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Moms ask police to leave deserter sons alone

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two U.S. soldiers who disappeared from military installations on the U.S. mainland are hiding in Puerto Rico but should be left alone, their mothers told reporters Wednesday.

The women asked police here to stop searching for their sons, saying that desertion from the U.S. military may be a federal crime but enforcement should not be up to local officials.

Hiram Lozada, a lawyer for both families, denounced two visits that police made to one of the soldier’s grandparents last month in the eastern city of Humacao.

Puerto Rico police chief Pedro Toledo said he wasn’t familiar with the women’s case but vowed to uphold federal law, saying his officers would work jointly with federal authorities to find and arrest any deserters.

Neither the Army nor Puerto Rico police nor the soldiers’ mothers identified the two men by name or age.

Maria Santiago said her son had suffered from depression but enlisted in the Army anyway in January 2007. She said she personally brought her son home from Fort Campbell, Ky., last March, after the military refused to discharge him for medical reasons.

Campbell spokeswoman Kelly Tyler said she had no details about the case but suggested any soldier suffering from mental illness would be better off on the base than in hiding.

“If he was suffering depression, it’s going to be difficult for him to get an appropriate level of care if he goes into hiding,” Tyler said.

Luz Eneida Morales said her son left a base in Colorado after suffering “abuses and humiliations.” She said a botched anthrax vaccination given to her son had impeded his circulation.