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Posts Tagged ‘Macheteros

With so much focus on Obama’s recent immigration speech and it’s potential impact (or not) on the Latino vote, some Puerto Rican events have fallen off the radar. I think it’s important to draw attention to them remembering that during Obama’s original Presidential run, he courted Ricans hard.

113 years ago today the bombardment of San Juan, Puerto Rico happened, as part of the Spanish-American War, where the United States engaged in imperial battles to gain control over Caribbean nations. A few months later, on July 25th, US troops would invade Guanica and never leave.

I think it’s important to recognize how Puerto Rico was taken as a spoil of war especially in the context of the recent arrest of 65-year-old Norberto Gonzalez Claudio in Puerto Rico. Gonzalez Claudio, had been living underground ever since the 1983 armoured truck robbery of about $7 million in Connecticut that was attributed to the Macheteros, a pro-independence guerilla organization. You will read
Gonzalez-Claudio called a terrorist in many of the mainstream newspapers with no acknowledgement of the current colonial status of the island.

In other Puerto Rican history – 34 years ago today I was born.

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Logo of Ejercito Popular Boricua-Macheteros. Logo is initials EPB with the B containing a Puerto Rican Flag insideThis interview with the revolutionary Rican org, that Filiberto Ojeda Rios headed before his assassination by the FBI, was in my inbox this weekend. I’m including the English translation below with a link to the original Spanish interview as featured in Claridad.

Comandante Guasábara, General Subsecretary talks colonial party politics, Luis Fortuño, Puerto Rico’s place in Latin America and Obama.

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macheteros1.jpgThe Boricua Popular Army aka los Macheteros have identified John Roeper as an FBI agent who participated in the assassination of Puerto Rican independence fighter Filiberto Ojeda Rios in 2005. From their statement:

“We in the EPB–The Macheteros, in turn, have been able to identify several of the mercenaries who participated in the assassination of our commander. Our intelligence division has been able to do so. Today we publish the name of John Roeper. In the next communiqués, we will report to the nation about other agents.

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Request for the UN to Look at Filiberto Ojeda Rios FBI Death

9:30 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

30 Jun 2008

macheteros1.jpgA Bar Association (it is not clear if this is the Puerto Rican Bar Association) requested that the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions, Australian Philip Alston, investigate the United States for the death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos at the hands of agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

Included in the 30 page request, is a request to interview 31 people including governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and Luis Fraticelli, director of the FBI in Puerto Rico.

The next step after filing the complaint is for Alston to communicate with the Government of the United States. Once the federal government approves Alston coming to Puerto Rico, the U.N. Rapporteur will visit the Island for a field investigation related to the death of Ojeda Ríos on September 23, 2005.

If the U.S. does not approve Alston’s visit, the Rapporteur will note the denial in his report and will denounce the U.S. position on an international level, according to Romany as well as attorneys Ricardo Alfonso García and Fermín Arraiza Navas, members of the third Bar Association commission to intervene in this case.

The attorneys posit that the case of Ojeda Ríos is not the only extrajudicial execution on the Island, mentioning as an example the death of Santiago Mari Pesquera, son of independentista leader Juan Mari Brás.

Do people really expect the U.S. to be held responsible to any international law?

Via / El Nuevo Dia

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Machetero Arraigned In Connecticut

8:06 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Connecticut|Justice|Politics|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

29 Feb 2008

pr%20flag.pngAvelino Gonzalez Claudio
plead not guilty yesterday to federal charges related to a $7 million robbery of the Wells Fargo armored car depot in 1983. The charges were robbery by force of a federally insured bank, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, the interstate or foreign transport of stolen goods, and conspiracy against the United States.

Gonzalez Claudio was held without bond pending a hearing Tuesday.

Via / AP

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Arrested Machetero Fighting Extradition and Tortured

1:29 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Connecticut|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

12 Feb 2008

35351435.jpgAvelino González Claudio, arrested last week in connection with a 1983 robbery of a Connecticut armored car depot, is fighting an extradition order that would send him to Connecticut to face trial. Gonzales Claudio considers himself a political prisoner and says he would not have a fair trial on the mainland.

A spokeswoman for the Federal prison said that some of the prison cells were being repaired and that is why the windows were covered not because Gonzalez Claudio is being treated differently from any other prisoner.

His lawyers also claim that Gonzalez Claudio is receiving inhumane treatment in the Puerto Rican Federal prison where he is being held because the only window in his cell has been covered with a metal plate, allowing no sunlight in and preventing Gonzalez Claudio from telling if it is day or night out.

Via / AP

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NY Ricans to Protest Machetero Arrest

10:21 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Events|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

11 Feb 2008

There is a call for Ricans and supporters of the Rican independence movement to protest the arrest of Avelino Gonzalez Claudio.

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
Contact us at ProLibertad {AT} Hotmail.com or at the ProLibertad
Hotline: 718-601-4751. Visit our website: http://www.myspace.com/ProLibertad

Picket at 26 Federal Plaza
Jacob Javits fed bldg, either B’way btw. Worth St. & Duane St. nr.
Thomas, or at Lafayette & Worth during construction. TRAINS J, M, Z
to Chambers; 4,5 to Brooklyn Bridge; R to City Hall; #1 to Franklin;
A/C to Chambers; 2,3 to Chambers; N, Q to Canal]

Monday February 11th, 2008 at 5pm

FREE AVELINO GONZALEZ CLAUDIO

Bring your flags and your noise makers

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign denounces this LATEST ATTACK on the
Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Since the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Rios in 2005, the FBI in
Puerto Rico has harassed and assaulted various pro-Puerto Rican
Independence activists in their witch hunt against Los Macheteros; a
clandestine revolutionary independence organization Filiberto Ojeda Rios led.

In the past few months, LUIS FRATICELLI, the director of the FBI in
Puerto Rico, has intensified these acts of repression by issuing
Grand Jury subpoenas to three young Puerto Rican Activists in New
York and Puerto Rico.

This past Thursday February 7th, the FBI in Puerto Rico arrested
Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, anti-colonial combatant and Machetero, for
his participation in the Wells Fargo Incident in the 1980s

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is calling on all supporters of
Puerto Rican Independence to join us as we picket this latest attack
on the Puerto Rican Independence movement

NO MORE PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
FBI OUT OF PUERTO RICO

Via / Personal email

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Machetero Arrested in Puerto Rico

9:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Politics|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

8 Feb 2008

mecheterossssaaq.jpg>While some people forget that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the U.S. government has zero problem cracking down on those who struggle for the independence of the colony. Yesterday the FBI announced the arrest of one of three Macheteros in relation to a 1983 Connecticut robbery.

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FBI Keeps the Heat on Rican Independentistas

9:00 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Puerto Rico · 1 Comment

20 Sep 2006

puertorico.jpgWith the 1 year anniversary of the murder of island independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios approaching on Saturday, the same federal agency responsible for his death is keeping the pressure on activists. Earlier this week the FBI decided to pay a visit to the homes of indpendence activists Liliana Laboy and the house of Norberto Cintron Fiallo in the San Juan area.

FBI spokesman Harry Rodríguez said the agents went to the homes as part of an ongoing investigation into the Macheteros, also known as the Puerto Rican People’s Army. He declined to provide details or say whether agents planned to arrest the activists or search their homes.

More than likely the feds want to get a head start and make people feel afraid so that they don’t hit the streets in memory of Filiberto. Rallies are planned for Saturday throughout Puerto Rico and here in the United States.

Via / Miami Herald

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FBI Off the Hook for Killing of Rican Nationalist

11:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Puerto Rico · 1 Comment

23 Aug 2006

MEM4136_filiberto.jpgSurprise surprise. Last week the Federal Department of Justice determined that FBI acted appropriately when they shot and killed Puerto Rican nationalist leader and Machetero Filiberto Ojeda Rios last September 23. The only criticism the Feds made was that there were some procedural issues in the shooting, including delayed communications between FBI headquarters and agents at the scene. According to CNN the report said:

“Although our report did not find that the FBI violated the deadly force policy or intentionally allowed Ojeda to die, we did find deficiencies in the FBI’s conduct of the arrest operation,” the report said. FBI decisions suffered from inadequate consideration of alternative options and inadequate preparation for foreseeable scenarios.”

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VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.

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