GOP City Council candidates strongly oppose Puerto Rican Day Parade honoree
It usually takes a volatile issue to unite politicians running against each other in an election. District 43 City Council candidates Bob Capano, Liam McCabe and John Quaglione have all raised their voices in opposition of this year’s 60th National Puerto Rican Day Parade honoree Oscar Lopez Rivera and the support he has received from New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Lopez Rivera, whose 70-year sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama in January, is one of the leaders of Armed Forces of National Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional/FALN), an organization responsible for committing acts of violence against New York police officers and the fatal 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan that killed four people and injured more than 50 others.
McCabe told the Brooklyn Eagle, “The parade organizers should focus on raising much-needed capital for education for Puerto Rican children, rather than raising up a divisive figure. If you had told any New Yorker 16 years ago that an individual associated with committing terrorist acts would be leading a parade down Fifth Avenue, they would have laughed you out of town.”
The Democrats running for the City Council are Justin Brannan, Kevin Peter Carroll, Rev. Khader El-Yateem and Nancy Tong. The seat is currently held by Vincent Gentile, who is term-limited and cannot run for re-election.