Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4278232.stm

Published: 2005/09/24 23:20:57 GMT

A fugitive Puerto Rican nationalist who had been on the
run for 15 years has died after a gunfight with FBI
agents.

Police said they had found the body of Filiberto Ojeda
Rios at his hideout in the Puerto Rican town of
Hormigueros.

In 1992, he was convicted in absentia for the 1983
robbery of $7m from a bank depot in the US state of
Connecticut.

The US considers the robbery an act of domestic
terrorism because it allegedly was carried out by
nationalists from the self-governing US commonwealth.

Ojeda Rios, leader of the Macheteros (or Cane Cutters)
nationalist movement, went on the run in 1990 while
awaiting trial for the robbery.

FBI agents surrounded the farmhouse where he was hiding
on Friday afternoon. Two helicopters circled overhead,
while Puerto Rican police sealed off access to the
farm.

'Martyr' claim

Puerto Rico police chief Pedro Toledo said it was not
yet clear how Ojeda Rios had died. One FBI agent was
wounded in the gun battle.

The FBI said Ojeda Rios' wife, Elma Rosado Barbosa had
been arrested but was released unharmed on Saturday
evening, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Some independence activists suggested Ojeda Rios' death
could act to unify their splintered and marginalised
movement.

Veteran independence leader Juan Mari Bras told AP: "I
always said that when they went to arrest him, they
would have to kill him. I am proud of his heroism and
his valour."

Independence Party President Ruben Berrios, who has
criticised the violent methods of the Macheteros, said
Ojeda Rios' death was a tragedy and condemned the FBI's
actions as "shameful".

Early reports suggesting the death of the Macheteros
leader triggered protests in San Juan, the capital of
the Caribbean island.

Some 500 people blocked the city's main avenue to
demonstrate against "Ojeda Rios' assassination".

"This was done on purpose... to try to humiliate us,"
Socialist Front president Jorge Farinacci said.

"It's to tell us 'You do not have the right to
independence'."

Ojeda Rios was one of four men still wanted over the
robbery at the Wells Fargo depot. The FBI doubled the
reward for information leading to his capture to $1m
earlier this year.

The US seized Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American
War of 1898. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but cannot
vote in US presidential elections and do not pay US
income tax.

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===================================================

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Benjamin Ramos 718-601-4751
ProLibertad@Hotmail.com

WIFE OF ASSASSINATED PUERTO RICAN LEADER FILIBERTO
OJEDA RIOS IN FEDRAL PENITENTIARY IN PUERTO RICO; FBI
READY TO ARRESTS 125 ALLEGED MACHETERO SUPPORTERS

Saturday September 24, 2005, New York, NY-The
ProLibertad Freedom Campaign denounces the
incarceration of Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, who is now the
6th PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONER incarcerated in
U.S. jails. Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, wife of
assassinated Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was
injured yesterday during the gun battle in Hormigueros,
Puerto Rico that took Ojeda Rios' life. Rosado Barbosa
is incarcerated in the federal prison in Guaynabo,
Puerto Rico.

As of yet, there are no charges lobbied against her;
Rosado Barbos is presently being supported by thousands
of Puerto Rican activists, community members, and
clergy outside of the federal penitentiary.

According to Puerto Rican news sources, the FBI has
begun to write out arrests order for 125 people
suspected of being Machetero supporters. The FBI is
attempting another set of mass arrests; similar to the
arrests that took place in Puerto Rico in April 1985
when nearly 400 FBI agents invaded Puerto Rico
arresting any person they thought was a Machetero or
who might be a supporter of the Macheteros. Those
arrests were an attempt to destroy the clandestine
revolutionary movement and to send a clear message to
all independentistas; if you resist, you will be
arrested.

This new "independentista witchhunt" will not
intimidate or detour the work to free the Puerto Rican
political prisoners, attain the 4 demands of the people
of Vieques, and the liberation of Puerto Rico. The
Puerto Rican people have been organizing protests,
vigils and pickets throughout the island in the spirit
and in honor of Ojeda Rios.

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is calling a PROTEST
ON MONDAY SEPT. 26TH AT 5PM AT 26 FEDERAL PLAZA to
denounce the assassination of Ojeda Rios, the
incarceration of Rosado barbosa and this new wave of
repression against the Puerto Rican indpendence
movement!!

Subway: 4, 5, 6, J, M to Brooklyn Bridge; A, C, E to
Chambers St.; R, N to Canal St

-END-

***

DENOUNCE THE ASSASSINATION OF FILIBERTO OJEDA RIOS!!

MONDAY SEPT. 26TH, AT 5PM
PROTEST AT 26 FEDERAL PLAZA
(Subway: 4, 5, 6, J, M to Brooklyn Bridge; A, C, E to
Chambers St.; R, N to Canal St)

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is calling on all our
allies and supporters of justice to join us on Monday
Sept. 26th at 5pm at 26 Federal Plaza to denounce the
assassination of Puerto Rican revolutionary leader
Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the clandestine
revolutionary organization called El Ejercito Popular
Boricua-Macheteros (The Popular Boricua Army-Machete
Wielders)!!

On Friday Sept. 23rd, in a massive Federal Bureau of
Investigation (F.B.I.) operation in the town of
Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader
of the clandestine revolutionary organization called El
Ejercito Popular Boricua-Macheteros (The Popular
Boricua Army-Machete Wielders) was assassinated by an
FBI sniper.

During the ensuing gun battle, Beatriz Rosado Barbosa,
Ojeda RiosÂ' wife, was critically wounded and then
arrested, along with an F.B.I. agent. Both are
presently hospitalized, and a third man has yet to be
identified by authorities.

This assassination is an attack against the Puerto
Rican Independence movement that cannot go unanswered!!
We must mobilize and organize a response to this
heinous act of murder. Ojeda Rios represented the
revolutionary spirit and morality of the Puerto Rican
independence movement!!

The FBI chose to assassinate Ojeda Rios on Friday Sept.
23rd (Known as El Grito de Lares, a celebration of the
anti-colonial resistance movement in Puerto Rico) as a
message to the independence movement; the US government
is trying to tell us that if we resist, then we will be
murdered like Ojeda Rios, Don Pedro Albizu Campos,
Angel Rodrgiuez Cristobal and the many other Puerto
Rican patriots that have fallen at the hands of the US
governement.

We will not be scared or initmidated. The power of the
people cannot be stopped!! We make freedom happen; we
make liberation happen!!

WE WILL RISE, RESIST AND REBEL!! Join us in our
outrage, mourning and resistance!! Wear a black arm
band, wear all black, bring your niose makers, your
flags and your 25 closest friends to the protest!!
MOBILIZE IN THE SPIRIT OF FILIBERTO!!

¡¡FILIBERTO OJEDA RIOS PRESENTE!!
¡¡FILIBERTO VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGUE!!