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Gov. Cuomo explains why he's not marching in Puerto Rican Day Parade
KENNETH LOVETT MAY 29, 2017 10:27 PM
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo on Monday said the controversial move to honor recently released FALN nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera in the Puerto Rican Day Parade brought an unnecessary political intrusion to the annual cultural event.
“This has been an injection of politics into the parade that I think, frankly, was unfortunate,” Cuomo said after marching in a Memorial Day parade in Westchester County.
“It’s supposed to be about honoring the Puerto Rican-American community. Celebrating their culture, their cuisine. Their music. And this has been an unnecessary intrusion of politics and I feel bad about the whole situation.”
Cuomo used the phrase Puerto Rican-American even though Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.
Cuomo ditches Puerto Rican Day Parade with no controversy mention
Must Credit Luiz C. Ribeiro Photography or Pay Triple Rate.
Cuomo said he is not marching in the June 11 parade.
IMAGE BY: LUIZ C. RIBEIRO/FOR THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Cuomo on Friday said he would not march in the June 11 parade. While he didn’t give a reason at the time, the decision came as sponsors and other participants were dropping out of the event because of the inclusion of Lopez Rivera.
The governor on Monday did not weigh in on whether others should not march in the parade. Mayor de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. are among the politicos still set to participate in the parade.
“Everybody has to make their own decision,” Cuomo said. “I just wish they would keep politics separate.”
PUERTO RICO OUT
Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera was a member of FALN, a group connected to more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.
IMAGE BY: CARLOS GIUSTI/AP
FALN has been connected to more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, including one at the historic Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District that killed four people and injured 50 others.
STASI: Puerto Rican terrorist is no hero — Mayor must not march
Lopez Rivera, 74, was not convicted of the violence, but rather of sedition. Former President Barack Obama commuted his sentence in January and he was released from prison on May 17.
Without saying where he stood on Lopez Rivera, Cuomo said there are political debates among the far left and the far right where some paint him as a terrorist and others as an activist.
“So you’ll have that debate wherever,” he said. “It just didn’t have to happen in this parade. This parade is about honoring Puerto Rico, not having a political argument.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ing-puerto-rican-day-parade-article-1.3205272