[Ppnews] Puerto Rican militants blame officers for leader's slaying

[Political Prisoner News]

Puerto Rican militants blame officers for leader's slaying

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/04/07/puerto_rican_militants_blame_officers_for_leaders_slaying?mode=PF
By Pedro Zayas, Associated Press Writer  |  April 7, 2006

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico --A militant Puerto Rican independence group 
accused two police officers of tipping the FBI to the whereabouts of 
their fugitive leader, prompting authorities to increase security 
measures Friday in the island's western region.

The militant group, the Macheteros, called the police officers 
"traitors to the Puerto Rican nation," for telling the FBI that 
Filiberto Ojeda Rios was at a farmhouse in the southwestern town of 
Hormigueros, where he was killed in a shootout with federal agents in 
September.

In a statement mailed to news organizations, the Macheteros, also 
known as the People's Boricua Army, named the officers from the 
western city of Mayaguez and called them "rats in the service of the 
FBI," who collected the $500,000 reward offered by the U.S. for 
capture of Ojeda Rios.

"We hope our people demonstrate and let us know what punishment we 
should apply to these traitors who maliciously participated in the 
murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios," said the group's letter, which 
closed with "Filiberto, commander, We will carry on!"

The two people named by the Macheteros were not police officers. If 
police had provided information in the Ojeda Rios case, they would 
not be eligible for the reward because it would have been part of 
their official duties, said police Superintendent Pedro Toledo.

Authorities took unspecified security measures in the island's west, 
said police spokesman Hector Agosto. The FBI did not immediately 
return phone calls seeking comment.

The Macheteros, or Cane Cutters, were suspected of carrying out a 
series of bombings and attacks in the 1970s and 1980s aimed at 
gaining independence for Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory whose 
residents are American citizens who can't vote for president.

In 1983, the group robbed a Wells Fargo bank depot in West Hartford, 
Conn., of more than $7 million. Ojeda Rios, considered the mastermind 
of the robbery, fled while on bond awaiting trial for the robbery and 
was a fugitive for 15 years. He was tried and convicted in absentia 
for the robbery and sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Puerto Rican independence activists and some island officials have 
criticized the FBI for shooting the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios, who was 
considered somewhat of a folk hero to some on the island. The U.S. 
government says the fugitive opened fire on the agents when they came 
to arrest him, but his widow has claimed that federal authorities shot first.
[]



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20060407/51a9a7fb/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 9dc65f8.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 650 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20060407/51a9a7fb/attachment.jpg>