More sponsors pull out of New York’s Puerto Rican parade

NEW YORK (AP) — More sponsors have dropped out of New York City’s Puerto Rican Day parade after a decision by organizers to honor a freed nationalist who once embraced armed resistance to the U.S. rule of Puerto Rico.

AT&T and JetBlue Airways are the latest sponsors to skip the parade.

Oscar Lopez Rivera spent more than 35 years in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama. He was a member of an armed resistance that claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings around the U.S. and Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s.

JetBlue said the debate was dividing the community and it would instead redirect funds to support student scholarships.

AT&T said it was withdrawing sponsorship.

Parade organizers stand by their decision to honor Lopez Rivera. They say they don’t condone violence.