[News] Puerto Rican Independence Movement under Attack in New York and San Juan
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Jan 28 10:52:04 EST 2008
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/susler280108.html
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/susler280108.html>Puerto
Rican Independence Movement under Attack in New York and San Juan
by Jan Susler
"It appears to us to be a reinitiation of the
harassment of independentists."1 -- U.S.
Congressman José Serrano, speaking to FBI director Robert Mueller
An unexpected knock on the door . . . men in
trench coats handing you a grand jury subpoena .
. . . If you're involved in the movement for the
independence of Puerto Rico, this isn't just a
not-so-fond memory of the COINTELPRO era. It's
2008 in New York City, and you are Christopher
Torres, a young social worker; Tania Frontera, a
young graphic designer; or Julio Pabón Jr., a young filmmaker from the Bronx.
Their subpoenas have aroused vigorous support for
them, not just in New York, but in cities across
the U.S. and in Puerto Rico. On the island, over
forty organizations united to condemn this latest
wave of repression and convened a demonstration
on January 11 where over a thousand people
participated under the theme "In the Face of
Repression, Unity and Struggle," with placards
and banners calling for the FBI and the federal
courts to leave the island. Simultaneous
activities took place in Brooklyn, Hartford,
Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, Orlando, Fitchburg, Massachusetts,
and Cleveland. As resolutions condemning the
repression emanated from the National Lawyers
Guild New York City Chapter, the American
Association of Jurists, the Interfaith Prisoners
of Conscience Project, and the Latin America
Solidarity Coalition, the New York Spanish
language daily El Diario/La Prensa published an
editorial ringing the alarm bell, and U.S.
congressman José Serrano telephoned FBI director Mueller to voice his concern.
Why the subpoenas? Why now? And why the resounding, unified denunciations?
Dating back to the era of Spanish colonial
control over Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican people
have organized to wrest their sovereignty from
foreign domination. That resistance continued
after the U.S. invasion and occupation in
1898. When the colonizers repressed and
criminalized public organizing for independence,
clandestine organizations formed, including the
Popular Boricua Army -- Macheteros in the
1980s. In 1985, the FBI arrested and almost
killed its leader, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, accusing
him of participation in the 1983 expropriation of
$7.5 million U.S. government insured dollars from
a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford,
Connecticut. After his release on bail, Ojeda
returned to clandestine existence. In spite of
the FBI's ever-increasing reward for information
leading to his capture, he remained underground
for some fifteen years. On September 23, 2005,
however, a squad of FBI assassins circled his
home, shot him, and left him to bleed to
death.2 The assassination outraged the entire
nation, and the FBI became a pariah.
Hoping to distract public attention from their
own criminal conduct and justify their presence
on the island, particularly in the post-911 era,
the FBI soon went on the offensive. On February
10, 2006, allegedly in a continuing investigation
of the Macheteros, they raided the homes and
businesses of several independence activists and
in the process pepper-sprayed the nation's
journalists who were covering the FBI's
paramilitary incursions. Again, the entire
country expressed its outrage. Since then,
activists have been stopped, searched, and
harassed, with the homes and offices of many
others, including attorneys and movement leaders,
mysteriously broken into in events reminiscent of
the infamous black-bag COINTELPRO jobs:
computers, digital cameras, and cell phones are
taken, while other valuable items remain untouched.
Recent rumors are that the head of the FBI in San
Juan, Luis Fraticelli, is close to the end of his
tenure and has given instructions to accelerate
efforts to neutralize the remains of the clandestine group.3
For Fernando Martín, a leader of the Puerto Rican
Independence Party, the FBI "wants to clean up
its image after the assassination of Filiberto
(Ojeda Ríos), because they want to be able to say
that in Puerto Rico, they investigate people of
all parties (and) somehow salvage their image after their selective attacks."4
Julio Muriente, a leader of the National Hostos
Independence Movement, stated, "The legal facade
of this repressive operation is directed against
the Macheteros, but the real intention is against
the entire independentist movement, including
against the people of Puerto Rico," calling it
"an attack which is not against any particular
organization, but against a political, social,
patriotic movement, and against a people."5
U.S. Congressman José Serrano (D-NY), who was
instrumental in getting the FBI to disclose
thousands of pages of records documenting its
illegal surveillance of and intervention in the
independence movement6, said of these subpoenas,
"It certainly appears to be a fishing
expedition,"7 which, he noted, harkens back to
the days when, according to FBI director
Freeh, the agency engaged in "egregious illegal
action, maybe criminal action."8
The subpoenas, initially returnable on January
11, were continued to February 1. Attorneys
announced they would file motions to quash the
subpoenas. Frontera's attorney, Martin Stolar,
noted that "if the motion is denied, Tania will
have to appear before the grand jury, and may
decide not to testify, invoking her constitutional rights."9
Organizations in Puerto Rico have announced they
will protest in various towns of the island on
February 1 in defense and support of the three
young people subpoenaed, with the themes "Wake
Up, Boricua, Defend Your Own!" and "the Grand
Jury Is illegal!" Additional protests are being
planned in U.S. cities as well.
The consequences of not collaborating with the
grand jury are well known to those who support
independence. Norberto Cintrón Fiallo, whose
home was searched during the February 10, 2006
FBI incursion, and who participated in the
January 11 protest in San Juan, refused to
collaborate with various grand juries
investigating the independence movement in both
Puerto Rico and New York in 1981 and 1982 and
served close to three years in prison as a
result.110 Julio Rosado, who participated in the
January 11 protest in New York, resisted grand
juries investigating the Puerto Rican
independence movement, serving nine months for
civil contempt in 1977, and later much of his
three year sentence for criminal contempt. "They
have always been there, whenever they want to
intimidate," he said, adding that he is convinced
there will be more subpoenas to come.111
A New York daily Spanish language newspaper
expressed editorial concern over the political
witch hunt, in words which should give us all pause:
Because of laws initiated by the Bush
Administration and passed by our Congress, the
legal protections that would give political
dissidents a right to due process have been
eroded. The net is wide for casting someone with
"suspicious" political beliefs, without having
been charged, tried or convicted of a crime, as a
threat. [ . . . ] Because the attacks on civil
liberties and human rights and the historical
intimidation and repression of Puerto Rican
independence supporters are interrelated, activists must make those links.
That's all the more urgent considering the
silence of most elected leaders and the virtual
media blackout on the subpoenas. In the context
of secret prisons, torture, detention without
trial, and warrantless wiretapping, the FBI's
fishing should be a concern for anyone interested
in rescuing this country from a rising police state.112
1 José Delgado,
<http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/politica/noticias/habla_con_el_jefe_del_fbi/343316>"Habla
con el jefe del FBI," El Nuevo Día, January 9, 2008.
2 In the white papers designed to avoid criminal
liability, the government blamed some of the
errors in the operation on Luis Fraticelli, the
Puerto Rican special agent in charge of its San
Juan field office. Not coincidentally,
Fraticelli had also participated in the 1985 near
assassination of Ojeda Ríos. See: U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector
General, "A Review of the September 2005 Shooting
Incident Involving the Federal Bureau of
Investigations and Filiberto Ojeda Ríos," August
2006, available at
<http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/index.htm>www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/index.htm.
3 José Delgado,
<http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/blog/345828>"El
caso de Nueva York," El Nuevo Día, January 14,
2008<http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/blog/345828>.
4 Combined Services,
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/%20%20http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/politica/noticias/denuncian_persecucion_contra_independentistas/340562>"Denunciation
of persecution of independentists:Fernando Martín
criticized the newspaper El Nuevo Día
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/%20%20http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/politica/noticias/denuncian_persecucion_contra_independentistas/340562>for
articles published December 23," El Nuevo Día, January 4, 2008.
5 AP, "Repudio independentista a citaciones a
Gran Jurado," El Vocero, January 7, 2008.
6 The disclosed documents are being classified
at Center for Puerto Rican Studies of the City
University of New York at Hunter College. See:
<http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/.>www.pr-secretfiles.net/.
7 José Delgado,
<http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/politica/noticias/habla_con_el_jefe_del_fbi/343316>"Habla
con el jefe del FBI: José Serrano le expresó a
Robert Mueller el malestar que existe entre los
boricuas en Nueva York por la citación de tres
jóvenes," El Nuevo Día, January 9, 2008.
8 Matthew Hay Brown,
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cited%20at%20http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/news_details.html?article=73>"Puerto
Rico Files Show FBI's Zeal; For Decades, Secret
U.S. Dossiers Targeted Suspected," Orlando Sentinel, November 06, 2003.
9 Ruth E. Hernández Beltrán/Agencia EFE,
<http://www.primerahora.com/XStatic/primerahora/template/nota.aspx?n=146663>"Posponen
citación a independentistas de Nueva York," Primera Hora, January 11, 2008.
10 José "Ché" Paralitici, Sentencia Impuesta:
100 Años de Encarcelamientos por la Independencia
de Puerto Rico, Ediciones Puerto Histórico (San
Juan, Puerto Rico: 2004), pp. 339-341.
11 Ruth E. Hernández Beltrán/ Agencia EFE,
"Posponen citación a independentistas de Nueva
York," Primera Hora, January 11, 2008,
http://www.primerahora.com/XStatic/primerahora/template/nota.aspx?n=146663.
Rosado was one of five supporters of independence
so imprisoned. Ricardo Romero, Steven Guerra,
María Cueto, who are Mexican, and Rosado's
brother Andres, simultaneously served time for
criminal contempt of the same grand jury. See:
United States v. Rosado et al., 728 F.2d 89 (2nd Cir. 1984).
12
<http://www.eldiariony.com/noticias/detail.aspx?section=25&desc=Editorial&id=1794932>"Constructing
an Enemy," Editorial, El Diario/La Prensa, January 17, 2008.
----------
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec99/clemency_9-8.html>
Jan Susler
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/susler140206.html>Jan
<http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61105>Susler
is a partner with the
<http://www.peopleslawoffice.com/>People's Law
Office in Chicago, which she joined in 1982 after
a six year stint at Prison Legal Aid, the legal
clinic at Southern Illinois University's School
of Law. Her long history of work on behalf of
political prisoners and prisoners' rights
includes litigation, advocacy, and educational
work around USP Marion and the Women's High
Security Unit at Lexington, KY. Her practice at
PLO focuses in addition on police misconduct
civil rights litigation. For several years she
was an adjunct professor of criminal justice at
Northeastern Illinois University and has also
taught at the University of Puerto
Rico. Representing the Puerto Rican political
prisoners for over two decades, she served as
lead counsel in the efforts culminating in the
1999 presidential commutation of their
sentences. She continues to represent those who remain imprisoned.
----------
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