Tito Kayak

Alberto De Jesus Mercado (born approx. 1958), better known all over Puerto Rico as Tito Kayak is a Vieques native who became one of the most outspoken leaders of the movement against United States military presence in his native island-city.

Kayak gained great notoriety after the 1999 death of David Sanes, when a group of Vieques natives and people from all over Puerto Rico and from some other countries began protesting. He and Ismael Guadalupe are often pointed out by newspapers such as El Nuevo Dia and El Vocero as two of the main leaders of those who wanted the military out of Vieques, and he has been interviewed several times by both newspapers.

On November 5 of 2000, he and five other Vieques activists stepped onto the top deck of the Statue of Liberty in New York in protest. Kayak then placed a Puerto Rican flag on the statue. For this action, Kayak faced federal charges and he was jailed in New York. Before being arrested for that, he had been arrested in Puerto Rico for trespassing military property in Vieques, and after extinguishing his Puerto Rico sentence at a jail in Guaynabo, he was extradited to New York.

Kayak once again expressed his anti-military views to Puerto Rican newspapers after the death of young Vieques Cancer patient Milivi Adams.