[News] Puerto Rico: Years After FBI Murder, Ojeda Rios' Legacy Lives

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Puerto-Rico-Years-After-FBI-Murder-Ojeda-Rios-Legacy-Lives-20160921-0020.html 



  Puerto Rico: Years After FBI Murder, Ojeda Rios' Legacy Lives

23 September 2016

A lifelong patriot dedicated to the liberation of Puerto Rico, Ojeda 
Rios was killed in cold blood by the FBI 11 years ago.

On Sept. 23, 2005, at least a hundred heavily-armed FBI agents landed in 
Puerto Rico from the United States for a secret and horrendous criminal 
mission: to assassinate the independence leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

The operation included helicopters, military vehicles, machine guns and 
sharpshooters. With the cooperation of the Puerto Rican police, the FBI 
closed off roads, shut down electricity and surrounded the Ojeda Rios 
residence in the western town of Hormigueros, where he and his wife Elma 
Beatriz Rosado were living.

The FBI shot dozens of rounds into the house, to which Ojeda Rios 
responded, trying to defend himself and his wife. As the incessant 
firings continued, Ojeda Rios pleaded with his wife to leave, afraid 
that she would also be killed in the shootout. She agreed, stating later 
that it was important to have an eyewitness to this crime.

Days later she told the press, “He yelled out to the agents, ‘Someone is 
coming out, someone is coming out.’ We kissed and hugged... When I 
finally came out of the house... they attempted to force me to kneel. 
When I refused, they threw me to the ground, pinning me (down) with 
their knees, forcing my hands behind my back and handcuffing me.”

As news spread that Ojeda Rios had been shot, people began to gather in 
order to help him, but the repressive forces would not allow anybody 
near, much less assist him. Even doctors were refused entrance to the 
house. What a testament to the United States' human rights commitment! 
For many hours the authorities let him slowly die. It was not until the 
following day, almost 30 hours later, that the FBI publicly announced 
that Filiberto Ojeda Rios had died.

Now, 11 years later, none of the criminals have been brought to justice. 
The case has, for all practical purposes, been closed. In 2011, the 
Puerto Rican Civil Rights Commission urged both the Puerto Rican and the 
United States Justice Departments to reopen the case to investigate the 
FBI for the use of excessive force in Ojeda Rios’ death. Their request 
is based on their own independent investigation which demonstrated the 
use of abusive and excessive force against Ojeda Rios. Both departments 
have declined so far to reopen the case, stating that there is 
“insufficient evidence.”

Today, as Puerto Rico’s future is at a crossroads, Ojeda Rios' execution 
brings to the fore the nature of U.S. colonialism and by extension, its 
goal to eliminate any opposition to its control.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios is a prime example of the empire's failure to 
squash opposition.

A lifelong patriot dedicated to the liberation of Puerto Rico, in the 
tradition of Boricua’s father, Ramon Emeterio Betances, Ojeda Rios 
represented the independence movement mission in Cuba where he both 
learned and was influenced by its socialist revolution. In the late 60’s 
he founded the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement and later the 
Boricua Popular Party, or the Macheteros.

Very little is said about the Puerto Rican armed struggle, since by 
virtue of the colonial situation, any liberation formation is demonized, 
deemed terrorist and their leaders and members charged with the 
ubiquitous “seditious conspiracy."

Many leaders, since Don Pedro Albizu Campos to Oscar Lopez Rivera—who is 
still incarcerated in the U.S.—have received long prison sentences under 
this charge. According to the U.S. penal and crime code, seditious 
conspiracy is, “If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in 
any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to 
overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United 
States."

And it was armed struggle that Ojeda Rios advocated for the liberation 
of his homeland. In his statement to the court, during his trial in 
Hartford, Conn., Ojeda Rios quoted many parts of the U.N. Charter and 
international laws that defend the right of oppressed people against 
their oppressors.

One example of this is Article 1514 of the U.N. Charter, which states in 
part that “the subjection of a people by foreign subjugation, domination 
and exploitation constitutes a denigration of fundamental human rights” 
and concludes that “any such people have a right to resist that foreign 
domination."

In a statement by the Macheteros titled, "Birth of the Boricua Popular 
Army—Macheteros," it said, “Macheteros are the product of a process that 
was brewing for decades. Numerous revolutionary organizations had 
already made their appearance in the patriotic struggle of Puerto 
Ricans, including the Independence Revolutionary Movement in Arms 
(MIRA), Armed Commands of Liberation (CAL), the Armed Forces of Popular 
Resistance (FARP), the Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto Rican 
Revolution (OVRP), all of which have resorted to arms to achieve 
independence of Puerto Rico.”

Ojeda Rios had been living underground since Sept. 23, 1990, when he 
removed the electronic monitor that he was forced to wear while on 
parole, accused for his role in the Wells Fargo robbery in Hartford, 
Conn., in 1983. This famous robbery by the Macheteros has been amply 
discussed and is seen as a recovery of monies robbed from people. The 
money, $7.2 million, was used to fund the struggle for independence and 
to provide toys for children living in poverty.

This Sept. 23, 2016, is the 148 anniversary of the Grito de Lares, where 
glorious Puerto Rican patriots commanded an assault on the Spanish 
colonial government in the city of Lares. Unfortunately, due to many 
circumstances, the uprising was not successful and was brutally repressed.

However, its main leader, Betances said at the time, “Lares was not the 
end of the war, but only one lost battle.” Thus, the Grito de Lares is 
celebrated every year by all the independence organizations and 
activists as the birth of the Puerto Rican nation.

To have assassinated Ojeda Rios on such a crucial day for independence 
and resistance to colonialism was an unpardonable crime by U.S. 
imperialism against the Puerto Rican people.

But now resistance is growing against the imposition of a colonial 
Fiscal Control Board, showing its muscle and letting the U.S. know that 
in spite of the message of repression, the people in Puerto Rico are 
still fighting—with new and creative methods—against colonial rule.

/Berta Joubert-Ceci is a retired psychiatrist and long-time Puerto Rican 
activist and organizer for the struggle in solidarity with the peoples 
of Latin America and the liberation of Puerto Rico. While in Puerto 
Rico, she was part of the committee to Free Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel 
Miranda, Irvin Flores and Oscar Collazo, Puerto Rican independentistas 
held in U.S. prisons./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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