The Ponce massacre occurred Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, when a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico, turned into a bloody police slaughter, killing 18 Puerto Ricans and wounding over 200 others. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873. The march was also protesting the imprisonment, by the U.S. government, of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos on alleged sedition charges.
The bloodshed began when the Insular Police fired on the marchers - killing 18 unarmed civilians, two policemen, and wounding some 235 civilians, including women and children. A 7-year old girl was also killed by a bullet.
The Insular Police, a force somewhat resembling the National Guard, was under the direct military command of the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship. Ultimate responsibility fell on Winship, who controlled the National Guard and Insular Police, and ordered the massacre. It was the largest massacre in Puerto Rican history.
Read more about Ponce Massacre: Chronology of Events, The Investigation and The Hays Commission, Casualties, Recorded in The Congressional Record, Attempt Against Governor Winship, Legacy, Ponce Massacre Museum
Famous quotes containing the words ponce and/or massacre:
“I want to go back, like Ponce de Leon, to the Fountain.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)