THE IMPRISONMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN FIGHTING COLONIALISM, 1898 - 1958 1950 - present
Repressive measures intensify after the Nationalist uprising. Twenty Nationalists die, more than 1,000 people are arrested, including those who had no connection with the Nationalists such as communists and members of other independence organizations. 119 are imprisoned. The Nationalists associated with the insurrection were given sentences of 400 years. Another 67 are declared guilty of violating Law #53, the so-called Gag Law. The Gag Law was a carbon copy of the Smith Law, used in the United States to combat communism during the McCarthy period. Pro-independence demonstrations are prohibited. People who speak out for independence are jailed. Many are arrested for making comments on the street, applauding Nationalist speakers, collecting signatures against nuclear arms and, more curiously, for carrying flowers and praying at the tomb of a dead Nationalist. The Nationalists bring their struggle to the United States. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attack Blair House, in an attempt to assasinate U.S. President Truman. Torresola dies in the gunfire exchange with guards, Collazo is condemned to death. His sentence is commuted to life. He is later pardoned by President Jimmy Carter and released from prison in 1979.		larger photo larger photo larger photo larger photo
larger photo larger photo		Four Nationalists, Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores and Andres Figueroa Cordero attack the U.S. Congress. They are sentenced to 50 years imprisonment. President Jimmy Carter pardons them in 1979 when they were the oldest political prisoners in the hemisphere. During the 1950's other independentistas are arrested for violating the draft. By the end of the decade, more than 70 people remained imprisoned in Puerto Rico. The last Nationalists are pardoned by Governor Luiz Munoz Marin and released. The decade of the 1950's had seen the mass arrests and jailings of Puerto Ricans exercisingtheir free speech, guaranteed by the recently passed Constitution of the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico. This timeline ends with the decade of the 1950's, but the jailing of men and women fighting against colonialism in Puerto Rico continues to this day.