amy: we're going to go to break and come back to our discussion with juan cartagena, president and general counsel of latino justice, and oscar lopez rivera, porter get and defenses activists, freed last month after serving 35 years in prison. this is democracy now! we will be back in a minute. ♪ [music break] amy: "and a bird the two wings" by pablo milanes. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest is oscar lopez rivera reporter reagan independence activist, freed last month after serving 35 years in prison. we're also joined by juan cartagena, president and general counsel of latino justice. is the time here in new york city that the puerto rican day parade is taking place on sunday.. it is also the day, sunday, that the puerto rican referendum will take place in puerto rico. juan: oscar, i would like to ask you about how you see puerto rico now, having come out of prison -- the last time you were there was over 35 years ago. and now you are seeing a situation with total economic collapse and banankruptcy. what do you see as the situation on the island right now and how it