A new grass roots movement is underway to change Puerto Rico's status--it is the outgrowth of Ashcroft's insistence on seeking the death penalty in a gang-related murder case in which jury selection is now underway.

The last execution in Puerto Rico, a hanging, took place in 1927.

Two years later, Puerto Rico's legislature — like those throughout much of Latin America — outlawed the death penalty. The 1952 Constitution, which defined Puerto Rico's status as a self-governing commonwealth associated with the United States, reiterated the unconditional ban on capital punishment.

The federal death penalty trial of the gang members now underway has "brought objections from some islanders that the United States is behaving like a semicolonial ruler."

"We don't believe in capital punishment, and they are trying to impose it on us," said Arturo Luis Davila Toro, president of the Puerto Rican Bar Assn.

....some people in Puerto Rico, who are questioning whether the defendants belong in federal court at all, want the trial to become another rallying point for demanding a change in the island's status — just like the successful struggle to shut down the U.S. Navy's bombing range at Vieques island. Following a four-year campaign that landed more than 1,200 protesters behind bars, the Navy last month abandoned the lands it had held since World War II.

Professor Juan Pablo de Leon has developed an action plan:

As president of a citizens' committee opposing capital punishment, De Leon is planning to take the dispute over the San Juan trial before the United Nations. He also hopes the popular backlash will become so great that Puerto Rico's elected leaders will lobby Congress to exempt the island from the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act.

"Behind this case is the reality of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States," he said.