The Nation - News from Feb. 4, 1987

A bartender pleaded innocent to federal charges of inciting others to set the New Year’s Eve fire that killed 96 people at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The judge denied bail. U.S. Atty. Daniel Lopez Romo told the court he had 13 witnesses who had testified to incitement by Jose Francisco Rivera Lopez, 40, before the fire started at the hotel, which was having labor problems. He said one quoted the bartender as saying the “hotel wants to screw us. We have to screw them by burning something . . . by setting . . . the hotel on fire. . . . I’m going to set a fire.”