Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 06:33:57 GMT
Sender: Activists Mailing List <ACTIV-L@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>
From: Bob Witanek <bwitanek@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Troops Occupy Puerto Rican Housing

Posted: Dave Kuehne <KUEHNE@dep.state.nj.us>

Troops Occupy Puerto Rican Housing

Excerpts from The Times, Trenton, NJ., 12 March, 1996

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - About 800 National Guard troops and police swarmed into Puerto Rico's largest housing project yesterday, searching for illegal drugs and weapons and arresting residents. The raid was the latest in a series of National Guard takeovers of public housing projects in Puerto Rico in an effort to stem crime and reduce the murder rate - the highest in the United States. Gov. Pedro Rossello, elected in 1992 on a promise to restore order, has sent police and Guard troops to sweep out crime in the projects, home to about 250,000 people.