spain and the United States: Spain illegally cedes Puerto Rico to the United States in violation of the Carta de Autonomica of 1897 which granted Puerto Rico autonomy from Spain. U.S. Military Governor Guy V. Henry limits freedom of the press. Newspapers criticizing authorities or inciting political action will be censored and the journalists punished. Several well-known journalist are jailed: Evaristo Izcoa Diaz, Tomas Carrion Maduro, Manuel Guzman Rodriguez and Luis Cabalier. Eugenio Maria Hostos condemns press censorship and organizes an international protest. Under the Spanish, Izcoa Diaz was arrested several times for his polemical articles. During the American occupation, he criticizes the vandal-like attitude of the American soldiers in Ponce. La Bomba, his newspaper, is forced to close and Izcoa Diaz is arrested. He opens a new newspaper after his release, El Combate, and criticizes a proposal presented to the military governor that supports corporal punishment in the schools. He is arrested again, fined $500 and sentenced to 1 1/2 years forced labor. He is released in 1899 after spending several months in the Puerta de Tierra jail of San Juan. He dies two years later at the age of 36. Luis Cabalier, editor of La Estrella Solitaria, publishes an article stating that the death of two Spaniards in Ciales should be avenged. He is jailed.
Julio Medina Gonzalez, a painter, politician and protégé of Hostos, has two of his newspapers shut down: La Voz del Pueblo and La Revolucion. He and Hostos initiate International Workers Day in Puerto Rico, celebrated on May 1. He is also a founder of the Nationalist Party.
		Medina is elected to the Camara de Delegados, representing a district in Mayaquez. He founds a new newspaper La Independencia. He is is arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison for drawing a caricature of Governor Beckmann Winthrop. Medina is pardoned 1 1/2 years later.