Puerto Rican Rebel Dies in FBI Shootout

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5299505,00.html

<snip>

more...

I hope the following is acceptable as Late Breaking News. I feel obliged, as a Puerto Rican, to post it."




INTRODUCTION OF ARTICLE

The fate of a fugitive Puerto Rican nationalist is unclear after a gunfight erupted when FBI agents surrounded his hideout in the town of Hormigueros.

Local media reported that Filiberto Ojeda Rios had been captured or killed.

In 1992, he was convicted in absentia for the 1983 robbery of $7m from a bank depot in the US state of Connecticut.

The US considers the robbery an act of domestic terrorism because it allegedly was carried out by nationalists from the self-governing US commonwealth.
....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4278232.stm

-snip -


I'm at a loss for words, folks. And profoundly indignant that the Americans did this on the 23rd of September, the date when Puerto Rico declared its free independent republic from Spain. Not only was it an assassination of a well-known (and loved) independence resistance fighter, they did it yesterday to spite our remembrance of this symbolic day.

More news can be found by going to Google News search, type "Filiberto Ojeda"

Last known photo of Filiberto.

Viva "El Grito de Lares"!

This thread has been combined with another thread.

Click here to read this message in its new location.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filiberto_Ojeda_Rios

Ríos was born April 26, 1933 in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. An amateur musician, he plays trumpet and guitar.

In 1961, he moved his family from Puerto Rico to Cuba and joined the General Intelligence Directorate (DGI), the Cuban intelligence service. A year later he returned to Puerto Rico, allegedly to spy on the United States military.

In 1967 he founded and led the very first of Puerto Rico's new militant political groups, the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement (MIRA). The organization was disbanded by police in the early 1970s, and Ríos was arrested. He subsequently skipped bail and moved to New York, organizing the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) with former MIRA members as a membership base.

In 1976, Ríos renamed the FALN to the Boricua Popular Army—or Ejército Popular Boricua in Spanish—also known as Los Macheteros ("The Machete Wielders").

On September 12, 1983, Los Macheteros stole approximately $7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. In the course of the robbery, Ríos was confronted from a distance by law enforcement officials, and allegedly fired upon them.

In 1985, 19 members of Los Macheteros were indicted for offenses associated with the robbery. Fourteen were convicted after trial; one was acquitted. Charges against another were dismissed. Three, including Ríos and Victor Manuel Gerena, have never been caught.

In July of 1992, Ojeda Ríos was sentenced in absentia to 55 years in prison and fined $600,000.

On September 23, 2005, members of the FBI surrounded a house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico were Ojeda Ríos is believed to be hidding. A shot was fired from inside the house, wounding one of the FBI agents. It is unknown if this shot was fired by Ojeda himself.

UPDATED 9-23-05: Conflictive reports tells that during an FBI operative in a house in the city of Hormigueros, the FBI shoot and killed Filiberto Ojeda Rios. The information needs to be updated. The report came from WAPA AMERICA and has been confirmed by FOX NEWS.

UPDATED 9-23-05: An FBI agent told a radio station in San Juan, Puerto Rico that during the operative in the western town of

http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/fugitive/may2005/mayrios.htm

WANTED BY THE FBI

AGGRAVATED ROBBERY OF FEDERALLY INSURED BANK FUNDS; CONSPIRACY TO INTERFERE WITH COMMERCE BY ROBBERY; FOREIGN AND INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF STOLEN MONEY - BOND DEFAULT
FILIBERTO OJEDA RIOS

Aliases: F. Salas Arias, Efrain Centeno, Juvenal Concepcion Cruzado, Alberto Dominguez, Andres Gonzalez, Juan Leon, Jose Mario, J. Marrero, Felipe Ortega, Julio Lopez Pabon, Francisco Pastrana, J. Perez, Rafael Perez, Pedro Rosario Ramirez, Pedro Ramos, J. Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez, Pedro Rosario, Augustine Torres, J. Torres, Pedro Almodovar Rivera

DESCRIPTION
Dates of Birth Used:  April 26, 1933;
April 28, 1930 Hair: Gray
Place of Birth: Naguabo, Puerto Rico Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'8" Sex: Male
Weight: 150 to 170 pounds Race: White (Hispanic)
NCIC: W604921641 Nationality: Puerto Rican American
Occupation: Musician (Trumpet and Guitar)
Scars and Marks: Ojeda Rios has a scar on his chest from heart surgery, has a pacemaker, and walks with a slight limp.
Remarks: Ojeda Rios wears prescription glasses, normally wears a beard, and may have his hair dyed black. He is believed to be living with his wife in the mountainous region of central Puerto Rico and may travel to the Continental United States. He is known to possess automatic weapons and explosives, and in the past, has fired upon law enforcement officials.

CAUTION

Filiberto Ojeda Rios is the leader of the "Ejercito Popular Boricua (Puerto Rican Army of the People) - Los Macheteros". Based in Puerto Rico, this clandestine terrorist group has claimed responsibility for numerous armed robberies and terrorist bombings since 1978. Ojeda Rios is being sought in connection with the September 12, 1983, armed robbery of $7.2 million from the Wells Fargo Depot in Hartford, Connecticut. He is also wanted for bond default in September of 1990.

In July of 1992, Filiberto Ojeda Rios was sentenced in absentia to 55 years in prison and fined $600,000.

REWARD

A reward of up to $500,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

nasty is as nasty does

more power to the Puerto Ricans

FBI agent wounded in shootout to nab fugitive Puerto Rican nationalist leader

HORMIGUEROS, Puerto Rico (AP) - A gunbattle erupted Friday as FBI agents surrounded the hideout of a Puerto Rican nationalist leader wanted in the 1983 robbery of Connecticut armoured truck depot and at least one agent was wounded, police said.

Puerto Rico's top broadcast stations carried reports Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who has been in hiding for 15 years, had been captured or killed. A law-enforcement agent who spoke on condition of anonymity and Hector Pesquera, president of the Hostiano independence movement, said he was killed. But there was no official confirmation.

The robbery of $7.2 million from the Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Conn., is considered an act of domestic terrorism because it allegedly was carried out by 19 members of the Puerto Rican militant nationalist group Macheteros, or Cane Cutters.

FBI agents surrounded a farmhouse where the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios was hiding in the western town Hormigueros, Puerto Rico's police chief, Pedro Toledo, told Radio WKAQ on Friday afternoon.

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w092393A

I admire a freedom fighter, I DETEST criminals of any stripe.

Did Gandhi rob and steal?
Did Martin Luther King?

Yeah, lets by all means, make this criminal a martyr.

a man that selflessly gives up his freedom, and becomes a fugitive, without a monetary compensation, purely to fight the state of colonialism that his country is placed into?

Gandhi and Martin luther King are not the only type of freedom fighters, nor do they own the patent on the legitimate form of struggle. Trust me, the Puerto Rican independence movement has done non-violent protest, pamphleteering, rallies, boycotts. Sometimes, you need to fight.

Filiberto Ojeda was strongly respected and loved on the island by many. His death will be mourned.

The killing was politically motivated. They decided to do it on September 23rd, which is the "Grito De Lares", the insurrection date against Spain, a symbolic and revered date for independence proponents in Puerto Rico.

Ojeda was 72. The FBI assassinated a 72 year old man.

He was no threat to anyone.

This man has turned to crime because he knows that he cannot achieve his goals at the ballot box.

He's right that most Puerto Ricans don't want independence, based on vote counts. Based on the last referendums on the subject, 45% want statehood, about 48% want to stay the same, and the remainder support independence.

The problem with these vote counts is that they don't reflect the real sentiments of Puerto Ricans. Most Puerto Ricans feel themselves firmly as another, distinct people. They do not feel themselves as Americans (very few actually identify themselves as Americans or Puerto-Rican-Americans). However, they fear the economic/social consequences of independence, so they opt to stay in the status quo limbo...their "comfort zone".

There's a saying in Puerto Rico that if you give any Puerto Rico 3 shots of rum, they ALL become Independence proponents, and there's truth to it. Most Puerto Ricans want freedom and dignity, but fear of the unknown and fear of Third World poverty limits them

Viewed in that way, it's clear most Puerto Ricans do not want to be Americans, though a substantial amount feel becoming a State would cement and assure Puerto Rico's orbit with the United States, a powerful, industrialized country, and assure economic development and "advanced-developed" status for the island.

It's all economic, not ideological or emotional. Give Puerto Ricans the choice of assuring their continued economic status AND independence, and they'll run to the polls to vote for freedom.

just trying to help a fellow Duer.

:hug:

we'll be "just like Cuba or República Dominicana". That scares the shit out of people.



Descance en paz.

This dead criminal's actions and goals clearly contradict the views expressed by Puerto Ricans at the polling place.

An outlaw and a criminal, and nothing more.

NT!

is colonialism. Under international law, all people living under colonialism have a right to self-determination and independence, including armed struggle.

Therefore, under international law, Filiberto Ojeda's actions are legally legitimate. Each Puerto Rican decides what method he wishes to use to struggle for independence, or whatever political ideal they understand to be right. But, only independence and all struggle toward it, is recognized by international law to allow armed struggle.

There is no right to be a colony and there is no right to be a State of the United States of America. There is, however, a RIGHT to be independent and sovereign, and all those that struggle for it are protected under International Law.

Read the declarations of the U.N.'s Decolonization Sub-Committee.

all people living under colonialism have a right to self-determination and independence, including armed struggle.

So are you suggesting that the referendums on independence were rigged? Because otherwise, they fit the definition of self-determination.

Therefore, under international law, Filiberto Ojeda's actions are legally legitimate.

No they aren't. Just because you fancy yourself a freedom fighter doesn't give you the right to rob a bank, burn down a house, murder someone, etc.

But, only independence and all struggle toward it, is recognized by international law to allow armed struggle.

So by your logic, genocide would be justified as long as it was part of a broader struggle for independence.

The Referendums were non-binding and held by the local government. They had no force of law to force the United States to accede to them, nor were they held by the United Nations. They, therefore, were deficient in fulfilling the requirements for self-determination. In order for it to be valid, the referendums have to either be done by the U.N., or be a product of U.S. national legislation that forces the United States to abide by its result. The option of colonialism, also, cannot be on the ballot, as colonialism is not a valid option.

The three possible decolonization options are: Independence, Free Association (e.g. The Micronesian Islands with the U.S.) or Full Statehood (51st State of U.S.)

Filiberto Ojeda did not burn down a house, or kill anyone. He stole 8 millions dollars from an American bank that profits from economic extraction in Puerto Rico as part of colonialism. I'd say 8 million compared to 105 years of colonialism by the United States is about fair (actually...no, not at all. The U.S. stole a LOT more). The United States makes about 6 billion dollars from Puerto Rico yearly.

Filiberto Ojeda never committed genocide, nor did he advocate it, and the Macheteros never committed terrorism, never harmed a civilian, and never targeted civilian institutions. The only attacks of the Macheteros have been against U.S. installations and military institutions in Puerto Rico.

Filiberto Ojeda was an honorable man, who followed international law in his actions, and fought for the freedom of my country from the clutches of the U.S. empire. His actions are legitimate and just.

Puerto Ricans have themselves decided that they want to remain part of the United States. That's their choice.

That fringe nutters and criminals like this guy choose not to respect the choices of their fellow Puerto Ricans doesn't excuse the criminality of his actions.

As I stated in post 17, the referendums have no legal weight, as they are done under colonial conditions, and without any legal assurance of it being accepted by the U.S. Congress, which has plenary powers over Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans, in the last two referendums, have voted "none of the above", which is a rejection of all three options, and therefore, results in the default of the status quo colonial commonwealth option. Until a real referendum, under U.N. control or under clear American national legislation, is undertaken, and until the referendum includes only de-colonizing options, these referendums will be as fraudulent as the "Yes or no" referendums that Saddam Hussein or Hosni Mubarak in Egypt used to legitimize their rule.

I don't discount that the independence movement is small, or that the commowealth and statehood supporters evenly divide most of Puerto Rican opinion. I simply state that the referendums are worthless in that they do not resolve the situation. The reason they are continued in this way is because the United States would never give Puerto Rico statehood, but cannot declare as much to the Puerto Rican people. Such an act would force them into the independence camp and lose the United States its colonial control. Better to keep Puerto Ricans fooled with meaningless and non-binding referendums that do not solve anything.

At this point, after three fruitless referendums, the Governor of the Island is initiating a constituent assembly to have Puerto Ricans agree on a status that they will support, and demand it of the U.S. In my opinion, that status will be free association, independent sovereignty, a seat in the United Nations, but an economic/political association with the United States (like the Micronesian Islands).

By the way, Filiberto Ojeda is being mourned by the Catholic Arch-Bishop, and the Statehood and Commonwealth parties have both issued condemnations of the raid and grief for his death. Filiberto Ojeda, despite his politics, represented the very best in Puerto Ricans, and is remembered as such. Your characterization of Filiberto Ojeda as some sort of common criminal or crazy is way off mark. he was a gentle, highly intelligent, strongly committed, and very patriotic man. his death saddens all Puerto Ricans, because, despite it all, Filiberto was Puerto Rico's dignity in action. He stood for that, and we love him for that.

Sounds like he got around $7 mill in a robbery to me.

He didn't keep that for himself. The money was used to finance the independence movement and the actions of his armed groups. It was not for personal gain. He himself lived in an impoverished farm in one of the poorest towns of Puerto Rico, Hormigueros.

Which is to say, not one damn bit.

The vast majority of Puerto Ricans oppose independence, so this guy was nothing but a fringe terrorist and a criminal, not a freedom fighter.

you're posting on this thread? I find your comments very offensive and add no positive contribution to the discussion of his life and what he fought against.

You have a right to your opinion. You don't have a right to exclude those who disagree with your worship of a dead criminal.

I again, question, why are you posting on this thread if you have nothing positive to contribute. So far, you've asserted he's a criminal, without inspecting the comments of virtually all informed opinion in Puerto Rico.

Not even the Governor of Puerto Rico and Archbishop of the Catholic Church have called him a dead criminal. Instead, they're all comdeming and repudiating the act.

You either obviously didn't read the articles or worse, you're being offensive for offensive sake.

That' sad...really...and very unwelcome.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filiberto_Ojeda - SPANISH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filiberto_Ojeda_R%C3%ADos - ENGLISH

An interesting quote,

"On September 12, 1983, Los Macheteros stole approximately $7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. In the course of the heist, Ojeda Ríos was confronted from a distance by law enforcement officials, and allegedly fired upon them. This was never confirmed. The money obtained from this operation was allegedly used to help fund the Puerto Rican independence movement. A portion of this money is also alleged to have been used to help disadvantaged Puerto Ricans in a tactic reminiscent of Robin Hood."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5302284,00.html

"``The information we have is that if Mr. Ojeda had received immediate medical attention after being shot, he probably would have survived,'' he said."

"Independence activists have accused the FBI of assassinating Ojeda Rios. ``They did not come to arrest Filiberto Ojeda, they came to kill him,'' said Hector Pesquera, president of the Hostosiano independence movement. "

FBI Shoots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios


JUAN-MANUEL GARCIA-PASSALACQUA: What happened, and again it's in all the newspapers, because the widow survived, and she has told the story. What happened was that the special team of the Federal Bureau of Investigations entered Filiberto Ojeda's home in a rural barrio in the town of Hormigueros by crashing the gate and shooting one hundred times against the house. Filiberto then put on his fatigues and his boots and responded the fire with ten shots. And the number of -- the number of spent cartridges shows that he was shooting ten times, and the F.B.I. was shooting a hundred times.

After that, again, none of the hundred shots caught him, but a sharpshooter that was located on a high ground, maybe in a helicopter, shot him with a single bullet through again his neck or his -- place near the face. And he fell, and then for 12 solid hours, the F.B.I. refused to enter or let anyone enter the house waiting for Filiberto Ojeda Rios to bleed to death, which is exactly what the coroner certified this morning that Filiberto Ojeda Rios died of a single wound brought because of bleeding caused by that wound that lasted for hours without any medical or any other help. So, once again, it is clear this was a political assassination.

JUAN-MANUEL GARCIA-PASSALACQUA: Yes, Filiberto Ojeda Rios was a young trumpet player in Chicago when he was involved in the efforts of the revolutionary Cuba intelligence in that city to promote independent sentiment in that city, and after that, he came back to Puerto Rico and founded what was known as the Ejercito Popular Boricua Macheteros, the clandestine sector of the nationalist movement in Puerto Rico that was responsible, as you know, for several successful attacks, including the blowing up of several airplanes in the military base in San Juan for $45 million, and later for the assault of a truck, a brinks truck in Hartford, Connecticut, also successful, again, in the course of independence.

He was tried for those events in a federal court in Puerto Rico, and he was absolved unanimously by a Puerto Rican jury. I had the chance of interviewing him on television that day, and we remained friends from that day on. And he obviously was very proud of the fact that the Puerto Rican jury had absolved him of all crimes and had decided -- and this is the official decision of the jury -- that he had acted in legitimate defense against the forces of the United States. Then he went into clandestine activity again by taking off his -- how would you call that thing that they put on your feet -- whatever -- the electric -- whatever.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/26/1434229

thanks for the post. I'll hear the show!

from future FBI visits to her town to follow up on the first murder.

Learning that the very blood from his wound ran out of his body, and under the door outside to where it could be recognized by his neighbors and passersby and that it was witnessed by FBI personel doesn't surprise me at all. Undoubtedly it added to their image of unquestionable control and was useful to them, like a paid advertisement.

Very dishonorable behavior for a group of heavily armed men with helicopters.

she's safe, and she has the best lawyers in Puerto Rico (incidentally, most of the best lawyers and speakers of Puerto Rico are independence supporters) working with her. She will have the best legal coverage and the moral support of all mothers and wives in the country. Nobody speaks ill of Mrs. Rosado.

However, the government may in the future charge her with crimes, although it would be a very bad political move on the part of U.S.

Check post #29.

From what I read on Spanish newspapers, the account that Passalacqua is giving to English audiences is a faithful translation of what Ojeda's wife (the witness to the assassination) said in press conferences today.

Juan-Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua, is a noted Puerto Rican political analyst and radio host.

have a nice day.

September 26, 2005

Assassination in Puerto Rico
The FBI Murders a Legend
By RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ CRUZ

On September 23, 2005, hundreds of separatists gathered in a small town of Puerto Rico called Lares to conmemorate the 137-years old-failed revolutionary attempt against Spaniard colonial rule, known as Grito de Lares. At about 3:00 PM on that day, the crowd was listening to a recorded message from Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the Boricua Popular Army, Los Macheteros (the Machete Wielders). Ojeda's recorded message had already become a staple of the Lares celebration for a number of years, as he could not speak in person to the public.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios has been in the FBI's most wanted list since 1990, when he jumped bail while awaiting prosecution for the 1983 Wells Fargo robbery in Hartford, Connecticut. During the fifteen years Ojeda Rios was a fugitive from the FBI, he had managed to stay active underground as an independentista leader, periodically giving interviews to the press and sending messages of unity to the sadly divided anti-imperialist forces in Puerto Rico. He was considered a Puerto Rican version of Che Guevara. For years, the FBI offered a reward of one million dollars, for information leading to his arrest.

According to Luis Fraticelli, head of the local FBI in San Juan, on September 20, 2005, they discovered Ojeda's hiding place in the mountains of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Fraticelli claims that twenty FBI agents surrounded the small shack where Filiberto Ojeda was hiding with his wife, Elma Beatriz Rosado, and decided to begin a stakeout. The FBI also claims that three days later, on September 23, 2005 at about 3:00 PM, Ojeda suddenly opened the door of the shack and began firing at them, injuring one of the FBI agents in the stomach. They then returned the fire; so they say. Although the FBI had no further gun exchange with Ojeda after 3:00 PM, they decided to call Washington, D.C. and ask for instructions as to what to do. Fraticelly says that they were instructed by Washington not to do anything.

The town locals, suspecting that something was happening, gathered around the entrance of the farm where the events were happening and began yelling at the FBI agents, accusing them of having murdered someone (no reasonable person trusts the FBI in Puerto Rico). But the locals knew Filiberto as oldman Luis, a 72 years old and peaceful fellow, who lived in the small shack and used most of his time to plant tropical flowers. They had no idea that el viejo Luis was the famous Filiberto Ojeda Rios, el Comandante Machetero. Meanwhile, hundreds of independentitas were now gathering in San Juan in front of the FBI's offices to denounce the assassination of Ojeda by FBI agents. They had a tip, as Filiberto had contacted a yet unknown person by use of a cell phone, and already by 4:00 PM on September 23, 2005 everybody in Puerto Rico knew what the FBI was doing something suspicious
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/cruz09262005.html

we're not seperatists. We're freedom fighters. WE're not seperating, we were never a part of the U.S. We were taking against our will.

Just a minor, semantics, debate.

Americans, I'm sure. You'd never believe the traditional history books don't acknowledge most of what has actually been U.S. history in this hemisphere vs. Latin America and the Caribbean.

I plan to read this entire thread later, as I've been completely in the dark about Puerto Rico. Hope to change this. Thank you.

no problem.

I felt that, given my minimal contribution to Puerto Rico's independence movement, it would be my duty to translate relevant Spanish articles for the benefit of other Duers here. I hope the articles I place her gives a complete picture of what's going on in Puerto Rico these days, with respect to this incident.

Come visit Puerto Rico one day! You'll love it!



:hi:

people and claiming its in the interest of the country aren't just accepted automatically.

We've been kept completely in the dark regarding US policy in this hemisphere, and some of us are beginning to try to learn why that is.

As you have undoubtedly witnessed, we have been learning about very dark, crooked, vicious, unacceptable things done in our names around 30 years after they happen, if at all.

For the anti-Ojeda Rios skeptics out there. /sarcasm.



"Because of other violent events against independentistas in Puerto Rico, no one believes the FBI's fishy story. The governor of the Island -by no means a sympathizer with the independentista movement- told the press that the whole event was suspicious, that the FBI was trying to cover something. The head of the Catholic Church, archbishop Roberto González, lamented the death of Ojeda and referred to the FBI's actions as a "sinister operation." The FBI reluctantly agreed to the independentistas' demand that Filiberto's dead body be given immediately to the local authorities for an autopsy.

The autopsy was conducted the night of September 24, 2005 and revealed precisely what everybody feared the most: Filiberto slowly bled to death, while the FBI barred anyone from entering the shack to find out about his condition or to help him."

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/26/Ultimahora/291451.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Vecino+de+Ojeda+Rios+coincide+en+que+FBI+disparo+primero&artdate=2005/09/26

It's in Spanish folks, but that's the gist of the story. If you can run a translation program on the website, you can get an English version.

I'll do a rough translation:

NEIGHBOR OF OJEDA RIOS CONFIRMS THAT FBI SHOT FIRST

One of the closest neighbors of Filiberto Ojeda Rios confirmed today that the agents of the FBI shot first.

Hector Reyes, whose residence is only 100 meters away from the living place where Ojeda Rios was in hiding before dying from a sniper's shot, said that the agents began firing as soon as the helicopters arrived.

"The first shots were very potent, not from a small gun like the one they said he had," Reyes assured, who learned through the media that his neighbor of more than four years was the long sought leader of the clandestine group, Los Macheteros (The Machete Wielders).

"Right after the helicopters arrived, the thunders began to be heard", he affirmed.

It was not possible to get an immediate reaction from Luis Feliciano, an FBI official.

Reyes related that he was playing basketball with his son when he observed the helicopters and imagined that something grave was occuring in the neighborhood.

"I saw the helicopters, and then the shots starting to ring out, and we ran like chickens", he explained.

The declarations from Reyes add to those of the wife of the Machetero leader, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, who assured on Monday that the agents arrived to her residence, guns blazing.

"On Friday, Sept 23rd, at 3:00 P.M., our home was surrounded. Armed men penetrated our property and assaulted our home, brutally and terribly impacting him, blasting away at the front wall of our residence with powerful guns," she maintained at a press conference.

According to Rosado Barbosa, Ojeda Rios screamed at the agents several times that he was willing to give himself up to journalist Jesus Davila.

"Later, they blindfolded me, and at that moment, I knew, I felt in my heart, that they were going to assassinate him. They kept me at the place for a while, and when I left the place, Filiberto was alive,", she expressed, visibly moved."

"It's not until the next day, in the afternoon, when they take me out of jail, that I learned that Filiberto was assassinated. However, Filiberto is alive, more than ever, in my heart and in the hearts of all Puerto Ricans," she manifested.

COMMENTS:

So, he was alive and tried to give himself up, in the presence of a trusted journalist. The FBI, instead, used a sniper to assassinate him, and then, left him for dead, to die from bloodloss, when his injury, autopsy doctors state, could have been treated.

This was assassination folks, this was not a legitimate raid, and certainly not in self-defense, if the FBI shot first.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/26/Ultimahora/291451.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Vecino+de+Ojeda+Rios+coincide+en+que+FBI+disparo+primero&artdate=2005/09/26

Another Spanish article. I'll provide a rough translation.

STUDENTS BRING DOWN FLAGS AND STOP COMMERCE

Students of the Pro-Independence University Federation brought down the flag of the United States at the tower of the Rio Piedras campus (of the University of Puerto Rico), and left the Puerto Rican flag at half-mast, in protest of the death of the independence movement leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

In the same manner, they placed a huge banner with the photo of Ojeda Rios and the phrase, "Filiberto, you remain in the hearts of the people".

Luis Omar Garcia, spokesperson for the FUPI, confirmed that his organization placed the banner and brought down the flags.

"We are celebrating the resistance of Filiberto Ojeda Rios", Garcia expressed while opinionating that the death of the clandestine Boricua Popular Army "Los Macheteros", was a vile assassination.

Garcia confirmed as well, that in almost all the campuses of the University of Puerto Rico, there would be rallies and events in protests of the FBI's actions.

From another perspective, it was claimed and denounced that students who participated in the march that marched across the Rio Piedras campus, altered the peace when they arrived at the Student Center.

According to radio broadcasts, some students struck and turned-over chairs and tables, which provoked that the fast food restaurants that offered services there, closed their doors to avoid greater damages.

However, the Dean of Administrations, Saul Prats, dismissed that there had been some sort of riot or violent encounters between students.

He did confirm that the owners of the establishments did close temporarily until order was restored to the place, but that they would open at noon.

"We don't expect anymore inconveniences, nor is there anything out of control", assured Prats.

As for the flags of the tower, Prats admitted that he conversed with representatives of the FUPI, and the agreement was to allow the banner in the place it was placed until the rallies were done at noon.

From another perspective, the campus' chancellor, Gladys Escalono, authorized students and employees to be able to leave for the funeral wake of Ojeda Rios. The students would be officially excused, and employees were authorized to leave after noon.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/26/Ultimahora/291527.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Independentistas+piden+retiren+bandera+EE.UU.+de+Colegio+Abogados&artdate=2005/09/26

Spanish Article. I'll provide translation.

INDEPENDENCE PROPONENTS DEMAND THAT THE U.S FLAG BE TAKEN DOWN FROM THE BAR ASSOCIATION'S HEADQUARTERS

About 200 independence-supporting Puerto Ricans who were waiting the arrival of the funeral march of Filiberto Ojeda Rios to the Bar Association's headquarters, asked the president of the association Julio Fontanet, that he take down the flag of the United States and fly the Puerto Rican flag at half-mast.

Fontanet refused to concede the petition because it was not permitted by legal regulations.

However, the Puerto Rican flag is now flying at half-mast and the U.S. flag is nowhere to be found at the headquarters.

"I've given instructions to correct the situations", said Fontanet.

The independence-supportesr who were waiting for the arrival of the funeral march to the hearquarters, received with a prolonged applause, actor Teofilo Torres, who came dressed as Pedro Albizu Campos. (translator's addendum: Pedro Albizu Campos is revered as a major patriot of Puerto Rico, and was the President of the Nationalist Party in the 1940s)

At the same time, dozens of people accompanied the funeral march of the independence movement leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, dead since last Friday at the hands of FBI agents who assaulted his home in Jaguitas neighborhood of Hormigueros.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/26/Ultimahora/291527.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Independentistas+piden+retiren+bandera+EE.UU.+de+Colegio+Abogados&artdate=2005/09/26

spanish article. rough translation

PUERTO RICAN LEGISLATURE TO INVESTIGATE OJEDA INCIDENT

The legislators of the Puerto Rican Independence Party presented today various resolutios of investigation to determine the responsibilities and conduct of the officials of the governments of Puerto Rico and the United States, in relation to the death of the independence movement leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

Senator Maria de Lourdes Santiago and representative Victor Garcia San Inocencio also presented resolutions to the two legislative chambers to express "condemnation and repudiation" to the actions of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which provoked the death of Ojeda Rios, which they characterized as a "premeditated act" with the intention of "giving him death".

Garcia San Inocencio admited that the prime responsibility for the act falls on the FBI, but he understands that it is naive to believe the local government was uniformed of the operation

"It would be a suffocating ingenuity to think that any official of the government of Puerto Rico did not know something about this operation and its mobilization", argued Garcia San Inocencio during a joint press conference with Santiago in the Capitol.

The senator, as well, maintained that "what those people did, their actions and omissions, resulted in the death of a Puerto Rican and they (the local officials) preferred to let that person die in order to improve their relations with the federal authorities."

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/26/Ultimahora/291527.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Independentistas+piden+retiren+bandera+EE.UU.+de+Colegio+Abogados&artdate=2005/09/26

Spanis article. Rough translation.

FBI CALLED THE GOVERNOR ONLY ONCE, AND ONLY AFTER CONFERENCE.

The Federal Bureal of Investigations only called the Governor Aninbal Acevedo Vila on one occasion, since the operation which resulted in the death of independence movement leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios began, and it was only after the First Executive gave his press conference to inform the press first-had.

The special agent of the FBI in San Juan, "told me what he later told the press...I told him that a lot remained to be explained", expressed Acevedo Vila in a radio interview (WKAQ).

The Governor reiterated that the operation has caused a generalized indignation in Puerto Rico, "what happened Saturday is incredibly serious. It's unacceptable that the institutions of the government and the people were not informed".

Acevedo Vila rejected that it was "political assassination", but he accepted that a series of irregularities occured.

He explained that the autopsy and its final results would determine if Ojeda Rios died instantly or because he didn't receive medical attention.

He highlighted that in other occasions, the government has collaborated with th eFBI and other federal institutions, but that in this instance "we feel deceived, both because of the results and because of the lack of information".

"The FBI and the authorities have a lot of explaining to do to the people of Puerto Rico", the Governor reiterated.

He indicated that he would not go to the funeral wake of the independence movement leader because "he was a renowned independence leader, and I'm the governor of the Free Associated State (the commowealth), and I would venture that Filiberto would not have wanted my representation at his funeral".

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/27/Ultimahora/292068.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=Bajan+bandera+estadounidense+del+Capitolio&artdate=2005/09/27

Spanish Article. Rough Translation

U.S. FLAG BROUGHT DOWN AT CAPITOL

Right after the Governor refused to issue an official national day of mourning, and bring down the flags to half-mast for the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, various youths took down the U.S. flag from the Capitol and replaced it with the flag of the Popular Boricua Army.

They, as well, placed a black flag at half-mast, with the message, "eye for an eye, bullet for bullet", informed the spokesperson of the protesters, Jose Dylan.

"Why did we take this action? Because the Governor refused to issue a national day of mourning. We began this operation at 5:00 A.M.", declared Dylan through a radio broadcast (WAPA)

During the first attempt, one youth was detained, according to Dylan. But as soon as the police removed the first youth, another youth successfuly climbed the flagpoles, and changed the flags.

"The actions will take place throughout the near future," he added.

But Dylan explained that the phrase, "eye for an eye, bullet for bullet" was not a call to respond to violence with violence.

"They (the federal authorities) use bullets to repress, we use bullets of conscience", he explained.

The incident was registered at 6:35 in the morning.

that appeals to conscience will help change American right-wing behavior toward his country. I'd say there is absolutely no chance whatever.

Republican and "conscience" can't seriously be linked in the same sentence. They have a completely cold, hostile indifference toward every group other than their own red-faced, hog-nosed collection of slimey, hate-filled wreckages of human tissue.

Almost everyone living has been raised amid their constant raving about how much they hate people from all other countries other than Nazi-era Germany, as well as how much contempt for other cultures living right here in this one. They also hate people who look like them, but who have different religions, or political views.

It's not just Puerto Rico. It's absolutely everyone who doesn't mirror their own grotesque images.

What happened to Filiberto Ojeda Rios is a tragedy, and an enormous crime. They went there to kill him. That's not their place, no matter how many lies they spin to protect themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Autopsy: Rios Didn't Die Immediately By LEONARDO ALDRIDGE, Associated Press Writer
Sun Sep 25, 7:28 PM ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - An autopsy indicated a Puerto Rican nationalist killed in a shootout with FBI agents did not die immediately, a justice official said Sunday, fueling criticism of the FBI for waiting almost 24 hours to enter the farmhouse where the fugitive lay wounded.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios, 72, who was wanted for a 1983 robbery of an armored truck in Connecticut, fired on agents who came to arrest him Friday at farmhouse in Hormigueros, the FBI said Saturday. An agent was wounded, the bureau said.

The agents waited until the next day to enter the farmhouse because they were unsure if explosives were inside, Luis Fraticelli, the special agent in charge of the FBI for Puerto Rico, said Saturday.

The agents, who had been staking out the farmhouse for four days, waited for a team trained in detecting explosives to arrive from Virginia, he said.

Ojeda Rios died from a bullet wound to his shoulder that went out through the middle of his back, piercing his lung, according to an autopsy, said Justice Secretary Roberto Sanchez Ramos.

Results from the autopsy late Saturday did not determine a time of death.

Sanchez Ramos criticized the FBI for refusing to allow four local prosecutors to enter the farmhouse after the shootout.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050925/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/puerto_rico_wells_fargo_robbery

~~~~ link ~~~~
~Click on link for photo~

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/27/ElPais/292023.asp?category=El+Pais&title=Justicia+local+radicaria+cargos+de+ser+necesario&artdate=2005/09/27

Spanish article. Rough Translation

LOCAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WILLING TO PRESS CHARGES, IF NECESSARY

The authorities of Puerto Rico are willing to press criminal charges against the federal agents that took part in the operation in which Filiberto Ojeda Rios died, if evidence comes up that they committed crimes during the process, said the Secretary of Justice Roberto Sanchez Ramos yesterday.

"Obviously, if we conclude that there was a crime we would press charges", said Sanchez Ramos, in a joint press conference with the director of the Institute of Forensic Sciences (ICF), Pio Rechany, and the Fiscal General Pedro Geronimo Goyco Amador.

The functionaries also informed that they had hired an external dog to find out the precise time it took for Ojeda Rios to bleed to death, which already has been determined to have died from a single shot, and that his death came from a loss of blood.

The goal of this exam is to attempt to determine if an incursion by the agents into the home in between lulls in the crossfire could have resulted in them finding him alive and saving him. Sanchez Ramos advanced yesterday that he thought Ojeda Rios could have been saved if he had received medical attention.

The distinguished medics, the Secretary indicated, indicate that a person can loss blood from a half an hour to one hour and then die. In Ojeda Rios' specific case this has not been determined.

Rechany explained yesterday that the bullet that took Ojeda Rios' life was a .223, which is the one used by assault weapons like the M-16 and the AR-15. That caliber is consistent with the 107 other bullets that were found at the scence, with the exception of 18 bullet shells of 9 millimeters that are thought to have been fired by Ojeda Rios.

Rechany affirmed that once the agents' arms were obtained he could determine which one fired the fatal shot.

The local authorities will issue a request for information from the federal authorities which will include the arms used in the operation, the procedure manuals of the FBI, and the names of the agents that took part in the operation, explained the functionaries.

There is no estimated date for the conclusion of the Justice Department's investigation on this case, said Sanchez Ramos.

The functionary assured that it is not unusual for state jurisdictions, which is what Puerto Rico is considered in the federal U.S. system, to press criminal charges against federal agents that violate the law in the prosecution of their duties. "Here in Puerto Rico, in earlier ocassions, criminal charges have been pressed by us, the local authorities, against federal agents that have committed crimes during the prosecution of their functions," added Sanchez Ramos, without giving examples. He affirmed that there are a series of norms that regulate these matters because this is a "common" situation. In the States of the United States it is very common that local authorities, if they conduct a criminal investigation and conclude that a federal agent committed a crime, will press criminal charges", he added. Sanchez Ramos did not want to mention specific crimes, but after reviewing the Penal Code it is possible that the federal agents could have violated the statutes which penalize death caused by negligence, like allowing a person to die through blood loss, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. There have also been allegations that the federal agents could have altered the scene of the incident, which, if provoed, could constitute a crime. "I have never said that the scene was not altered. What we don't have is evidence that it was altered, which is something totally different", said Sanchez Ramos.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/27/ElPais/292019.asp?category=El+Pais&title=Adios+amoroso+antes+de+morir&artdate=2005/09/27

Spanish article. Rough Translation

LOVING GOODBYE BEFORE DYING

Once alerted that federal agents had surrounded him and that at any moment would begin their final battle, Filiberto Ojeda Rios kept himself serenely enough to the extreme that in between preparing for the conflict, he found time to say goodbye to his wife and express his sentiments to her, related his widow yesterday, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa.

"He said to me: this could be the last time we sea each other", said Rosado. "I never doubted Filiberto, but it was very difficult for me to believe that what he was saying could be true. For me, Filiberto was indestructible and nothing could happen to him...I never stopped thinking that way. Independently of what happened, Filiberto is present", responded Rosado after being questioned about her last moments with the independent movement leader.

"He expressed his love, we hugged, we kissed, but I never stoped thinking that in spite of the fact that they came to kill him and that was obvious, there was the normal emotional reaction that I thought it was impossible for it to happen, that I wouldn't see him again", she said. She added that before the goodbye and a conversation whose contents she would not reveal, Ojeda indicated that "our comrades had to know that they had to continue moving forward".

Flanked by her lawyers, family members of Ojeda Rios and friends of the family, Rosado looked physically and emotionally beaten. On ocassions, her voice was shaky and would begin to break, but would quickly recover a firm tone. She excused herself many times because she felt nervous.

Rosado confirmed the principal points of the version that El Nuevo Dia related yesterday, which were related to the newspaper by a source that known what she would declare before she made her public statements. In between other aspects, there is that the agents entered into the property shooting first and that when she was removed from the area, Ojeda was alive, because she could hear him shouting "independence statements" with a loud voice.

Despite this, the version offered yesterday did not contain specific facts which were published in this newspaper, because Rosado's lawyer, Luis F. Abreu, advised that she did not respond to certain issues because a federal investigator, which he did not identify, had expressed that criminal charges could be pressed against her. Originally, the local chief of the FBI, Luis Fraticelli, had said that charges would not be pressed against Rosado.

The widow of Ojeda did confirm the earlier versions that, fearing for her life, Ojeda demanded that she left and warned the agents that she would come out unarmed and not to shoot her.

Rosado said that Ojeda screamed out various times that he would be willing to give himself up to "journalist Jesus Davila". Despite this, Rosado never characterized that claim by Ojeda as an attempt to "negotiate", like the FBI characterized it. The source of this newspaper said that Ojeda never attempted to negotiate with the FBI.

The claim by Ojeda never received a response and they later responded to him that they would never bring the journalist, said Rosado.

She narrarated that when she left her home, the agents ordered her to get on her knees and when she refused, they threw her on the floor, they pinned her by restraining one of her knees against their ground, and they handcuffed her behind her back. "I never got on my knees and Filiberto would have never forgiven me if I had", said Rosado.

Regarding whether she believed that the calls by Ojeda for unity and respect between independence proponents, irrespective of their differences, could be heeded after his death, Rosado said, "that would be the most precious gift that the independence community could offer to Filiberto".

To the question regarding that, beyond asking the people to protest and to express themselves regarding this FBI action, she would instigate that terrorist acts take place, lawyer Abreu said that Rosado would not answer that question, but he answered it.

"To defend the homeland is not terrorism. A terrorist act is to terrorize the population and the independence proponents are completely opposed to every type of terrorist act, no matter what the method of struggle. The terrorists are the North Americans that attempt to terrorize the independence proponents and the Puerto Rican population," said the lawyer.

She added that "Filiberto was always against terrorism. It was always a cornerstone of his thought to denounce the terrorism that the United States committed against the Puerto Rican homeland".

The editor of Puerto Rico's main newspaper has entered a blog entry. I translate for the benefit of other DUers.

http://www.endi.com/blogs/index.html

FILIBERTO OJEDA: HERO OR FUGITIVE?

If I'm in agreement with anything, according to the comments that all of you have published (in his blog), is that the FBI acted in a very suspicious and censurable manner. Today, the FBI has much to explain. First, the blocking of information, second; the lack of coordination with local authorites; third, the decision not to enter the residence and the allowing of Ojeda to die, very probably from loss of blood.

Filiberto Ojeda was a fugitive from the law that died in an encounter with the FBI under circumstances that deserve to be totally explained because the agencies of public order, be they federal or local, cannot act with impunity; and above all else, it is the job of the Press to investigate if there were violations of Ojeda's civil rights, that are the same civil rights that protect all of us.

Defnitely, by the hand of the FBI, it has converted Ojeda into what it didn't want to convert him to: a martyr. Today, that federal agency has a serious crisis on its hand and it wouldn't be a surprise if Fratecelli doesn't last much longer at his post.

And the crisis is not only in Puerto Rico. It's a matter of time before the American press becomes aware of what happened and begins to report also about the extraordinary circumstances of this case. It must be taken into account that under the internal security conditions of the United States and the failure of New Orleans, the death of Ojeda could become a history of an agency (The Department of Homeland Security) that still cannot protect its citizens from disasters caused by Nature or by the ineptitude of its own federal agencies.

THe life of Filiberto Ojeda may have ended, but thanks to the FBI, today begins the Legend of Filiberto Ojeda.

who are concerned about this. Thank you for your translations from Spanish-language sources.

Very sad story related by his widow. I hope the community there will help to help keep her from falling in spirit, and that her husband's murder won't be the end of his story.

of her goodbye with Filiberto was very saddening to me. I was trying to imagine myself in that situation.

I'm happy of one thing: the Americans are in deep doodoo on this one. The entire island is alive with commentary almost all in unison against the federal action. I'm surprised that the Governor and the Archbishop of the country, as well as the major editors and commentators of the island are unified in condemning this. I had thought that maybe they'd play the "he's a fugitive" angle to discredit him, but condemnation has been unanimous.

There's hope of something positive coming out of that. Wouldn't that be Filiberto's greatest gift to his people, and his greatest act of defiance against the American empire?

Don't forget, however, it is expected that Republican behavior ALWAYS contains the act of attempting to disrespect, dishonor their enemies among their friends, admirers, countrymen. It's part of their group's personality. Remember Swift Boat Vets after John Kerry, and the hate campaign against Al Gore, and these men did NOTHING to hack them off other than run for office, which is their right.

They also agitated and promoted hatred toward John F. Kennedy, his brother, Bobby, his brother, Ted, Martin Luther King, all black leaders, etc., etc., even their own, like John McCain, when they get in the road.

Their worst shortcoming is pure selfishness. It drives them to try to destroy everyone who does NOT see them as the most important people in the universe. They are NOT good citizens.

So they're not done with the man, yet. They WILL wait around to try to further harm his image, especially if it appears there is a backlash to their murder. From what you have written, there won't be anyone buying what they're selling in Puerto Rico.

Silverio Perez, probably akin to what Oprah and Jay Leno would be in the United States, has eulogized Filiberto Ojeda. In Spanish. Rough Translation.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/27/Perspectiva/291410.asp?category=Perspectiva&title=Filiberto+hablo&artdate=2005/09/27

FILIBERTO SPOKE

by Silverio Perez
Humorist

"Those that dared to put a price
to your hands, your heart,
do not know of stories, do not know of dreams,
I want you alive and not dead,
Brother Filiberto". - extract from a song by Mikie Rivera

The last speech of Filiberto Ojeda Rios was not heard last September 23rd in the acts of commemoration of the Grito De Lares, through a taped message from living in clandestine conditions; it was given in full light on that day as an act of immolation against the assassin bullets of the federal agents. 136 years ago, courageous men like him, also offered their lives for the independence ideal against another colonial power. He, like them, with almost a century and half of difference, were guided by the same force: love for the homeland who saw them born.

With his acts, more than with his words, Filiberto crudely pictured the colony. Throughout 24 long hours, from the beginning of the operation to assassinate the independence movement leader, the government of Puerto Rico had to conform itself to being a silent observer of the federal action in Puerto Rican territory. At 3:45 P.M. on September 23rd, the first shots were heard in the surrounding areas of the home that Ojeda Rios occupied with his wife, in the Jaguitas neighborhood of Hormigueros. Ten hours afterwards, the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico only could tell journalist Luis Penchi, of Radio Isla, that he didn't know anything of what was occuring because the federals would not give him any information. At 3:00 P.M. of September 24th, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila finally spoke to denounce the irregularities of the operation and show his indignation for the lack of information. They were very straight and courageous words, but the Government of Puerto Rico couldn't do anything until the federals allowed it. There shouldn't be no longer a single Puerto Rican who could dare to assure us, without some sort of shame, that this is not a colony.

Filiberto, more than just photographing the colony in his last act, photographed the empire that holds it as one that is dumb, insensible, prepotent, and insolent. How pathetic looked the agent in charge of the FBI, Luis Fratecilli, trying to explain the unexplainable! 27 hours it took him to show his face to the country. An empire that can capture Saddam Hussein alive in Iraq and take him from a hole on the ground in the middle of war, is unable to take alive an elderly man of 72 years who is only in his home. That elderly man, sick of the heart, but not the soul, with only one handgun, made it that 20 corpulent federal agents took fright and had to call their chiefs in Washington so that they could give them help. Until reinforcements from Virginia arrived at 4:00 A.M. on Sept. 24th, they did not have the guts to enter the home to find the bloodless body of the independence fighter. Before, they had left the Plan Bonito sector without electricity, had disabled the neighbors from leaving or entering their homes, and had blocked lawyers, medics, investigators, and the press access to the place of the operation. The imperial prepotence in its maximum expression.

Fraticelli repeated on various ocassions that the life of his agents was worth more than the Puerto Rican who was the target of the operation. Those agents who we see in television series of the FBI in action, able to do the impossible, were so tired - according to Fratecelli - that they couldn't articulately enter the house to see if the human being inside was bleeding. That very same FBI which mounted a spectacle in a humble neighborhood of Puerto Rico, is incable of mobilizing its power against narcotraficants and the corrupt who vie for their its respect in the country. Couldn't it be possible that the narcotraficants and the corrupt are a product of the system they defend, and that men like Filiberto Ojeda are the antithesis of it? Fraticelli also demonstrated a total lack of knowledge of our history when he said that "Don Filiberto was the one who started this". He forgets that this began in May of 1898 when the power he represents bombarded the city of San Juan causing death and terror in the population. This was started by those that days later entered with guns blazing through Guanica and imposed their language and their citizenship so they could send us to fight their wars. That is the empire that Filiberto photographed in his last speech.

Filiberto also spoke to the independence community. While his house was surrounded by federals and he loaded his gun to face the empire, independence groups were facing off against each other on account of stupidities, petty quibbles, for fear that one group would take away the electoral funds from the other, the funds that the empire so conveniently manages to keep us entertained every four years. Filiberto reminded us of the true enemy who we have to direct our strong words, our wounding commentary, our abrasive phrases. Although he said in the Plaza of the Revolution in his recorded message "Now we have to fight jointly...each one of us in the trench they feel is correct...the least we can do is attempt to understand and respect our trenches of struggle, and so with the utmost respect", he had to die so that there would be a ceasefire in the attacks between bothers, and so that we would lower our heads in shame. It is still to be seen if after his burial, the absurd divisions or if the independence leadership could articulate a unity within diversity. We also have to listen to the wise advice of the son of Filiberto, Edgardo Ojeda, when he asked that the Puerto Rican people not respond to his father's assassination with violence and that they instead used this moment to reflect and convert the moment into one of organization and consciousness raising. The slogan, "Filiberto, comrade, your death will be avenged" rhymes and raises emotions, but vengeance doesn't serve the better interests of the people, but the interests of the empire who would use that violence to engulf us.

And, at last, Filiberto spoke to our people. That very same people that is perceptibly worried, indignant, moved and sad, in its immense majority not supportive of independence and much less in favor of armed strugle as a method of reaching the triumph of the ideal. The act of Filiberto reached the hearts of our humble people because this country repudiates the abuse and admires the men and women of integrity, independent of their ideas, that are able to risk the ultimate consequences for what they believe. In a country where everyone complains because no one sacrifices themselves, men like Filiberto Ojeda Rios strike deep, not because we support their methods of struggle, but because we admire the congruency of their thoughts, sentiments, and actions as they go in the same direction.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios was not a criminal. None of his actions were motivated by personal well-being, but by his ideals and methodologies that he believed in. It's criminal to see man look through a telescopic sight, pull the trigger, and strick right where the bulletproof vest did not protect him, watch him fall through that very same sight, allow seconds, minutes, hours pass without any movement in the house, convince themselves that the man was dying, slowly bleeding to death and hide out in the darkness of night so as to wait, slowly, without any help, for him to die. Let that crime not remain unaddressed! Rest in peace...brother Filiberto.

There is so much to learn. Thank you Tainowarrior for teaching us about this man and what was done to him.

I myself am learning more and more about him. I think the stories in the Spanish newspaper give a lot of context that the American newspapers couldn't do. I'm in the process of translating the article about his burial (it's happening today).

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/epb-macheteros.htm

An excellent online repository of documents, photographs, and history of the Machetero revolutionary resistance group.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/28/ElPais/292686.asp?category=El+Pais&title=Juramento+de+hacer+justicia&artdate=2005/09/28

Spanish article. Rough Translation.

VOW TO MAKE JUSTICE

by Eugene Hopgood Davila

With a defiant message before Filiberto Ojeda Rios' funeral procession, the clandestine organization, the Boricua Popular Army-Los Macheteros, swore "to make justice" on behalf of their fallen leader.

The message signed by a so-called "Comandante Guasabara" (which signifies "war" in the native-indigenous Taino language), was received with enthuiasm from the multitude of independence supporters that congregated in front of the stage placed in front of the cementary of the Rio Blanco neighborhood of Naguabo, where Ojeda Rios was buried yesterday.

"We appreciate the people's show of solidarity and we call on them to unite so that this immense crime does not go unpunished", declared the signatory of the message, which was read by the master of ceremony, the actress and lawyer Roxana Badillo. The public, at that moment, shouted slogans of "unity, unity", and "Filiberto, comrade, your death will be avenged".

"The order was given: go forward. The Boricua Popular Army continues its fight", said Los Macheteros through the communique. "And now with even greater strength, because the abuse, the infinite cruelty that the enemy has shown to our comandante and to his partner does not intimidate us. On the contrary, it reaffirms us in our decision to liberate our homeland from the imperial claws that oppress her," he added.

"Los Macheteros swear to make justice for our comandante and our homeland...Yankee Assassins, your days are numbered, you shook up an ants nest, every boricua is Machetero", they said finally in the redacted message, "on some point of the heart of this homeland".

The Macheteros have claimed responsibility for numerous violent attacks in the decades of the 70s and 80s, and after the jailing of most of their leaders, after 1985, many thought the clandestine group had been split. Ojeda Rios had maintained in the last years that he continued reorganizing the Macheteros.

Badillo also read a message in which the Government of Venezuela condemned the "assassination" of Ojeda Rios.

"Puerto Rican comrades, the permanent mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the United Nations, manifests its firm and categorical condemnation of this executed assassination by the Federal Bureau of Investigations of the United States of America against the Puerto Rican patriot Filiberto Ojeda Rios, an act that is aggravated by the provocation that this represents for the people of Puerto Rico for the operation having taken place on the anniversary data of the insurrection for independence of 1868", said the signed message from Ambassador Fermin Toro Jimenez, which was received with shouts of "Long Live President Hugo Chavez".

The discourses and songs on stage that preceded the burial took place in a long road in front of the imposing Yunque rainforest scenery, under scattered showers of rain and in front of a multitude, half solemn and half invigorated, that paraded throughout the dimensions of the place.

During his exit toward the cementary, from the Bar Association's headquarters in Santurce, Edgardo Ojeda, one of the sons of Ojeda Rios, appreciated, on behalf of the family, the shows of caring that they had received and emphasized the need to investigate what he called "a vile crime".

The funeral procession took four hours to reach the sacred countryside of Rio Blanco in a march that was saluted by tie-wearing officeworkers under the sun in Hato Rey, university students in Rio Piedras, children, elderly, many displaying the flags of Puerto Rico and Lares (translator's addendum: the Flag of Lares signifies revolutionary support of the insurrection attempt against Spain that took place in 1868 in the town of Lares. Independence supporters often show them), and numerous wooden machetes, flags, and other symbols associated with Los Macheteros. In Juncos and Las Piedras, it was attention-grabbing to see groups of children and adolescents in school uniforms with signs and flags in salute of Ojeda Rios.

In between those that pronounced messages from the stage was the widow of Ojeda, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa y the activist in favor of the political prisoners, Luis Nieves Falcon. The labor lawyer Jorge Farinacci, who was a member of Los Macheteros and served timein jail with Joeda Rios, called him "Our Teacher" and said that "we do not even reach his ankles". Farinacci, leader of the Revolutionary Party of Puerto Rican Workers which seperated from the organization led by Ojeda Rios to later resurge as a public organization, swore that "this homeland will be free, whatever the cost".

In the same manner, there were messages from the co-president of the National Hostosiano Independence Movement, Julio Muriente, who singled out the search for unity not only between independence supporters but the entire people of Puerto Rico; and Rosa Meneses, president of the Nationalist Party.

Ojeda received his last rites in a ceremony that included the Catholic Bishop of Caguas, Ruben Gonzalez, and the episcopal bishop David Alvarez.

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/28/ElPais/292664.asp?category=El+Pais&title=Solidarios+a+la+Isla+60+paises&artdate=2005/09/28

Spanish Article. Rough Translation.

60 COUNTRIES IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE ISLAND

By Leslie Pesante
Special - The New Day

Various movements and organizations in more than 60 coountries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, showed their solidarity with the Puerto Ricans after the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

During a World Assembly of the South and the World Conference North/South "Resistance and Altneratives to External Debt", which took place last week in Havana, Cuba, the delegates of the organizations reacted to the case yesterday with a "Declaration of Solidarity with Puerto Rico".

In the document, the organizations condemned what they characterized as "a vile assassination of an independence movement leader" last Sept. 23rd on the part of agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations of the United States.

The signatories included the argentine Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize), the Coordinator of the Jubileo Sur, Berverly Kenne, also of Argentina, the delegate of the group "Shouts of the Excluded", Hilda Guerrero and Wanda Colon Cortes, of the Caribbean Project for Peace and Justice, both from Puerto Rico.

The organizations, united in the Assembly to discuss alternatives against the external debt of their countries, demanded in their pronouncement "the restitution of the historical, social, and ecological debt" that they said the United States owes Puerto Rico.

In the same manner, they reaffirmed that Puerto Rico has a right to its independence and self-determination. They censured the actions of the federal authorities in not providing Ojeda Rios with medical attention when he was wounded, which they described as a "brutality" of the U.S. agents.

Our government would never sign because they are so determined to turn Australia into a second Bushco. Now they want to turn the north into a radiactive waste dump for the whole world, so I guess they've given up on ever being another bushco and are now hoping to make the grade as Bushco's outback dunny.

most Australians agree that no people should be the colony of another. We Puerto Ricans know your people are with us. Thank you!

http://www.endi.com/2005/09/30/Ultimahora/294008.asp?category=Ultima+hora&title=FBI+sabia+desde+el+viernes+que+Ojeda+Rios+estaba+herido,+segun+Justicia&artdate=2005/09/30

Spanish Article. Rough Translation

FBI KNEW SINCE FRIDAY (SEPT 23rd.) THAT OJEDA RIOS WAS WOUNDED, ACCORDING TO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

The federal authorities knew since Sept. 23rd that the Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios was wounded from a gunshot or possibly dead, according to the Secretary of Justice, Roberto Sanchez Ramos.

The functionary said that that day, between 6:30-7:00 of the night, he received a phone call from the sub-chief of the federal marshals in Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez, asking him to send marshals to the scene.

"At around 6:30 to 7:00 of the night, at that moment, and the Governor expressed himself in that way in the letter to the Secretary of Justice of the United States, already at that hour, they understood that Filiberto Ojeda was probably wounded or dead," he maintained in a press conference.

Sanchez Ramos highlighted that when he questioned Rodriguez if Ojeda Rios had died, she alleged that she didn't know.

"When I hung up, my intuition was that he probably had died because marshals call themselves when a violent scene must be investigated...that was the impression I had", he maintained.

Family members and independence leaders understand that the FBI knew that they had been mortally wounded the leader of the clandestine group Los Macheteros on Friday, whose blood flowed out to the exterior of the home under the principal door of the house, and that they left him to die by bloodloss.

Sanchez Ramos tambien denied that any functionary of his agency knew any information regarding the operation before Sept 23rd, as was told by the agent in charge of the FBI in Puerto Rico, Luis Fratecelli.

"I had said before, and I repeat it today, that the Department of Justice had absolutely no knowledge of this operation...not in writing, not by telephone, not informally or formally, not extraofficially or officially, nothing, zero, we didn't touch the subject, even from a distance, of Filiberto Ojeda", assured Sanchez Ramos.

The Secretary of Justice made the declarations after meeting Friday with two functionaries of the Office of the U.S. Inspector General, which is investigating the killing of Ojeda Rios on the part of the FBI.

Fratecelli suggested in a newspaer of the capital (The New Day) that the Puerto Rican authorities had more information than they are letting known regarding the operation that ended with the killing of Ojeda Rios.

"The investigation will bring light on...how long the local authorities had known of the operation to find him and arrest him", said the federal functionary, but he refused to be precise regarding which functionaries of the Puerto Rican government had been in communication with him before the operation.

The leader of the clandestine group Los Macheteros was wanted by federal authorities since 1990, when he cut his leg anklet that he wore for the theft of $7.2 million dollars from a Wells Fargo armored truck in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1983.

The prelimary report from the Institute of Forensic Sciences determined that Ojeda Rios died from bloodloss after receiving the gunshot in an a federal operation that took place in his home in a rural neighborhood of Hormigueros.

glance this seems really wrong of the FBI. Why after 15 years would this happen?

that they got a tip from somebody and decided to get him.

My take on it is that

1) they wanted to deal a blow to the independence movement by doing it on Sept 23rd, a revered patriotic holiday for Independence supporters, the insurrection date against Spain in 1868.

What I can't get is why it was so important to catch him. Ojeda has been in clandestine, non-active living for 10 years. The critical mass for violent struggle in Puerto Rico passed in the 1970s-1980s. There's no stomach or support, even within the radical independence supporters, for violent warfare. He was an old, 72 year old man planting vegetables in his countryside garden, living quietly and non-assumingly with his loving wife. Surely he was no threat to anyone anymore (never was, he loved his people), and the FBI could be using its resources for more important things.

Since this heavily sanitized story was published in late September, serious questions have been raised about the official account of Ojeda Rios death. Stay tuned!

I find it surprising that after all the lies about Waco, 9/11. Afghanistan, and Iraq that there are still people that automatically believe the version being pushed by members of Bush's police-state.

Puerto Rico is run by a minority ruling class that is closely allied with the corporatists in the mainland. The majority of Puerto Ricans are confused and divided about their future, being always forced to choose between the status quo that oppresses them, statehood which they disdain, or independence which they have been conditioned to fear.

The US should leave Puerto Rico as it should leave Guam and Iraq.

I support independence for Puerto Rico and I do not support the troops when they are used to maintain a colony there.

I, at least, appreciate your support of my country's independence. Most Puerto Ricans are too fearful of economic consequences to properly know what's good for them, and the Statehood movement uses federal welfare money and Pell grant aid to keep poor supporters in their camp. They use the boogeyman of "cuba" to keep them away from Puerto Rican independence.

In fact, one of the saddest stories for me was going to a neighborhood bar to watch a highly anticipated boxing match with male friends. When in the bar, the lights went out for about 15 seconds, and all throughout, the men playing pool at the bar started shouting, "Long Live the Republic, Puerto Rico is free!". Then the lights came on again, and they laughed, shrugged shoulders, and went back to playing pool.

For me, the experience was frustrating, because if that's how the regular, menial worker / night bar frequenting person in Puerto Rico feels about a future independent Republic of Puerto Rico, then the independence movement as a long way to educating the people that independence doesn't equal material shortages.

We owe George W. Bush a debt of gratitude for exposing American capitalism for the brutal system that it really is. No longer can an American President utter the words "freedom" and "democracy" and sound credible at the same time. The world knows that there is a big difference between the "freedom and democracy" and "labor rights" that America proclaims as its Gospel and the ugly reality of American subjugation and imperialism.

I strongly support the independence of Puerto Rico and I hope that the day comes when its beautiful tricolor flag can fly at the United Nations as a sovereign state.

Nice meeting you!

as the Bush Administration seeks to eliminate people of opposing ideas that have leadership potential.