BY JACK WILLEY
CHICAGO - A series of demonstrations November 7-21 will
demand the release of Puerto Rican independence fighters locked
up in U.S. prisons and calling for Puerto Rican independence .
"These actions are building for a December 10 rally at the
United Nations and other events in cities around the country,"
stated Marcos Vilar, national coordinator of the National
Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and
Political Prisoners. "December 10 marks the 50th anniversary of
the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, in which Spain
illegally ceded colonial domination of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and
the Philippines to the United States," he continued. "We invite
all those who support the release of the Puerto Rican political
prisoners to join these demonstrations."
The actions are part of an upturn in the campaign to free the prisoners, reinforced by a resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Puerto Rico over the past year. In July, more than half a million workers took part in a general strike opposing the sell-off of the state-owned Puerto Rican Telephone Co. to a U.S.-based consortium. On July 25, tens of thousands demonstrated in Guánica, Puerto Rico, as well as in New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., demanding Puerto Rico's independence and the release of the prisoners.
The 16 Puerto Rican fighters incarcerated in U.S. prisons today, serving sentences ranging from 15 to 105 years, are a courageous symbol of the unbroken battle for Puerto Rican independence.
Between 1980 and 1983, U.S. police arrested 16 independentistas and accused them of being members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), an alleged group the U.S. government claimed had carried out bombings of government, business, and military sites. In an effort to smear the 16 supporters of independence as "terrorists," most were charged and convicted of seditious conspiracy against the government of the United States.
One of those arrested, Alfredo Méndez, became the main state's witness against the independentistas and was granted presidential clemency. Fourteen of the independentistas refused to testify at their trials, stating they were being held as prisoners of war by Puerto Rico's colonial master and that the U.S. courts had no right to try them. None of them ever admitted being in the FALN. Lacking evidence, the government portrayed their refusal to testify as tantamount to an admission of guilt.
One of the original 16 arrested, José Rodríguez, was released. The other 14 -Haydée Beltrán, Edwin Cortés, Elizam Escobar, Ricardo Jiménez, Oscar López, Adolfo Matos, Dylcia Pagán, Alberto Rodríguez, Alicia Rodríguez, Ida Luz Rodríguez, Luis Rosa, Alejandrina Torres, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Carmen Valentín - remain in prison today, serving federal sentences of 35 to 105 years.
The political prisoners' democratic rights were trampled by the cops and courts. During their pretrial hearings, Luis Rosa and Alicia Rodríguez were brutalized by the police. Rosa was kicked and punched by U.S. marshals in the courtroom at the opening of his hearing because he shouted "Viva Puerto Rico libre!" (Long live free Puerto Rico). He was then sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court. After the cop attack, in an attempt to paint the defendants and their supporters as violent, the judge ordered that all spectators be barred from entering the courtroom for the proceedings.
The same judge ordered that Rodríguez be gagged during her hearing. Deputies stuffed handkerchiefs in her mouth and taped it shut. Her attorney objected and was arrested for contempt of court and fined $1,000. All of those arrested were denied bail and held in jail before their trials.
Hartford 15
The two other Puerto Rican political prisoners in U.S. jails
today, Antonio Camacho Negrón and Juan Segarra Palmer, were
convicted during the frame-up trials of the "Hartford 15."
The Hartford 15 case began on Aug. 30, 1985, when an army of 200 FBI agents invaded the homes of independence fighters in Puerto Rico, arresting them on charges of conspiracy to commit a 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Connecticut, and to use the money to buy Christmas toys for Puerto Rican children. They were accused of being members of Los Macheteros, a pro-independence group that Washington claims is "terrorist."
The FBI conducted massive electronic surveillance against the independentistas for more than a year before the arrests, which is forbidden by the constitution of Puerto Rico. This included 1,500 hours of taped conversations with wiretaps on home phones and public telephones in the activists' neighborhoods. Fifty of these tapes were thrown out as evidence because of demonstrated FBI tampering.
Cops moved into the house next door to two of the defendants, Luz Berríos Berríos and Segarra Palmer, to gain access to their home, and also questioned their children. According to information revealed by the FBI around the time of the trials, more than 60,000 people in Puerto Rico were on an FBI "subversives" list.
After their arrests, the 15 were flown out of Puerto Rico to Hartford. They were forced to stand trial before an English- speaking jury, though most of the "evidence" was in Spanish. Defense motions to move the trial to Puerto Rico were all denied.
Falsely labeled "terrorists" by the U.S. government, most of the Hartford defendants were refused bail and held in jail for over a year. Juan Segarra Palmer was kept in pretrial imprisonment for more than two and half years, and Filiberto Ojeda Ríos for 32 months in jail awaiting trial.
Portraying the activists as dangerous, the judge ruled that the identities of the jurors be kept secret. Special metal detectors were set up outside the courtroom and all who entered were searched.
On June 15, 1989, four of the Hartford 15 were sentenced to prison. Antonio Camacho Negrón and Juan Segarra Palmer, the ones who remain in prison today, were sentenced to 15 years and 65 years (later reduced to 55 years) respectively. Two others, Roberto José Maldonado Rivera and Norman Ramírez Talavera each received five years. A fifth independentista, Luz Berríos Berríos had earlier plea-bargained, saying she could not get a fair trial in the United States, and was sentenced to five years.
Segarra Palmer was convicted of conspiracy to plan and carry out the 1983 Wells Fargo robbery. The judge based his extremely harsh sentence not only on this conviction, but on other government accusations that were never brought to court.
Victor Gerena, who the government accused of carrying out the Wells Fargo robbery, was never captured.
Abuse and frame-ups in prison
The political prisoners have faced unrelenting abuse and
frame-ups in prison in an attempt by the U.S. government to
break their resolve. While held in administrative detention
awaiting trial, Alejandrina Torres was brutalized by guards at
Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center. After a visit by
her daughter, a male lieutenant threw her to the floor,
breaking her collar bone, and participated in a body cavity
search with four women guards. After the search, the warden put
Torres in solitary confinement for being "insolent."
In 1986, Oscar López Rivera was falsely accused of "conspiracy to escape" and was thrown into solitary confinement, where he remained for 12 years. Two other independentistas were framed-up and convicted of charges related to the "conspiracy to escape," receiving three- and four-year additional prison sentences. In solitary confinement, López Rivera was locked in a tiny cell 22 hours a day and could only see family and other visitors through a plate-glass window. He was released into the general prison population earlier this year under pressure from an international protest campaign.
These political frame-ups are among the U.S. rulers' ongoing attempts to stamp out the Puerto Rican fight for independence.
These have included:
The imposition of U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans in 1917, in order to draft them into the U.S. army in World War I.
The installation 21 U.S. military bases in Puerto Rico.
The 1979 assassination two young independentistas by police at Cerro Maravilla after an undercover agent set them up.
The assassination of labor leader Juan Rafael Caballero in 1977. A former member of the intelligence division of the Puerto Rican Police was arrested in 1994 for kidnapping, torturing, and killing Caballero.
The arrest last year of José Solís Jordan in Chicago, who faces trial on the frame-up charges of "conspiracy" in a 1992 bombing of a military recruitment center. The indictment is based solely on the testimony of a government informant. Solís faces trial next year.
The National Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, and ProLIBERTAD, both based in the United States; Campaña Pro Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico (Human Rights Campaign of Puerto Rico), based on the island; and other organizations are campaigning for the unconditional release of 15 of the political prisoners. Haydée Beltrán is organizing her own effort for parole separately from the campaign on behalf of the 15.
At the center of their efforts is an international campaign launched in 1993, demanding that President William Clinton concede unconditional amnesty. More than 100,000 people across Puerto Rico, the United States, and internationally have signed petitions demanding their release. The campaign has a long list of endorsers, including elected senators from the pro- statehood, Commonwealth, and independence parties in Puerto Rico; U.S. congressmen; the Puerto Rican Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO); Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa; and Amnesty International. Organizers of the campaign expect a ruling on the petition for amnesty this year.
For more information about the upcoming actions demanding the release of the political prisoners and for Puerto Rican independence, call the numbers listed in the announcement below or e-mail to: prpowpp@aol.com