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<font size=3><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Puerto Rico:
Independence Activists Suspect Dirty Tricks As Police Department Is
Shaken<br>
</b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
By Juan Antonio Ocasio Rivera<br>
<a href="mailto:joboriken@aol.com">joboriken@aol.com</a><br>
<br>
September 20, 2007<br>
<br>
<i>National print media in Puerto Rico are reporting on major issues of
civil liberties, corruption, and alleged FBI “dirty tricks” on the lead
up to the 2<sup>nd</sup> anniversary of the FBI killing of a major
independence leader on the island.<br>
</i> <br>
<a href="http://www.economist.com/people/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4455267">
<img src="http://www.virtualboricua.org/Images/Black_white/4005OB.jpg" width=275 height=236 alt="[]">
</a><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2><i>Filiberto Ojeda
Rios, 72, leader of Puerto Rico's underground revolutionary <br>
movement and killed by the FBI September 23, 2005<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=7><b><i>T</i></b></font>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>he weekly <i>Claridad</i>,
daily <i>El Nuevo Día</i>, and other news outlets have been consistently
reporting on the intervention of federal authorities in cases of police
corruption, corruption in government and political parties, and on the
growing harassment of independence activists on the island, the latter
presumably by the intelligence agencies such as the FBI.<br>
<br>
BACKGROUND<br>
</font> <br>
<img src="http://www.workers.org/2007/world/puerto-rico-08302.jpg" width=200 height=135 alt="Video shows police shooting>
<br> Miguel Cáceres
Cruz"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br>
<i>Video shows Officer Javier Pagan shooting Miguel Caceres while the
victim was lying on the sidewalk face down; scores of people witnessed
the murder<br>
</i> <br>
After months of highly charged activity on the part of progressive
activists condemning police brutality and fabrication of cases by crooked
cops, a single police shooting broke the story of widespread police abuse
across the island. Miguel Caceres, 43, was returning from a family
party when confronted by an officer whom Caceres asked not to block
traffic with the squad car as he drove through an intersection.
Officer Javier Pagan Cruz, enraged at this perceived insubordination,
charged at Caceres and attempted to subdue him. As Caceres backed
away and questioned this intervention, the officer attacked him with
punches and kicks and a struggle ensued which ended with Caceres
motionless on the ground, the officer mistakenly shooting himself in the
thigh and then emptying his gun at point blank range into the unconscious
Caceres, killing him. The incident was captured on a witness’ cell
phone. <br>
<br>
Coupled with ongoing community rights struggles condemning police
misconduct, this event (and its footage) exploded all over news outlets
across the country (including YouTube) as more and more cases were
exposed and investigated.<br>
<br>
The cases of police misconduct and fabrication of cases (including the
planting of evidence such as drugs and guns) were reported mainly in the
western area of the island, under the command of the Mayaguez drug
division. These issues had been condemned in the press by residents
of the Candelaria housing projects and activists from La Nueva Escuela
and Puerto Rican Independence Movement
(<a href="http://nylatinojournal.com/home/puerto_rico_x/essay/police_stories_of_candelaria_and_new_york_city.html">
http://nylatinojournal.com/home/puerto_rico_x/essay/police_stories_of_candelaria_and_new_york_city.html</a>
). Dozens of officers have now been either arrested or transferred
and the division has been replenished with officers from other areas with
no prior records of civilian complaints.<br>
<br>
Prior to this event, federal authorities announced ongoing investigations
into possible campaign finance improprieties by the incumbent
pro-Commonwealth Popular Democratic Party and current governor Anibal
Acevedo Vila. Previous investigations were also conducted against
the statehood-advocating New Progressive Party and its president, former
governor Pedro Rossello Gonzalez.<br>
<br>
What is of most concern however, is the emerging pattern of activity
reminiscent of the “dirty tricks” campaign conducted by the FBI during
the 1960s and 1970s against progressive movements in the US and Puerto
Rico.<br>
<br>
Since the FBI killing of independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios in
2005, that movement’s many vocal activists have been subject to an
ongoing campaign of surveillance, harassment, and raids. Several
months after Ojeda Rios was shot by FBI commandos and left to bleed to
death, agents raided the homes of several activists, looking for
information implicating them in the involvement in Puerto Rico’s armed
revolutionary underground movement. In the process, agents attacked
local journalists covering the raid, purposely spraying mace into the
eyes of those covering the story.<br>
<br>
Since then, scores of activists have been and are being followed by land
and air. Cars trailing their every move are now reported as a
regular occurrence by some. Even helicopters have reportedly been
used for surveillance purposes. Others have been pulled over by
agents on the road or visited at their places of work simply to be given
some kind of ominous message to spread to the movement at large (i.e.,
“If anything happens, we’ll come after you” or “if anything happens this
weekend [9/23/06], we will mop up all independence activists in Puerto
Rico and in the mainland”). Some have discovered and/or suspect
their phone lines being tapped and monitored and most activists now
openly assume that large-scale surveillance is taking place.<br>
<br>
<img src="http://pr.indymedia.org/uploads/2007/08/cplnefbi.jpgmid.jpg" width=600 height=450 alt="FBI manipula declara...">
<br>
<i>Members of La Nueva Escuela and their lawyers hold a press conference
condemning FBI harassment
(<a href="http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/24914.php">
http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/24914.php</a>)<br>
</i> <br>
Recent events point to a more ominous development in the government’s
counter-intelligence program. La Nueva Escuela Treasurer and local
marine biologist Roberto Viqueira was stopped by local police and had his
person and car searched by FBI agents allegedly looking for evidence of
bomb-making materials. Activists denounced that the FBI was
fabricating allegations in order to have judges approve search warrants
and conducted an illegal search and seizure. Viqueira’s personal
agenda and cell phone were confiscated by agents. <br>
<br>
Two weeks ago, Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of the four Nationalists who
served 25 years in federal prison for pro-independence attack in Congress
in 1954 before receiving an unconditional pardon by President Carter,
received an anonymous death threat on his cell phone. Cancel
Miranda is considered a national hero in Puerto Rico and is received with
standing ovations, hugs, and kisses around the world, but most especially
by his compatriots on the island.<br>
<br>
Ten days later, the co-president of the National Hostosian Independence
Movement, one of the largest independence-supporting organizations on the
island, reported that he suffered a home invasion with disturbing
detail. Hector Pesquera reported that armed masked men broke into
his home at 3:00am, subdued him and his family, and robbed them only of
computers, laptops, cameras, cell phones, ipods, pen drives, pictures,
and his van. No other personal objects of value were taken and
Pesquera denounced that police were slow to respond and shrugged off his
suggestion that they use his license plate number to track down the
van. He reminded his fellow citizens that the police worked in
collusion with hired guns in previous decades to attack independence
movement leaders. <br>
<br>
At around the same time, a well known member of the national Bar
Association reported that his office was broken into two nights in a row
– both times thieves walked off with computer equipment.
Evoking images of the dirty tricks of the Watergate era, the thieves
stole his server and secretary’s computer and then returned to steal his
computer. Carlos Mondriguez, a former official of the Puerto Rican
Independence Party and currently working on historical projects for the
movement that are now lost, recalled being watched and harassed decades
ago and hoped that such practices were over, but commented that these
occurrences are forcing people to think that the movement cannot discount
that something more sinister is not at hand.<br>
<br>
ANALYSIS<br>
<br>
During the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, Puerto Rico witnessed a rash of
bombings directed at independence leaders and organizations.
(Indeed, Puerto Rican revolutionary organizations were conducting their
own armed campaign designed to push the US out of the island.)
Declassified documents and other now-public sources prove that massive
surveillance took place, with the collection of dossiers on hundreds of
thousands of people on the island. Simple association with the
independence movement was enough for a file to be opened on an
individual. Right-wing extremists with ties to anti-Castro Cuban
exiles in Miami were contracted to attack movement leaders, resulting in
deaths of prominent activists and bombings of pro-independence rallies
and even newspaper outlets published by movement organizers. People
were watched and followed and visited at work. Neighbors were
interviewed and employers urged to fire employees. Activists were
stopped and searched regularly. Their homes were broken into
regularly, discreetly at times but also many times done so that it was
obvious belongings were searched. The gubernatorial candidate from
the now-defunct Puerto Rican Socialist Party, Juan Mari Bras, lost his
son to a shooting under circumstances which still remain unclear, leading
most to believe it was organized and carried out covertly by US
intelligence services. Declassified documents show that FBI agents
celebrated Mari Bras’ heart attack in the mid-1970s and took credit for
the stress that caused it.<br>
<br>
<i>(See
<a href="http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/pr.htm">
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/pr.htm</a> for more information
on COINTELPRO & Puerto Rico's independence movement. <br>
</i> <br>
<i>See
<a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915760,00.html">
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915760,00.html</a> for
brief examples of the FBI's dirty tricks campaign)<br>
</i> <br>
The past has a torrid history of dirty tricks and if current incidents
are any measure, those dirty tricks are emerging once again in an effort
to, as J. Edgar Hoover put it, neutralize and disrupt the activities of
the Puerto Rican independence movement. The interesting thing is
that the police force at that time was also buckling under the weight of
its own corruption.<br>
<br>
Today, as the police force once again disintegrates under the weight of
its own corruption, federal intelligence agencies try to move into the
position of savior – the good cop looking out for the interests of the
people abused by local police or local politicians – while simultaneously
emerging from the shadows to play their traditional role of suppressor of
independence activists (who have actually been the only ones condemning
police abuse and political corruption for years). They are usurping
the increasingly prestigious role these organizations have been playing
with respect to the agitation against abuse and for human rights.
They do this with purpose, for they clearly fear that the movement is
moving successfully towards winning over the masses with its message of
dignity, respect for human rights, environmental justice, political
transparency, and consequently, political self determination via
independence. They witness the developing strength in the
resurgence of the movement and now seek to quell that strength and
growth. It is too late. This FBI response and strategy will
not weaken the freedom movement nor can they replace the freedom movement
with themselves in their phony role as protector of the rule of
law. They will only engender deeper resistance (both to them and to
the colonial system) and radicalize the movement, expediting the
liberation process itself.<br>
<br>
There are some interesting cues from which to view this resurgence of FBI
political repression. In the two years since their murder to Ojeda
Rios, agents willfully harassed activists in the days leading up to
September 23<sup>rd</sup> – both the date of Ojeda’s assassination at
their hands and also an important historical date for the independence
movement. 1868 activists rebelled against the rule of Spain; this
uprising is commemorated yearly by the liberation movement. The FBI
seems to be concerned that this date will produce some kind of violent
activity but also seems to be attempting to provoke it. They are
again harassing activists in the lead up to September
23<sup>rd</sup>. <br>
<br>
The FBI investigation into who supported Ojeda Rios during his 15 years
of clandestinity and into the Macheteros organization is an ongoing
investigation since September 23, 2005. This means they are
attempting to link local activists to both issues.<br>
<br>
The movement has finally begun heeding Ojeda’s call for
unification. The independence movement has been notorious for its
divisive nature and fractured front. This year, all independence
supporting organizations have joined forces to commemorate the 1868
uprising as well as Ojeda Rios himself. Such an effort was
undertaken in the late 1960s and was met with the severe FBI repression
mentioned previously. Within the context of such an important
unitary event, the possible unification of independence-supporting
organizations (even symbolically and temporary), it may be seen right now
as a dangerous step taken for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
When this history and these dynamics are placed within the backdrop of a
society increasingly involved in community grassroots struggles that are
increasingly agitating and increasingly successful, the development of a
grand progressive front openly resisting a North American presence in
Puerto Rico may seem terrifying to the colonially minded FBI. These
grassroots organizations are successfully highlighting, condemning, and
drawing national attention to the issues of police brutality, human
rights, worker’s rights, union organizing, environmental issues, eminent
domain, and the preservation of national landmarks.<br>
<br>
<br>
RECOMMENDATIONS <br>
<br>
<br>
Such repression only engenders radicalization, and, as many activists
from the 60s and 70s report, clandestinity, and the development of armed
struggle as a defensive response. This is why some are saying that
this is the FBI’s way of provoking an action by the underground – and
quickly and violently “mopping them up”.<br>
<br>
In light of more and more information revealing the tactics of the feds
in obtaining information, in collusion with the major telecommunication
companies that offer wireless cell phone services coupled with these very
focused interventions, it is imperative that the movement (and all
organized progressive movements) restructure its defensive capabilities –
in spite of the almost naïve sense that these things could not be
possibly happening to ‘us’.<br>
<br>
<br>
This may include the healthy scrutinizing of new recruits, limits on the
dissemination of internal organizational information and communications,
implementing security protocols during meetings to protect against
electronic eavesdropping, reducing the open sharing of sensitive
information over the internet and email, ensuring that computers are as
protected as possible against Trojan horses and other malware, being
conscious that text messages and phone conversations are easily being
monitored – all of these things should be made priorities for activists
currently organizing events that come close to touching on the question
of Puerto Rico’s independence. To avoid these realities is to allow
disruption, discord, infighting, and destruction to be sown by the
enemy.<br>
<br>
CLOSING<br>
<br>
<br>
The historical and evolutionary march towards emancipation is a process
that cannot be stopped. It cannot be surrendered and cannot be
completely wiped away from the minds of the colonized even through the
sophisticated means utilized by the United States Empire in Puerto
Rico. It is the fault line for which the imperial power is
unprepared to face. Anti-colonial sentiment within a colonial
people is as natural as those phenomena and when it unleashes its fury,
the freedom that will result will be just as inevitable as the winds and
floods and destruction caused by those massive formations of mother
earth. The difference will be that freedom will mean the rebirth of
our nation, guided and developed and protected by ourselves, without the
abuse and interference of the invaders who do not have our interests at
heart.<br>
<br>
In the interim, we must take heed to the developing warning signs that
our movement is once again under consistent and organized and
sophisticated attack and must develop those necessary means to mitigate
the effects of those attacks. While we must not fall into the trap
of expending too much energy on defense and not enough on offense
(organizing the people), the national liberation movement in Puerto Rico
and in the Diaspora is now faced with this reality and must adapt itself
to meet any and all challenges. We must also not fall into the trap
of focusing too much energy on individual or organizational differences,
as these will surely be exploited by the US intelligence community.
As we come upon another celebration of the birth of our freedom movement
and mourn the loss of our most revolutionary comrade on September
23<sup>rd</sup>, we must also continue to forge the unity that he called
for and that the Americans fear and must continue to be vigilant against
the abuses that the colonial police internalize and act out against our
people.<br>
<br>
As our national hero Rafael Cancel Miranda often says, although we would
rather receive hugs and throw flowers, we must also be prepared to do
more in order to achieve that most noble dream enshrined in our most
natural right – freedom. <br><br>
<br>
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