PUERTO RICO A Talk with a "Machetero"
Fitzgerald, Frank T.
Seven years have passed since a Wells Fargo employee drove off with $7.2 million in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1985, the action was attributed to Los Macheteros, the machete wielders, a Puerto...
...In March 1984 we put forth a program of national reconstruction, to move economic power into Puerto Rican hands...
...In the 1967 plebiscite, commonwealth status won 60.4% of the vote, statehood 39.0%, and independence 0.6...
...Then, when I tried to go to Cuba, FBI agents threatened me with five years in jail and a $5,000 fine...
...This is one of the reasons we are demanding a change of venue...
...In July 1988 the federal district court judge in Hartford suppressed evidence that the FBI obtained through electronic surveillance, because the tapes were not immediately sealed as required by law...
...Prospective jurors had to stand in front of the judge to be quizzed on their understanding of English...
...This is an important case because of its political nature...
...The enormous number of people without work, the high crime and general corruption, the deterioration in services for education and health care that were of low quality to begin with, the high cost of living, the ecological deterioration and environmental contamination-all of these elements of Puerto Rican reality determine the path of progressive forces and the real possibilities for unity...
...Ojeda was kept in preventive detention for 45 months, the longest pre-trial jailing for any prisoner in U.S...
...At the same time, we also stated our willingness to negotiate with foreign-owned industrial establishments, to seek their cooperation in plans for national reconstruction...
...The Bush administration has proposed a plebiscite to determine whether Puerto Rico will remain a Commonwealth, become a state, or achieve independence...
...At the same time, President Bush has been actively campaigning in favor of statehood...
...My sister's apartment in New York was ransacked a couple of times...
...The most important thing would be to establish a provisional government and congress to convene a popular discussion of what type of government and what type of system we Puerto Ricans want...
...There are two tendencies among independentistas...
...military bases in Puerto Rico...
...he must report daily to court authorities and is under a strict curfew...
...We are waiting for the courts to decide, and the trial could start by September, in Hartford...
...There he joined a Puerto Rican revolutionary organization, the Movimiento Pro-Independencia...
...Colonialism has many ways of distorting a society that is alienated not only from the means of production, but also from the basic elements of national consciousness and self-esteem...
...The interaction of progressive political forces in Puerto Rico has scarcely been one of strong solidarity...
...repression in Puerto Rico...
...What have you personally experienced...
...But it solved nothing...
...Nevertheless, there is an objective reality-that of a colony in deterioration-influencing the movement of the Puerto Rican masses toward freedom and true democracy...
...They came dressed in military garb, with painted faces and bazookas, using air cover to control the whole neighborhood, as if it were a military commando operation...
...Los Macheteros says its goal is to draw international attention to Puerto Rico's colonial status and, through armed action, to pressure the United States to withdraw from the island...
...The second plebiscite was in 1967.* The FBI tried to manipulate the various parties, create conflict among them, and interfere with possible participation by independentistas...
...The other two are the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and the pro-Commonwealth Popular Democratic Party...
...Ojeda has testified before the United Nations and the U.S...
...On August 30, 1985, he and 14 other independentistas were arrested in an early-morning raid carried out by 225 FBI agents and members of the Puerto Rican Ancillary Police...
...They said it was to arrest me, but I truly thought they intended to murder me...
...As a result, hundreds of independent local organizations have appeared...
...They did not see just me on trial...
...The first, in 1952, established the present Commonwealth...
...Why did you get involved with Los Macheteros ? The FBI has institutionalized repression in our country...
...The Wells Fargo trial has been delayed for two years...
...The United Nations has established that a "transfer of powers" is necessary before a legitimate plebiscite can be held...
...La Perla neiahborhood in San Juan: Puerto Rico is Dart of Latin America Does Los Macheteros have a plan to move toward economic independence...
...People who believe in independence have to protect themselves against repression...
...Ojeda and the eight other independentistas charged in the case are protesting the decision to hold proceedings in Hartford, believing they would only receive a fair trial in Puerto Rico...
...He is currently under federal indictment in Hartford, accused of conspiracy in the Wells Fargo case...
...Los Macheteros is a clandestine organization formed in 1976 that uses armed struggle to oppose U.S...
...There is a very strong tendency toward organizing at the local level around the diverse issues that bring people together...
...One is that of the Puerto Rican Independence Party,* which will participate in the plebiscite and is convinced that Washington will not grant statehood even if this option wins...
...Of course, clandestinity does not mean hiding from the people, only from the repressive forces...
...In order to carry out this program, political empowerment is essential...
...Individualism, arrogance, mistrust, personal conflicts and manipulation-all these tend to have an effect on popular organizing...
...For example, most of the industries in Puerto Rico are owned by U.S...
...It is a plebiscite to calm international opinion, to ease the pressure for decolonization...
...It was a farce...
...No, this would be the third plebiscite in less than 40 years...
...nothing was stolen, but all her things were thrown around on the floor...
...FBI agents organized and trained death squads within the Puerto Rican police department...
...government tries to isolate us by calling us terrorists...
...Workers on strike get our support...
...The FBI tried to get them fired...
...This is not the first time that the United States has proposed a plebiscite for Puerto Rico...
...authorities monitor Ojeda's movements with an electronic shackle strapped to his ankle Frank T. Fitzgerald teaches sociology at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, and is the author of Managing Socialism: From Old Cadres to New Professionals in Revolutionary Cuba (Praeger, 1990...
...pharmaceutical and electronics industries are the backbone of the economy...
...In 1985, Los Macheteros assumed responsibility for the Hartford action...
...At that point, the FBI redirected its investigation...
...Now that he is free on bail, the FBI closely monitors his movements through an electronic beeper permanently strapped to his ankle...
...This decision was then appealed by the government to the Supreme Court, and a hearing was held on February 28, 1990...
...We need support in the United States in order to get the fairest possible trial in Hartford-which will never be as fair as we could have gotten from a jury of our peers in Puerto Rico...
...Sixtyfive percent of Puerto Rican families receive food checks, the equivalent of food stamps in the United States...
...You refer to repression in Puerto Rico...
...Voter abstention was close to 30%, with most independentistas and several pro-statehood forces boycotting the balloting due to FBI interference...
...The Court opted to remand the case to the Second Circuit and to order further findings to determine whether government agents had acted with justification...
...They could try us in Hartford, even though they alleged that a conspiracy took place in Puerto Rico...
...The FBI delayed the sealing for 84 days, time enough to alter the contents of the tapes in its laboratories in Washington...
...My brothers have been harassed at work...
...If we are going to get a fair trial, it will be in Puerto Rico, not Hartford...
...Over the years, my whole family has been visited by the FBI...
...The fact that there is now talk of a third plebiscite shows that the first two meant absolutely nothing...
...they saw themselves and the Puerto Rican people on trial...
...government and the leaders of the participating parties...
...Even those who understand the nature of colonialism lose faith in the people's struggle and become demoralized...
...But the people of the United States must see that this is false...
...The violation was so evident that the presiding judge saw no alternative but to suppress the tapes...
...Thejury, made up of Puerto Rican workers, saw this clearly...
...financial groups...
...This demonstrates that [the Supreme Court's] intentions are either to pressure the Second Circuit into justifying the government's position and permitting the use of the tapes, or to avoid responsibility for condemning a clear violation of the law by the FBI...
...Everything seems to indicate that there have been offers and negotiations behind closed doors between the U.S...
...In 1985, the action was attributed to Los Macheteros, the machete wielders, a Puerto Rican liberation organization that since 1976 has claimed credit for a series of armed attacks against FBI and U.S...
...A panel of three judges thoroughly reviewed the case and unanimously confirmed the opinion of the district court...
...It was covered every day by the media, and the Puerto Rican people became involved...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASIs the popular movement prepared for nationwide struggle...
...We think this is not only a grave mistake, but a very dangerous policy, because it dissipates any sense of struggle...
...Do you expect to win your case in Hartford...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS I ,, rS iThe Wells Fargo trial is currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether taped conversations of Ojeda in his home may be introduced as evidence...
...They accused me of being a Cuban agent, and they started a smear campaign against me, saying that I was working for the Cubans and not for the Puerto Rican people...
...I was first arrested in New York City, for a day, for demonstrating against the Playa Gir6n [Bay of Pigs] attack against Cuba...
...Another part of the organization undertakes military actions, such as attacks against U.S...
...We proposed a mixed economy that would combine private businesses, cooperatives, and publicly controlled enterprises...
...Colonialism and FBI intelligence operations have kept them divided [by playing up] issues with a low degree of relevance, or through vicious personal attacks...
...With an official unemployment rate of over 20%, really perhaps close to 40%, people fear for their jobs, for their survival...
...For example, squatters struggling for housing get our support...
...The main issue was that this was a case of an independentista against the FBI as an institution...
...Whatever is decided by the Supreme Court establishes a binding precedent in the United States...
...If statehood will never be granted, even if it wins by a large majority, then why should we struggle [against it...
...This was in connection to your alleged involvement in the 1983 Wells Fargo incident...
...His political activism dates from the 1950s...
...When will it begin...
...The fact that three senior judges from the Second Circuit, in addition to the district court judge, unanimously agreed that the FBI had violated the procedures for electronic surveillance makes the acceptance of the appeal very suspicious...
...You were recently found innocent in an important case in Puerto Rico...
...Most Puerto Ricans do not speak English, but federal proceedings have to be held in English...
...That is where things are now...
...It is a continuation of our long struggle for independence...
...U.S...
...This trial raised many issues, like language and jury selection...
...Now, if convicted, he faces a sentence of up to 250 years...
...The enemies of the people, mainly the FBI, reap this harvest of division and...
...Yes, on August 26, 1989...
...clandestinity provides that type of protection...
...Prosecutors immediately appealed the decision before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York...
...From 1961 to 1969 he lived in Cuba, studying political science at the University of Havana...
...The second tendency, adhered to by other independentista organizations, is to boycott the plebiscite, because we consider it illegitimate, a plebiscite without freedom, a manipulation of the Puerto Rican people...
...While I was in Cuba, the FBI questioned my family about my whereabouts...
...To struggle for independence is our right, just as it was your right in 1776...
...And there is a movement to unify all these local organizations into a popular front to coordinate on national issues...
...Only then-and it may take years-can we legitimately call for a plebiscite...
...This was very offensive to people...
...How can we have a legitimate plebiscite under conditions that create such a sense of dependence on the North American system, the colonial system...
...As they admitted during the trial, they tried to murder me...
...If the evidence is suppressed, other persecuted organizations who are victims of the same type of violations by the FBI can appeal on the same grounds...
...In 1985 I was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting two FBI agents during the attack on my home...
...You have to be immersed in the population to be able to progress toward the goal of independence...
...history...
...It created "subversive" lists with the names of more than 150,000 independentistas, who often find themselves thrown out of work...
...The injection of federal funds into the country is so great that the government keeps a hold on nearly every Puerto Rican family...
...to believe that the United States has no intention of incorporating our nation as a state, and this is exactly the line that has been fed to the people...
...Our aims were nationalistic and pluralistic, not the creation of a socialist economy, but a reform of the capitalist system, using some elements of a socialist program...
...One branch of Los Macheteros does organizing in communities around concrete issues...
...How have Puerto Rican independentistas reacted to this...
...A year after his return to Puerto Rico, he was arrested and accused of participating in another proindependence group, the Movimiento Independentista Revolutionario en Armas, though these charges were later dropped...
...We want to ensure the implementation of a true democracy, with representation from all sectors of society, particularly those traditionally ignored and abused by the colonial administrators: workers and the poor in general...
...In the early 1980s, the FBI began watching me constantly...
...He may not leave San Juan without permission from the Hartford judge...
...They put microphones in my home and car and wiretaps on my phone and on the public phones across the street from my house...
...I was arrested by the FBI in Puerto Rico in 1970...
...It was an extremely important trial...
...The U.S...
...People fear that independence would cause these enterprises to leave Puerto Rico...
...Yes, that's correct...
...Unemployment, corruption, crime, drug addiction, mental illness-all these problems grew worse...
...Congress...
...But the surveillance was part of their investigation into Los Macheteros as a political organization...
...The U.S...
...They made a historic decision: They unanimously acquitted me...
...I undertook my own defense in Spanish, because I have the right to speak to the people in Spanish...
...Then, in 1985, they attacked my house...
...They tailed me by foot, car and even airplane...
...A process to enable people to think freely and control their lives must take place first...
...deepen the rifts...
...The PIP has been led * One-of Puerto Rico's three major parties, social democratic and pro-independence...
...Filiberto Ojeda Rfos, 56, is a founder of Los Macheteros...
...It was convenient for them...
...Just as this one would mean absolutely nothing...
...military installations on the island...
...instead of accusing us of political activities in Puerto Rico, VOLUME XXIV, NUMBER 2 (AUGUST 1990) 5 ----they decided to accuse us of criminal conspiracy and robbery...
...Very important things have been happening...
Vol. 24 • August 1990 • No. 2
