The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #84944 Message #1570814
Posted By: InOBU
26-Sep-05 - 08:49 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: No Time for Love (Jack Warshaw)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: No Time for Love for a murdered friend
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.
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
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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!!