Alberto De Jesus Mercado (born 1958), better known as Tito Kayak, is an activist from Jayuya, Puerto Rico and founder of the Puerto Rican environmental group, Amig@s Del Mar. The organization utilizes a dual approach , which they call "manatiburón (manatee/shark)", which Kayak describes as a combination of "peaceful and simple ways to fulfill our environmental ideals" (like the manatee), and the more “revolutionary approach" (like the shark), which is "only used when we are prohibited from working peacefully towards our goals of improving the environment."
Kayak first gained notoriety when a group of Vieques natives and other Puerto Ricans, including Kayak, began protesting and squatting on U.S. Navy bombing zones, after the 1999 death of Puerto Rican civilian and Vieques native David Sanes, who was killed during a U.S. Naval bombing exercise.
In March, 2000, Tito Kayak and other Puerto Rican activists and fishermen traveled to Scotland to try to halt bombing along the coast of northern Scotland. The US Navy was scheduled to use the Cape Wrath bombing range in Scotland because it could no longer bomb Vieques, in Puerto Rico, due to the protests there.
On November 5, 2000, Tito Kayak and five other Vieques activists stepped onto the top deck of the Statue of Liberty in New York City in protest and Kayak then placed a Puerto Rican flag on the statue's crown.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
On March 15, 2005, Kayak returned to activist action, when he chained himself to a vehicle after invading a Marriott Hotel property in a Carolina, Puerto Rico beach to protest against the building of an apartment complex.[8]
On June 13, 2005, Kayak was arrested inside the United Nations headquarters in New York City after he tried to switch the United Nations flag with the Puerto Rican one, while the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization discussed the political status of Puerto Rico.[9]
On April 20, 2007, Kayak was arrested in Israel[10] after he climbed a surveillance tower near Israel's West Bank separation barrier and planted a Palestinian flag in support of Palestine. Kayak spent about five hours in the tower, before climbing down. After his arrest, Kayak stated that
"All I did was to express my identification with the villagers against the wall which is believed to be evil and illegal by the whole world and many leaders like Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and the United Nations".
On November 14, 2007, Kayak climbed the construction cranes at the Paseo Caribe [11] project in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and remained perched on the crane for one week. In a daring escape, Tito rappelled down from the crane and unto a red kayak in the water below while police officers were kept at bay by his supporters. Tito Kayak then rowed himself under a bridge whose clearance was too low for the police powerboats and switched out of the kayak, so when the kayak was apprehended he was no longer on board. Instead he swam across to the other shore. When he was spotted by the police helicopters, supporters jumped into the water confusing the police further and finally guaranteeing Tito's getaway.
On April 14, 2009, Tito Kayak arrived at the former bombing range of Vieques, a restricted area operated by the Federal Fish and Wildlife, and painted a sign saying "Bieke or Death. The Struggle Continues" ("Bieke" was a reference to Vieques) on the former navy Operation Post (OP).[12] He did this in memory of the David Sanes who died 10 years before by a Navy Bomb while on duty at the OP.
On January 25, 2011, Puerto Rican police officers arrested a number of protesters who, using Civil Disobedience, attempted to bar entry and exit from the University of Puerto Rico's Río Piedras campus. One of them, who wore a hood, was found out to be Tito Kayak.[13]