Protesters rally in support of jailed Puerto Rican activists

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Likening their cause to the United States' battle for independence, hundreds of Puerto Ricans rallied on the Fourth of July holiday outside a federal prison holding activists opposed to Navy bombing on the island of Vieques.

''It is paradoxical to celebrate the independence of the United States and honor the patriots of that nation while they imprison the patriots of this land!'' local Rep. Victor Garcia told a cheering crowd.

Hundreds more protesters marched in the southern city of Ponce, led by Mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago.

Another 16 activists Tuesday entered the Navy's training ground on Vieques and were quickly arrested by military police, Navy spokesman Gil Mendez said.

Protest organizers said about 90 of 122 people who had refused to post $1,000 bail on trespassing charges had been arrested since Friday by U.S. marshals and imprisoned in the federal prison in suburban San Juan. The U.S. Marshals Service has not responded to requests to confirm the number.

The detainees were among 183 people arrested last week as they tried to enter the Navy bombing range on Vieques to prevent military exercises. A federal judge freed them temporarily, then ordered them detained after they refused to post bail.

The Fourth of July is a holiday in Puerto Rico because the Caribbean island of 4 million is a U.S. territory. The government's official July Fourth celebration took place a few miles away in San Juan's colonial district.

Before the speeches began, the protest gathering had the flavor of a July Fourth picnic, with families relaxing on the grass and eating snow cones as they listened to music.

But the only U.S. flag at the protest was hung upside down and defaced with a red X, and T-shirts were emblazoned with anti-Navy slogans. ''The federal court is colonial oppression!'' proclaimed one banner. ''To break the law of the empire is to obey the law of the motherland!'' said another.

Protesters waved to prisoners dimly visible in the prison's mirrored windows.

''We are here supporting our compatriots,'' said Gilberto Torres, 45, of northern Loiza. ''They are defending their lands.''

The rally, which broke up peacefully in the late afternoon, was attended by pro-independence luminaries including Rafael Cancel Miranda and Lolita Lebron, who participated in a 1954 shooting attack on Congress that wounded five lawmakers.

The Navy has owned two-thirds of Vieques since the 1940s and uses it for training its Atlantic Fleet. The island's 9,400 residents live between the eastern training ground and a weapons depot in the west.

Resentment over the Navy's presence in Vieques boiled over in April 1999, when a U.S. Navy jet dropped a bomb off target and killed a civilian security guard working in the bombing range.

On May 4, U.S. marshals forcibly cleared protesters who had camped out on the bombing range for a year to prevent exercises. Hundreds more have since tried to invade the range, and some 600 people have been detained there.

President Clinton has agreed to order the Navy out by May 2003 if Vieques residents vote in a referendum to expel them. Until then, exercises are to continue with non-explosive bombs and shells.