Following the arrest earlier this month of nationalist Norberto Gonzalez Claudio for his alleged involvement in the 1983 Wells Fargo robbery of $7.2 million, Puerto Rican independence activists on the island are saying that the FBI is conducting a new wave of intimidation. Manifesting as searches in Cayay, where Gonzalez Claudio was taken into custody after living “underground” for 25 years, the FBI has been entering the homes in the area, often without showing search warrants.

According to RNV/ La Radio del Sur, the FBI prevented those returning from work from entering their homes and took items from homes as evidence including computer hard drives. The Puerto Rican liberation organization, EPB-Macheteros affirmed in a communiqué that the FBI had created a battalion of 22 intelligence agents in order to follow independence supporters and social activists.

This latest crackdown on the lives of those who advocate for the independence of the United States colony of Puerto Rico is reminiscent of what happened following the 2005 FBI assassination of Nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios. There were FBI sweeps on the island, that occurred without notifying the supposed autonomous Commonwealth government. The harassment extended to Puerto Ricans in NY who were served with subpoenas in 2007 in connection to an alleged investigation of los Macheteros.

It seems that whenever the United States federal government wields it’s power over Puerto Rico, it comes down harder on the Puerto Rican people, perhaps out of concern. After all every action that comes from the United States against those seeking that Puerto Rico have a chance to be a truly sovereign is a reminder and a call to wake up and take action, something the United States doesn’t want, regardless of what Presidential reports may indicate.