FBI commits domestic terrorism on Independence Movement in Puerto Rico

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Mon, 13 Feb 2006 20:36:24 -0500

Represion in Puerto Rico

 

 

FBI commits domestic terrorism on Independence Movement in Puerto

Rico

 

" The only domestic terrorist attack here is the U.S. government's

attack on the people of Puerto Rico. "

New York State Assemblyman José Rivera.

 

 

 

In a move reminiscent of a U.S. Marine invasion of a foreign

country, the FBI descended in droves on Puerto Rico on February 10.2

Without breathing a word of the invasion to either the colonial

governor or the chief of police, heavily armed, militarized units of

the FBI, including the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit from Miami,

hit six different spots throughout the island.

 

Their purpose, they claimed, was to execute search warrants on six

independence activists they identified as suspected leaders of the

clandestine independence organization, Ejercito Popular

Boricua/Macheteros, the same organization whose legendary leader,

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, who the FBI assassinated five months earlier.

 

Their true purpose was widely understood as other: with their show

of force, to continue their long campaign to intimidate and

criminalize those who support independence for Puerto Rico,

particularly in this moment of the resurgence of the left throughout

Latin America; and, of course, to detract from their own criminal

conduct in taking Ojeda's life.

 

" This is yet another move on the part of the FBI to control and warn

those who advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico, exercising

their constitutional rights. It appears they are sending a message

of intimidation, " 4 said independentist activist and attorney Roxana

Badillo, who added that they are sorely mistaken if they believe the

movement will be intimidated.

 

Landing in military-style helicopters, accompanied by caravans

of vehicles, sometimes with the license plates obscured, FBI agents

swarmed private residences and businesses in Trujillo Alto and Río

Piedras (in the San Juan metropolitan area), and Mayagüez, San

Germán, Aguadilla, and Isabela (in the west of the island),

terrorizing entire neighborhoods.

 

The search warrants bore the names and addresses of veteran labor

leaders, community leaders, known independentists, and even a

Protestant minister respected for his work promoting small projects

of self-empowerment for poor people.

 

In Río Piedras, as Homeland Security helicopters hovered above

and sharpshooters watched through their telescopes from neighboring

buildings, FBI agents were ransacking the apartment of independentist

Liliana Laboy.

 

The Puerto Rican media arrived to cover the remarkable event. With

the FBI's murder of Ojeda Ríos fresh on their minds, independence

supporters quickly gathered at the closed gates of the condominium,

shouting, " Asesinos! " 6

 

Meanwhile, the FBI had banished Laboy from her apartment, and

initially ignored requests from her attorneys to allow them access

to their client, grabbing and threatening to arrest the attorneys if

they didn't leave the premises.

 

In San Germán, agents assaulted the offices of the not-for-profit

Ecumenical Committee for Community Economic Development [CEDECO, its

Spanish acronym], where community activist and independentist

William Mohler García was at work. They not only removed Mohler

from his office, but they handcuffed him and left him to bake in the

hot sun­ this, after searching his home, pepper spraying his dog, and

subjecting his wife to much humiliation.

 

Supporters gathered at the scene, shouting at the agents: " Get out

of here, damned FBI, " and " FBI, cowards, assassins, terrorists! " 7

 

In Aguadilla, the FBI searched the home of another CEDECO director,

Presbyterian minister and independentist José Morales. Also in

Aguadilla, the FBI spent four hours searching the home of

independentist and elementary school teacher VilmaVélez Roldán,

while she was at school.

 

Agents threw her two sons out of their home, handcuffed them, and

left them outside with no shade.8 In Isabela, the Cabán family

home was searched.9

 

In Trujillo Alto, the home of Norberto Cintrón Fiallo was ransacked

while he was away at his workplace.

 

Before leaving the scene in Río Piedras, the FBI, obviously

unhappy with the presence of protesters and abundant numbers of

media and the prospect of having to face further public exposure,

aggressing against all those gathered, including attacking the media

with pepper spray.

 

Several journalists were treated by paramedics at the scene, and

some went to nearby hospitals. As the caravan of some fourteen

vehicles sped from the scene, the agents had their assault weapons

pointed at the press and public.

 

Adding insult to injury, the FBI emitted a press release stating, " It

appears members of the media and the general public attempted to

cross the established law enforcement perimeter, and the use of non-

lethal force was utilized. This was done in order to protect members

of the media, the public and the law enforcement officers executing

this lawful search warrant. "

 

Reaction from the Press

" It gives us pause that in a democratic society, security forces

cut off the flow of information, and even worse, attack those who

work in journalism, who seek to divulge precise and reliable

information, " said Annette Alvarez, a television reporter who was

sprayed, who spoke in her capacity as president of the Overseas

Press Club chapter.10

 

Oscar J. Serrano, president of the Journalists Association of Puerto

Rico, declared, " The agents didn't use force and gas to defend

themselves; they used them offensively to attack the press.

 

The act of an agent emptying his spray can directly in the face of

[journalist] Normando Valentín, who had his hands occupied with the

instruments of his trade, cannot be excused as negligence.

 

That, and the _expression of disdain reflected on the agent's face,

are indicative of a specific intent to cause harm, and represents

nothing less than a criminal act. " 11

 

The Association of Photojournalists, the Center for the Freedom of

the Press, the Organization of Independent Journalists, and

the Union of Journalists, Graphic Arts and Ramas Anexas joined in

condemning the FBI's use of force on their colleagues.

 

While the Puerto Rican print, electronic media and radio provided

full coverage of this extraordinary militaristic operation, the

U.S. press was virtually silent,12 with only a few newspapers

reprinting slightly differing versions of an Associated Press wire

story.

 

Reaction from the Puerto Rican Government

 

After the September assassination, the FBI lost all hope of

credibility in the eyes of Puerto Rican society. Having been told

on February 10 only after the FBI had begun its assault, and only

that they were serving search warrants on suspected Macheteros, the

chief of police, Pedro Toledo (himself a former FBI agent), as well

as the head of the Department of Justice were quick to distance

themselves from the operation, making public statements that they

were not participants.13

 

When Toledo learned­ after the operation was over­ that the FBI

asserted that this " ongoing domestic terrorism investigation "

averted " a potential attack, where explosives devices were to be

utilized, " to be " directed at privately owned interests in Puerto

Rico, as well as the general public, " 14 he insisted that, " [w]ithout

a doubt, I should have been informed. " 15

 

Toledo rather resoundingly criticized the entire operation­ not just

the use of force against the journalists­ as having used excessive

force, listing the use of so many agents and the incorporation of

helicopters.

 

He recalled his own participation in the 1980's in executing search

warrants against members of the same clandestine organization, when

such incidents never took place.

 

" It was an improper use, completely outside of the norm. This gas

(pepper) is used when your life is in danger, against an attacker,

not a journalist, " he said.16 However, although he expressed that

the Puerto Rican Department of Justice would have jurisdiction to

prosecute federal agents for their excessive use of force, he did

not express any intention to conduct such a prosecution, or even

investigate these FBI crimes on Puerto Rican soil.

 

The governor was another recipient of such a " courtesy call, " 17

which also took place only after the FBI had begun its assault.18

He, too, expressed indignation at the assault on Puerto Rican

journalists, calling it unjustified.19

 

However he offered absolutely no criticism of the FBI's invasion of

his country, let alone of the agency's failure to even notify

him in advance, and failed to insist that the U.S. government be

accountable for the acts of its agents committed in Puerto Rico.

 

Reaction from the Public

 

The very same afternoon the FBI conducted its show of force,

hundreds of people gathered at the federal courthouse, which houses

the FBI offices, to express their indignation.

 

Called by the Worker's Socialist Movement [MST by its Spanish

acronym],20 people of all ages and walks of life marched and

chanted, as elected officials, spokespeople from a variety

of organizations, and those whose homes had been ransacked, spoke.

 

The following day, fifteen organizations convened a press

conference to condemn the FBI's aggressive presence. A spokesperson

for CEDECO's support network expressed concern that the highly

publicized raid could cost the organization the financial support it

receives from grants and foundations and thereby undermine its

ability to offer services of education and of rehabilitating homes

for people with few resources.

 

Agency spokespeople questioned why the FBI would take important

documents related to one of CEDECO's urban housing projects.21

 

Julio Fontanet, president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association,

expressed a common theme: " To complain to the federal government or

the goverment of Puerto Rico is an exercise in futility, and the FBI

acts with total impunity in Puerto Rico. " 22

 

Observing that this type of FBI operation in Puerto Rico has become

a custom, Fontanet announced his intention to take the matter to

international fora.23

 

The former dean of the Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law, law

professor Carlos Rivera Lugo, echoed Fontanet, censuring the Puerto

Rican government " for permitting the U.S. armed forces to act with

total impunity in this country. " 24

 

The National Hostosiano Independence Movement coincided: " The

governor of Puerto Rico has the obligation to stand up and defend

Puerto Rico. We demand that governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá

energetically condemn the FBI's abusive actions in Puerto Rico, and

that as a representative of the people he express the general

indignation we all feel, and that he demand respect for our

people. " 25

 

The experience moved that organization to commit to redouble its

efforts to " expel forever from our national territory the federal

court and the FBI, " because " the only thing the presence in Puerto

Rico of these federal dependencies has caused is injury, damage, and

impediments to our right as a people to self-determination. " 26

 

Amnesty International of Puerto Rico expressed its concern for

the FBI's conduct both in executing the search warrants and

attacking the press, reminding the FBI that they are not above the

law of civil and human rights, and that, like any other law

enforcement agency, they must comply with basic human rights

provided by international law.27

 

Representatives of all the political parties have, however

timidly, expressed preoccupation with the FBI's conduct toward the

independence movement, but it was the independence party

representative who expressed the sentiment strongly felt throughout

the diverse independence movement: " This operation is the most crude

proof that Puerto Rico is a colony, " noted Juan Dalmau, secretary

general of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.28

 

" If the FBI thinks that with these acts it is going to intimidate

the independentists, it is mistaken. In the face of these

abuses, the independence movement will respond just as it has

historically, with more militancy, more patriotism and a greater

commitment to struggle. " 29

 

That will be necessary, given the rumors that the FBI will return to

conduct more search and destroy missions,30 and to increase the

wave of repression.

 

Jan Susler

February 12, 2006

All translations from Spanish to English are the author's.

 

 

Websites where photos and videos are available:

 

http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/13197.php

http://www.primerahora.com/noticia.asp?

guid=F9260F8D7C3A47B682B0BA4AAE99B5D2

http://www.primerahora.com/noticia.asp?

guid=4822DBB409014D1C8C77C89458E01C5A & newscat=panorama & newssubcat=pol

icia