Annotations for Subject-headings: Prisons

In New York City, Mayor David Dinkins is calling for amnesty for Puerto Rican political prisoners. Mandalit del Barco reports.

Today, there are more than 45 Puerto Ricans in federal prisons across the country, some of them in jail for 10 years or more because of their work to free Puerto Rico from its U.S. ties. Three years ago, New York City mayor David Dinkins called three of the most famous Puerto Rican Independentistas assassins. Recently, however, he announced a support for freeing more than 21 political prisoners. Dinkins agreed with an amnesty resolution approved last fall by the New York City Council, and he said he's even written to President Clinton on behalf of the prisoners, asking for freedom as a humanitarian gesture. In November, the city council called on the United Nations to declare a general amnesty for the Puerto Ricans now in jail. Their status is a continuing issue for the Senate and Congress as hearings on a Puerto Rican plebiscite continue. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

In Kansas City, it was built as a peace and justice summit as African American and Latino gang members gathered to try to chart a new direction for urban youth. From Kansas City, Frank Morris reports.

The gang members, former gang members, and community activists who met at the Urban Peace and Justice Summit have announced goals to make their embattled neighborhoods and barrios safer and wealthier. They say a new generation of urban leaders has emerged from the summit and formed a coalition between African Americans and Latinos to stop gang violence. Nane Alejandrez is executive director of the National Coalition to End Barrio Warfare in Santa Cruz, California.

We're tired of seeing our mothers at the graveyard. I personally have lost 2 brothers, 7 relatives, 20 relatives to the penitentiary, and I am tired, and I come here as a peacemaker.

Summit participants have agreed to spread the urban peace movement to fight police brutality and to pressure President Clinton to create a half a million dollars’ worth of new inner-city youth jobs. For Latino USA, I'm Frank Morris.

1,500 Cubans holding US federal prisons will be repatriated to Havana. The prisoners who came to this country as part of the Mariel Exodus of 1980 are being deported under an agreement between the Clinton administration and the government of Fidel Castro. But some Cuban Americans are concerned about what could await the prisoners and fear that disagreement might signal the start of broader concessions between the governments of the United States and Cuba. I'm Vidal Guzman. From Austin, Texas, you're listening to Latino USA.