Puerto Rico - Campaign mobilizes against military recruiting

• Originally published on Puertoricowow.com [here] on Saturday, September 25th, 2004.

SAN JUAN (AP) -- While Puerto Rican soldiers continue to be mobilized for the war in Iraq, the "Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano" (MINH) announced the beginning of a campaign against military recruitment under the slogan "U.S. Army: a useless way to die."

The co-president of the MINH, Hector Pesquera, said the ads were meant to publicly ask Education Secretary Cesar Rey to allow them equal time to counteract the military recruiting going on in schools.

As part of the campaign, at noon on Friday there will be simultaneous protests in front of 10 military recruiting offices around the island.

The campaign includes visits to schools, theatre in the streets, protests and distribution of informative pamphlets.

Pesquera said the proportion of reservists and National Guardsmen mobilized for the war in Iraq was 56.8 for each 100,000 residents, while in Puerto Rico 65.7 have been mobilized for each 100,000 residents.

"This demonstrates the politics of mobilizing in a proportionally selective way more young Puerto Ricans than U.S. residents, as has been the case in Vietnam and other wars," Pesquera said.