FBI Murder's Filiberto Ojeda Rios!

[Hefer]

FBI Assassinates Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios

For the past four decades Filiberto Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S. colonial rule. He was wanted by the FBI for his role in a 1983 bank heist.
Assassins! (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/26/1434229) :angry:

[Free Palestine]

Hm.. When early American revolutionaries throw off the yoke of imperialism and gain independence they become heroes of our textbooks. When Puerto Rican nationalists try to do the same thing and dedicate their lives to independence, they're called criminals, fanatics, and assassins (thanks to the power of the U.S. media).

[Zingu]

Yet an other sign that the USA is stilling struggling to keep South America is little backyard! Unluckly for them, the movement for self-determination is wide-spread all over the region, they cannot win!

[Borincano]

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos has now become another independentista martyr. Check out my blog for more information on his death and funeral:
¿Muerto el líder de Los Macheteros? (http://trescaminos.blogspot.com/2005/09/muerto-el-lder-de-los-macheteros.html)
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos is Dead (http://trescaminos.blogspot.com/2005/09/filiberto-ojeda-ros-is-dead.html)
Valor y Sacrificio (http://trescaminos.blogspot.com/2005/09/valor-y-sacrificio.html)

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

From Volume 1, Issue 5 of the Free Press (http://www.freepeoplesmovement.org/freepress.html)

FBI Assassinates Leader of Puerto Rican Independence Movement

http://freepeoplesmovement.org/rios.jpeg

On Friday, September 23, on the day of the celebration of the Grito de Lares, the Puerto Rican revolution against Spain in 1868, a special team of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations crashed the gate of 72-year-old Filiberto Ojeda Rios' home in a rural village in the town of Hormiueros, Puerto Rico, shooting one hundred bullets into his home. None of the bullets hit Rios, a leader in the fight against colonial rule for the last four decades.

Filiberto reacted by dawning his military fatigues and combat boots and firing ten bullets back at the aggressors. Soon after, an FBI sniper fired a shot that hit Rios near the neck, knocking him to the ground.

The FBI then sealed the house, refusing to let anyone enter or leave, while Rios laid on the floor and bled to death for twenty four hours. According to coroner reports, the leader did not die from the single bullet wound he suffered, but from the bleeding that it caused – which lasted several hours as he was refused any medical attention.

Luis Fraticelli, head of the local FBI, has admitted that Filiberto offered to negotiate for the safety of his wife Elma Beatriz Rosado. After Elma left the house, she was taken captive, and Ojeda asked for a reporter to be brought in to serve as an eyewitness and mediator. The FBI refused.

After the murder, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the capital of San Juan, burning American flags and spray painting graffiti on two McDonald's restaurants. Protests have since broken out all over the island of Puerto Rico and in New York City. Machetero leaders have vowed to avenge Rios' death.

Mainstream media has reported that security has been tightened at federal buildings and that Senator Hillary Clinton canceled a recent visit to the island, both as a result of fears that the assassination will spark renewed struggles for independence.

Rios had fought for the independence of Puerto Rico for years, founding and leading the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement in 1967, and later acting as a key organizer with the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) and then the Ejercito Popular Boricua-Los Macheteros (Puerto Rican Popular Army – Cane Cutters).

The Macheteros have over the years launched a number of successful attacks in the course of their fight for independence, including blowing up several airplanes in the military base in San Juan and later assaulting a Brinks armored car in Hartford, Connecticut.

Rios was tried for those two attacks in a federal court in Puerto Rico and was unanimously absolved by a Puerto Rican jury which found that he acted in legitimate defense against the forces of the United States.

He had been living underground since 1990, hiding from authorities after being convicted for his ties with the robbery of Wells Fargo in Connecticut.

According to his wife, Filiberto Ojeda Rios' last words were “Leave now, save your life and keep fighting!” Paying Homage

Filiberto Ojeda Rios' funeral was attended by thousands of people, waving Puerto Rican flags and singing revolutionary songs. The Macheteros released a statement which read “Yankee murderers, your days are numbered! The fight will continue now and until the the Yankees leave our soil.”

Filiberto's son, Edgardo Ojeda, spoke to an evening gathering of hundreds of Cuban officials and young people gathered at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, Cuba, calling his father's assassination “an act of terrorism of state” by the U.S. government. “They violated his right to life,” he said.

Surrounded by the similar flags of Cuba and Puerto Rico, Edgardo told the enthusiastic audience, which included President Fidel Castro and president of Cuba's parliament Ricardo Alarcon, that “I appreciate this act of solidarity.”

The event featured traditional Puerto Rican music, as well as a surprise performance by South African singer and activist Miriam Makebo. Earlier that day, Edgardo oversaw a ceremony in which a memorial plaque with his father's name was unveiled at a monument honoring numerous political leaders and social activists in a seaside plaza facing the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission in Cuba.

Politics As Usual
Political assassinations and the like are nothing new for the FBI or the U.S. government. Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed and American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for on false charges stemming from an assault by the FBI in which they opened fire at a reservation known as Pine Ridge.

The CIA has, by their own admission, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro hundreds of times, and it was CIA agent Felix Rodriguez who murdered international revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.

The founder of the modern Puerto Rican independence movement, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, was imprisoned by the U.S. during the 1950's. During that time he was purposely exposed to dangerous radiation which seriously contributed to his death in 1965.

[RedAnarchist]

The Americans don't see the Puerto Ricans as equals, so any attempt at breaking away is justified in order to gain equality and justice. No matter how many are killed by the Yanks, I am confident that left-wingers in PR will continue to make their voices heard.

[Tekun]

Typical FBI and CIA tactic, murdering scum...
As soon as the US gov see's a threat to their sphere of influence and control, they take em out

One day, the tables will be turned, and they'll be running away... :ph34r:

[Andy Bowden]

How popular is the Puerto Rican independence Movement?

I heard it only gets 5% or so in elections - but a mate told me this is because most Puerto Rican nationalists have no time for elections.

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

Democracy Now did a good job on explaining everything that happend during the days of the assasination and after. The video and audio where so worth listening. It's amazing to see how little was said about this in other newspapers.

Borincano - Is that your blog? BTW whats been up haven't talked to you in a while. Hit me up on AIM - rebeldeporlapaz

--Paz