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<h1><b>Puerto Rican militants blame officers for leader's
slaying</b></h1><font size=1>
<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/04/07/puerto_rican_militants_blame_officers_for_leaders_slaying?mode=PF" eudora="autourl">
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/04/07/puerto_rican_militants_blame_officers_for_leaders_slaying?mode=PF<br>
</a></font><font size=3>By Pedro Zayas, Associated Press Writer
| April 7, 2006<br><br>
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico --A militant Puerto Rican independence group
accused two police officers of tipping the FBI to the whereabouts of
their fugitive leader, prompting authorities to increase security
measures Friday in the island's western region.<br><br>
The militant group, the Macheteros, called the police officers
"traitors to the Puerto Rican nation," for telling the FBI that
Filiberto Ojeda Rios was at a farmhouse in the southwestern town of
Hormigueros, where he was killed in a shootout with federal agents in
September.<br><br>
In a statement mailed to news organizations, the Macheteros, also known
as the People's Boricua Army, named the officers from the western city of
Mayaguez and called them "rats in the service of the FBI," who
collected the $500,000 reward offered by the U.S. for capture of Ojeda
Rios.<br><br>
"We hope our people demonstrate and let us know what punishment we
should apply to these traitors who maliciously participated in the murder
of Filiberto Ojeda Rios," said the group's letter, which closed with
"Filiberto, commander, We will carry on!"<br><br>
The two people named by the Macheteros were not police officers. If
police had provided information in the Ojeda Rios case, they would not be
eligible for the reward because it would have been part of their official
duties, said police Superintendent Pedro Toledo.<br><br>
Authorities took unspecified security measures in the island's west, said
police spokesman Hector Agosto. The FBI did not immediately return phone
calls seeking comment.<br><br>
The Macheteros, or Cane Cutters, were suspected of carrying out a series
of bombings and attacks in the 1970s and 1980s aimed at gaining
independence for Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory whose residents are
American citizens who can't vote for president.<br><br>
In 1983, the group robbed a Wells Fargo bank depot in West Hartford,
Conn., of more than $7 million. Ojeda Rios, considered the mastermind of
the robbery, fled while on bond awaiting trial for the robbery and was a
fugitive for 15 years. He was tried and convicted in absentia for the
robbery and sentenced to 55 years in prison.<br><br>
Puerto Rican independence activists and some island officials have
criticized the FBI for shooting the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios, who was
considered somewhat of a folk hero to some on the island. The U.S.
government says the fugitive opened fire on the agents when they came to
arrest him, but his widow has claimed that federal authorities shot
first.
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