Terrorist Semantics

Terrorist Semantics by vagabond ©

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
 - George Orwell

With the reported discovery, attempted capture and assassination of Osama Bin Laden, the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the recent terrorist attacks in Boston, questions left lingering in the shadows since the terrorist attacks on the US on 9/11/2001 have once again stepped into the light. Questions that have not been answered and that haunt us not on a conscious level, but on a subconscious level. Questions like what lead to the US 9/11/2001 attacks. The exploration of those questions leads to other questions about American foreign policy and hegemony. Those questions lead to who and how are the terms “terrorism” and “terrorists” reshaped and to whose benefit. Those questions open up a whole new round of examination and each level of inquiry seems to only lead us further down the rabbit hole.

i was living in Harlem when the attacks took place. i watched the television news cameras trained to the aftermath of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center and thought it to be a horrible accident. When the second plane hit it became clear that this was an attack of epic proportions. Whoever planned this knew that with the first plane hitting there would speculation as to what happened, judgement would be withheld on whether or not it was an attack or an accident. In the process of trying to figure out what happened, every available camera would be trained on the World Trade Center and when that second plane hit all the hope of a horrible accident would be drained from us and there would be no doubt that this was an attack.

The second plane hitting the World Trade Center just a few minutes after the first would change the world. In the moment that second plane hit, the US would experience the fear, vulnerability and insecurity that is common place around the world due in large part  to US foreign policy. This is a lesson that the US never heeded when Malcolm X commented on the assassination of President Kennedy with his famous “chickens coming home to roost.” The same can be said of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. The terrorism sponsored by the US to achieve its own dominance in the world was coming back to haunt us. What kind of terrorism? The Iran-Contra Affair that lead to the crack cocaine epidemic in the US. The overthrow of governments who put their own interests ahead of US interests. The backing of dictators who put the interests of the US ahead of the interests of their own country. The use of torture in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo and other CIA black sites around the world. The karma laundry list goes on and on…

In the years following those attacks i struggled with the questions of defining “terrorism” and “terrorists” and how those terms are defined and by who and to what benefit. This is the question that you chase down into the rabbit hole. It was something that would not leave me alone because these were terms that i was already wrestling with in terms of the way US political prisoners and prisoners of war (PP & POW) are treated.  People like Oscar Lopez Rivera, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Marshall Eddie Conway, David Gilbert, and many others who had decided that they couldn’t stand by and allow US hegemony to exercise its will over Puerto Rican, African-American and Native American Peoples. They stood up in defiance to US empire within its own “borders” and in doing so their actions were often labeled as “terrorism” and they were often labeled as “terrorists”. With these recent terrorist attacks on the US the definition of these words “terrorism” and “terrorist” changed.

Within the zeitgeist of 1970 – 1980 the terms “terrorism” and “terrorist” didn’t hold the same kind of weight that it does in a post US 9/11 world. The US government and corporate media had refined and redefined “terrorism” and “terrorist” to now encompass anyone who disagreed with the American empire. The US was drawing a line in the sand and it couldn’t be more clear than when President Bush declared “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists”. The US government and the corporate media had now found a way to compress all dissent to American Empire by expanding the definition of “terrorism” and “terrorists”.  As an added bonus this new refinement of the definition of “terrorism” and “terrorist” now seemed to remove any doubt that the actions that US PP & POW’s were accused of, convicted of and were serving incredibly long sentences for, were anything but “terrorist” actions and that they couldn’t be anything but “terrorists”.

In the days, weeks, months and years following those attacks the supporters of members of the Black Liberation Army, Weather Underground, American Indian Movement and Puerto Rican separatists groups languishing for three and four decades in the US now had to fight to keep them from being categorized in this new expanded definition of “terrorism” and terrorist”. We were saddled with the responsibility of having to explain that they were not terrorist’s, because their actions were not acts of terrorism. They were freedom fighters who fought against US oppression.

This issue of “grandfathering” in US PP & POW’s was one that led me to the writing of my film MACHETERO. It was this expansion of the terminology of “terrorism” and “terrorist” in the post US 9/11 attacks that inspired me to make a clear delineation that would exclude US PP & POW’s from the new “terrorism” and the new “terrorist” definition. The film takes a stand against including US PP & POW’s within this all-encompassing and ever-expanding terminology. In trying to get people to think about how and who defines these terms i needed to stay away from the US 9/11 attacks because they were so polarizing so i used a different approach to begin a dialogue that would get people to think outside of the parameters that were being defined within this post US 9/11 zeitgeist.

The issue of US imperialism in Puerto Rico is an issue that unfortunately most people don’t know about. Oddly enough it was the fact that many people didn’t know about the colonial relationship that the US has with Puerto Rico that allowed me to bring up the issues of how and who defines “terrorism” and “terrorist” in a kind of hermetically sealed bubble that could possibly circumvent post US 9/11 polarization. Within that hermetically sealed bubble these issues could spark a potential dialogue that could safely allow that to re-think the issues of 9/11/2001 while at the same time educating them on the US colonial relationship with Puerto Rico.

Now that the issues of terrorism and terrorist are on the minds of many once again i invite you to explore some of these issues through the prism of my film MACHETERO…

MACHETERO Poster by vagabond ©

MACHETERO opens in New York City for a one week limited theatrical run.

WED. JUNE 12TH – TUES JUNE 19TH
CLEMENTE SOTO VELEZ
KABAYITO’S THEATER (2ND FLOOR)
107 SUFFOLK STREET
NY NY 10002
(BTWN RIVINGTON & DELANCEY)

TICKETS $10 http://machetero.bpt.me
SCREENING TIMES • 1PM • 3PM • 5PM • 7PM • 9PM
F Train to Delancey Street or J , M , or Z Trains to Essex Street.
Walk to Suffolk Street, make a left.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-13T

March 1st 1954

BLUE LOLITA STAR RICANSTRUCTED by vagabond ©

In the years following World War II the colonized nations who had fought and died alongside the imperial Allied powers began seeking independence and Puerto Rico was no exception. The US government was not interested in giving up Puerto Rico but it also didn’t want to be seen as a colonial power in the eyes of the world. In 1947 the US Congress passed a law allowing Puerto Ricans the ability to vote for their own governor. As the US Congress allowed Puerto Ricans the right to vote for their own governor they passed a gag law in 1948 known as Ley de la Mordaza. It made flying or displaying the Puerto Rican flag illegal and barred anyone from speaking, printing, publishing, organizing or advocating for independence. In 1949 Luis Muñoz Marin was elected the first Puerto Rican governor. The leader of the Nationalist Party Don Pedro Albizu Campos saw this governorship as a means of having Puerto Ricans administer US colonial interests.

As governor Luis Muñoz Marin immediately endorsed a proposal known as “Free Associated State” to try to get as much autonomy for the island as possible. “Free Associated State” granted some autonomy over Puerto Rico but nowhere near complete autonomy. Albizu Campos, the Nationalists Party and other independence supporters all agreed that “Free Associated State” simply put a Puerto Rican face on US colonialism. In response to all these developments Albizu Campos and the Nationalists Party began to plan an island wide insurrection. On October 30th of 1950 in the towns of Jayuya, Utuado, Arecibo, Ponce, San Juan, Mayagüez, Naranjito and Peñuelas there was an open armed revolution to rid Puerto Rico of the US imperialism it had suffered under since the Spanish American War of 1898. The revolution failed and Albizu and hundreds of other Nationalists were rounded up and arrested.

In 1952 the US Congress ratified “Free Associated State” status for Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico has existed in this very confusing and very nebulous state since then. While in prison for his role in calling for and leading the revolution of 1950, Albizu began writing a young Puerto Rican Nationalist woman named Lolita Lebron. In that correspondence he asked Lolita to lead an attack on the US Congress. She accepted the mission and along with Raphael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrès Figueroa she led an attack on the US Congress on March 1st of 1954. The date was chosen because it was the first day of the Interamerican Conference in Caracas, Venezuela and the attack was meant to draw international attention to Puerto Rico’s plight as a US colony especially to the Latin American nations meeting in Caracas.

Lolita, Rafa, Irving and Andrés got into the visitor’s galley of the Congress as it was in session. Lolita unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and screamed “¡Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” – Long Live A Free Puerto Rico! then the group shot into the Congress. Five Congressmen were wounded in the attack and the four Nationalists were captured. When Lolita was asked if it was her intention to kill she replied, “I didn’t come to kill, I came to die.”

Lolita, Rafa, Irving and Andrés all served 25 years in prison for the attack. At that time Lolita Lebron was the longest held female political prisoner in the world, a fact that did not go unnoticed during the Cold War. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter pardoned the Lolita Lebron and the other Nationalists after and a long and lengthy international campaign to free them. Carlos Romero Barceló the then governor of Puerto Rico was opposed to the pardon claiming that it would only encourage further acts of “terrorism” on the Puerto Rican government and US interests on the island. When the Nationalists returned home they were received as national heroes, much to Barceló’s chagrin.

Throughout the history of Puerto Rico’s long and complex colonial relationship with the US government  there have been many of these uprisings that, at the time of these actions, seem to receive very little support from Puerto Ricans. Yet the Puerto Rican people have always supported their political prisoners and have had an outstanding track record of garnering global support for them that has brought pressure to bear on the US government to free Puerto Rican political prisoners time and time again. If Puerto Ricans don’t want independence from the US then why do they want independence for the political prisoners and prisoners of war who fight to free Puerto Rico from US colonialism?

There have also historically always been massive outpourings of support for these independence leaders when they die. Many Puerto Ricans agreed with the ideas of the Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the independence leader assassinated by the FBI in 2005, even if they didn’t agree with his decision to use violence as a means of expressing those ideas. Puerto Ricans felt that Filiberto was worthy of their admiration. Filiberto’s funeral procession was the longest in Puerto Rican history. The same could be said for Lolita Lebron. When she passed away in August of 2010 it wasn’t only the so-called minority of Puerto Rican’s who want independence that mourned her passing but the whole Puerto Rico nation that mourned. It was also the Puerto Rican diaspora that mourned as well as the international community that has always supported Puerto Rico’s independence. Many will say that the violent actions taken by Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa on March 1st of 1954 can’t advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence but history has proven that this argument doesn’t hold up…

RICANSTRUCTED RED KNOCKOUT LOGO by vagabond ©

The image of Lolita Lebron above is available as a T-shirt and a 1″ button from my design company RICANSTRUCTED. There are other designs that can be found there of other Puerto Rican independence leaders there as well… You don’t need to believe in Puerto Rican independence to wear a shirt with an independence leader on it like you don’t have to be Argentinian or Cuban to wear a Che T-shirt… Show your support for the independence of Puerto Rico and get yourself a RICANSTRUCTED shirt…

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-Xu

The Electoral Process Of Colonial Democracy

The Fractures Of Colonialism by vagabond ©

The essay below was written by Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios on a past plebiscite on the status of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a colony of the US and has been since 1898 and there have been several plebiscites that tried to untangle the colonial political reality of the island nation.  On November 6th, while Americans were voting in a Presidential election, Puerto Ricans were voting on a plebiscite that once again dealt with the status issue of Puerto Rico. For more information on that check out my essay The Disenchanted Island.

Comandante Filiberto was the founder and leader of the EPB – (Ejercito Popular Boricua – the Popular Puerto Rican Army), a clandestine organization whose goal was to achieve Puerto Rican independence by any means necessary. US law enforcement agencies have classified the EPB also know more affectionately by Puerto Ricans as Los Macheteros, as a terrorist organization. In 1990 Comandante Filiberto was arrested, on bail and awaiting trial for his involvement in the Macheteros Wells Fargo Armored Truck Robbery. On September 23rd of 1990 he cut off the electronic shackle on his ankle and went underground. He lived in Puerto Rico clandestinely for 15 years but gave television, radio and newspapers interviews, wrote articles and essays and sent audio messages out on the colonization of Puerto Rico throughout that whole time. On September 23rd of 2005, 15 years to the day he went underground and a day that Puerto Ricans celebrate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico, the FBI surrounded his home, shot him in a shootout and left him to bleed to death for over 24 hours.
- vagabond

THE ELECTORAL PROCESS OF COLONIAL DEMOCRACY
by Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios

Already the teams and fanatics are preparing for the next four years of national sport spectacle that is nothing short of the great human tragedy known as “the electoral process of colonial democracy”. It is a process that has its roots in deception, lies, manipulations, politicking, in illusions and disillusions. In short, it serves to promote and benefit ignorance and the alienation that is well programmed into the unconsciousness or in the opportunism that is found in a good amount of our people.

We have seen, above all things, division: between social castes and sectors that drive our people towards their cravings to provide a (paid) service to the slave masters of the metropolitan government. Those who promote and know how to benefit from so much ideological misfortune, their colors are blue and red, although their projects have nothing to do with the fidelity that is supposedly represented by the color blue. Such fidelity is not offered to the people. Instead it is demanded from them for the benefit of their privileged caste. Neither is red represented well since it has nothing to do with sacrifice nor with the blood shed by martyrs who believe in our nation, in our liberty and in true justice. It instead represents the opportunism of those who appropriate our human condition, intending to reduce us to the level of tamed slaves for the glorification of degenerated values and demoralization.

It has been said repeatedly, that we Macheteros do not believe in the electoral process. This is false. Expressions of such nature serve to confuse our people and to present the Macheteros as an anti-democratic organization, as one of arbitrary tendencies and perhaps autocratic ones as well. This is what could be inferred but it is a great falsehood. We believe in a true electoral process that would be regulated by strict standards of a democratic character. To that end, we would be fully involved in the electoral process when it would be carried out within a nation that is free and sovereign, but never while we continue to exist as a colony. Moreover, we do not believe in the interpretation of the word “democracy” that has been imposed on us, which goes against the very essence and truth contained within it. What has come to be understood as “democracy” is nothing other than the legalization of the powerful economic sectors’ appropriation of all that can supply major riches and possibilities for the control of humanity via robbery, pillage and the invasion of territories. For this, they have necessitated a system that would allow them to legalize their crimes and plunder in the entire world and one that would have, in a most convincing manner, the appearance of having the support of all the population. This is their so-called “democracy”. History is packed with examples of this indisputable truth. It is a system in which the rulers of gigantic economic monopolies, particularly the rulers of prime resources of strategic importance, seek to legitimize their criminal intentions by legalizing those very crimes. The methodology: the invention of a very poor excuse for “democracy”, planned, created and directed by them. This is the same thing that we in Puerto Rico have called “colony by consent”, legitimized by the colonial electoral process under the guise of a “democratic system”.

Secondly, we must admit that it has been very painful for us to see the sad role played by the comrades of the Puerto Rican Independence Party in this electoral process, to see youth who have filled their spirits with hope, holding down the front of their national committee and be victims of the heat of certain members of the New Progressive Party. Independently of the results, independent of the fact that we have never been nor will we ever be in favor of the electoral process in the colony, the final results have not failed to certainly cause us pain and uneasiness. In the end, we feel obligated to condemn all types of insults, mockeries, offensive words, as well as any exploitive tendencies lashed out at the political bullring by those who desire the worst for the PIP (Pro Independence Party) without at least calmly evaluating the state of the situation in general, and, above all, without “acknowledging the dust in own eyes”. We equally criticize the negative expressions and decisions made by some leaders of said organization to interpret the reasons of the electoral misfortunes.

The present moment is for profound reflection oriented towards the harmonizing of all independentistas. It’s not for the immediate opportunist impulse to fish in rough waters. The real conjuncture, if we know how to act correctly and collectively, could very well offer a new possibility for a sane and proper regrouping. It is not with offenses, nor with offensives to “substitute the traditional electoral party”, that we will succeed in becoming a true liberationist movement for our nation. It is not by lunging forward like vultures to feed on the spoils of what some claim to be a total misfortune. Instead it is with true reflection, with respect, with profound and serious analysis, and most of all, with the elimination of this tragic arrogance that has so destroyed us Puerto Ricans and that has to be overcome by true maturity and brotherhood.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-S2

What Is The 4th Of July To A Puerto Rican?

What Is The 4th Of July To A Puerto Rican?

This was originally posted on 7/4/11 and is reposted here as a Public Service Announcement that American freedom is still American colonialism for others…

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-NL

Finding Filiberto

FBI vs. Filiberto by vagabond

In my previous post i did an interview with Freddie Marrero the producer of Filiberto as film about a controversial Puerto Rican revolutionary Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Filiberto was a controversial and complex figure and this film is looking to go beyond the headlines and hype to find Filiberto. The controversial subject matter has followed the production of the documentary. The Puerto Rico Film Commission had promised $93.4K in loans to the production but reneged on that claiming that the documentary was too political. The production company Proyecto Chiringa is now suing the Puerto Rico Film Commission for breach of contract. In the meantime the documentary is looking to raise $17K on the crowd funding website Indiegogo in order to try and complete the film. Help them reach their goal there isn’t much time left, they need to raise the money by 11:59pm EST on June 15th.

Check out the trailer and video clips from the production and see what you’re supporting.

Filiberto, Teaser (Proyecto Chiringa) from Filiberto, the movie on Vimeo.

Gloria Gerena and the Wells Fargo Depot from Filiberto, the movie on Vimeo.

FBI Surveillance on Filiberto from Filiberto, the movie on Vimeo.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-LL

Filiberto On Film

Filiberto Clandestine In Plain Sight by vagabond ©

Filiberto Ojeda Rios was a controversial figure when he lived. He was a Puerto Rican revolutionary who fought to free Puerto Rico from US colonial rule. He was not afraid to use force to achieve those means and founded clandestine organizations such as the EPB (Ejercito Popular Boricua – Popular Puerto Rican Army) also known as Los Macheteros to carry his vision for a free Puerto Rico by any and all means necessary including the use of violence. Not surprisingly that political stance got Filiberto and Los Macheteros labeled as a terrorists by the US government.

Filiberto was a fugitive and one of the most wanted men on the FBI top ten list for 15 years. The FBI finally caught up with Filiberto on September 23rd of 2005, launching an assault that resulted in Filiberto being shot and wounded. Many claimed that this was not an operation to capture Filiberto but to kill him. Filiberto was left to bleed out from his wound for almost 24 hours. The outrage that this sparked in Puerto Rico and across the world carried the controversy of Filiberto’s life into his death.

A new documentary titled Filiberto, is exploring the issues of a man who was described as a terrorist by some and as a revolutionary by others. The complex nature of Filiberto has even followed him into the financing and production of the film.  i interviewed a producer of Filiberto, Freddie Marrero about the project.

vagabond: Filiberto Ojeda Rios is a pretty complex and polarizing figure in Puerto Rico. What specifically drew you to wanting to do a documentary about him?

Freddie: I was drawn into Ojeda Ríos’ story by the reaction his death had on the people of Puerto Rico. It was very intriguing to see so many people of diverse backgrounds coming together to show their respect to him during his wake and burial. San Juan Archbishop and former governor Rafael Hernández Colón attended his wake. Children came out of school along the route towards the cemetery. It was something out of the ordinary to see hundreds of people participating in the farewell of someone on the FBI Wanted List. A bandit? A criminal? A hero? A terrorist? A patriot? So many questions, that we decided to begin shooting to find out who he really was.

He advocated armed resistance against US imperialism and founded clandestine armed organizations that carried out violent operations against US interests. Those seem like things that an Archbishop and a former governor would want to distance themselves from. It’s a strange thing because most Puerto Ricans don’t seem to support independence but Filiberto seems to have been celebrated as a folk hero to Puerto Ricans. Is that a dynamic that you’re trying to explore in your film?

Yes it was rather strange, almost like something that came out of a kind of magical realism. His funeral was attended by so many people. It was as big as Luis Muñoz Marin’s and bigger than Luis A. Ferré, former governors of Puerto Rico. That’s something that we’re exploring in the film along with other expressions such as the many murals, graffiti, artworks and music made in his honor. He had an impact on many people as individuals but also on people in a collective way as well. Yet so few people truly knew Ojeda Ríos. Most people knew one of his multiple dimensions. Let’s not forget he lived underground for almost four decades! (More than half his life.) So he was Felipe Ortega, trumpet player, for folks in the music circles. He had plenty of nicknames for his comrades in many militant organizations, the public first knew about him by the press and later on he became a public figure rendering clandestine interviews or sending out his own recordings on audiotapes, that were to be burned just after their dissemination to avoid becoming any sort of evidence on his whereabouts. So the documentary will try to, by means of diverse testimonies and archive material, put everything together so that people would get a better sense of who he was as a whole human being.

A major part of Filiberto’s adult life was spent being an anti-imperialist revolutionary. Many people don’t know or just aren’t clear about the colonial relationship that the US has had with Puerto Rico since 1898. How difficult was it to inform the audience of that history while still keeping your focus on Filiberto?

That’s very challenging. It still is. To tell the story of Ojeda Ríos knowing that part of the the audience would not know the basic context of the U.S. and Puerto Rico’s unique political relationship. For instance the date September 23 has a special meaning on this story for several reasons (Grito de Lares 1868, Ojeda Ríos breaking his monitoring bracelet and going underground in 1990, Ojeda Ríos Siege and Death in 2005) and that’s something we need to weave into the narrative without loosing our focus. The solution we’ve found to this is that the documentary works the dialectic between Ojeda Ríos’ life and the history he lived in. So there are many scenes of a historical nature that would fill in those who don’t know anything about Puerto Rico’s history.

The FBI kept Filiberto under constant surveillance until he went underground in 1990, and you managed to get FBI agents who were familiar to the case as well as wire-tap recordings and surveillance photos, how difficult was it to gain access to that information?

There’s a lot of information and documents that exists because the Indictment (H-85-50 TEC) against those accused of being part of the Wells Fargo robbery is still open. As you know, Víctor Manuel Gerena (AKA Aguila) is the fist name listed on the indictment and to this date he still is at large. He has the distinction of being  the longest featured person on the FBI’s Ten-Most Wanted List. That means that all the information regarding that case is still available. However, it was difficult and it’s still an ongoing process gaining access to parts of that information. You have to think that we are talking about hundred of boxes of paper, hundreds of audiotapes and thousands of pictures. So it’s a lot! We’ve gained access to a good sample of all that information, that was used as evidence in court, and it’s something that will add to the production value of the documentary, as the public will be able to see some of these pictures and listen to some of the wire-taps themselves.

You managed to get some international support for the film, how did that come about?

What has allowed the project to move forward all these years is the support from the international film community that we’ve received. A couple of years ago, during the development stage the project received awards in the Nuevas Miradas market in El Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoaméricano held in La Havana, later on we received the prestigious Chrubusco Post-Production Prize at the Film Market of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara. We have established a co-production partnership with Panafilms in Caracas. We have a distribution deal in place with Casa Comal in Guatemala. And we’re soon attending The SunnySide of the Doc in La Rochelle with the support of The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. We did carry out most of principal photography during 2011 with the support of the Programa Ibermedia which is an international Fund Based in Madrid. So many wonderful people and institutions from all over the world recognize the merits of this project and want the story of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos be told.

It seems the controversy of your subject has followed you into your production. Your production company Proyecto Chingara is suing the Puerto Rico Film Commission for breach of contract. The Puerto Rico FIlm Commission promised to lend almost $100,000 to the production and then decided not to because they thought the film would be political partisan?

Unfortunately that’s right. They approved a production loan for $93.4K and we worked together as partners finding the remaining finance. They supported us all the way into getting the Ibermedia Loan which completed the financing. But then they made an about-face and withdrew the funds. We found ourselves in the midst of a production process without funds to complete the documentary. With local and international deals we had made with the support of the Corporación de Cine (Puerto Rican FIlm Commmisson) and now they just walk out on their responsibility. So there was really no other option but to sue them with two goals: 1. to have them fulfill their financial obligations towards this documentary and 2. to reestablish the confidence of international funders and investors with local producers and institutions. We know these legal channels take time so we have been working on a crowdsourcing campaign where people who would like this story to be told can help collectively fund the documentary. The URL www.proyectochiringa.org will take you to our campaign where you can watch a teaser and make a donation. So far people from United States, Puerto Rico, Spain, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Canada, United Kingdom and The Neatherlands have donated to help complete Filiberto.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1eniL-Lh

Clandestinity By Comandante Filiberto

The Ghost Of Filiberto Haunts A Coloinized Puerto Rico by vagabond ©

I am the third and youngest of three brothers ands sisters born to Inocencio Ojeda and Gloria Rios, all natives of Naguabo, Puerto Rico.  My father was a teacher in the public instruction system.  My mother administered what was then the rural Post Office which consisted of a room in the house where I was born in Rio Blanco, a small community about five miles from the town of Naguabo.

During the early years of my life, Puerto Rico experienced one of its worst social and economic crises.  Unemployment, malnutrition, abandonment of children, and the propagation of highly contagious illnesses were destroying a large portion of our population. My grandparents, on both my mother’s and father’s sides, were farmers.  Their land and agricultural properties were lost and businesses ruined when the established system of production changed hands and the North American sugar monopolies took over the Puerto Rican economic structure. These were years in which many thousands of Macheteros (sugar cane cutters) were enslaved by North American absentee companies. These companies controlled all productive agricultural land in Puerto Rico. The wages paid to the Puerto Rican people guaranteed nothing but abject poverty and misery.

These were also years of great struggles for freedom. The names of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Elias Beauchamp, Hiram Rosado, and such criminal act as the Ponce Massacre, could not possibly escape the attention of Puerto Rican children of the era.  During my early years, my father was a Cadet of the Republic, an organization which at that time had as its primary purpose recruiting volunteers for a Puerto Rican Army, sometimes called the Liberation Army.

My early education was influenced by this socio-political context.  The English language was forced upon all the Puerto Rican students as the main vehicle of learning. Many teachers in those days expressed resentment of this fact, and their resentment carried an independentista message directly to their students. The preservation of our national language became an important tool against colonialism in the absence of sufficient strength to oppose the fierce repression through other means.

When I was 11, in 1944, my mother emigrated to New York.  It was then that I was confronted, for the first time in my life, with all the elements of racism, social discrimination and social oppression that characterized the life of Puerto Rican émigrés and which prevail to this day.  I went through my junior high school years in different schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn, returning to Puerto Rico in 1947.  This was due mainly to my inadaptability and non-acceptance of a degrading and humiliating system with its highly institutionalized discrimination mechanisms.

During the early fifties, I worked in factories in New York City while I continued musical studies. It was this contact with brother Puerto Ricans in the factories which finally helped me understand the true nature of exploitation, racism and colonialism. I understood what life in the ghettoes meant; the reasons for being denied decent education, health, and housing services and equal work opportunities. In sum, I was able to establish the connection between workers’ exploitation and the predominating economic system, including colonialism. This understanding led me to oppose the forced military recruiting of Puerto Ricans to be utilized by the United States as cannon fodder in their wars of aggression.  (I had the misfortune of losing loved family members and receiving others spiritually and emotionally wounded in a war they never understood or condoned.) I refused to be drafted during the Korean War.

In 1957 I joined the Puerto Rican independence movement through active participation in diverse political activities. I formalized, in 1959, my membership in the Movimiento Libertador de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Liberation Movement) to which I dedicated my efforts. Through it, I engaged in Puerto Rican historical and political studies.

In 1961, I went to Cuba, taking my family with me. Once there, I joined the Movimiento Pro-Independencia (MPI) [Pro-independence Movement].  In 1964, I entered the University of Havana, and studied political science until 1965. In 1965, I became Sub-Chief of the Permanent Mission of the Movimiento Pro-Independencia in Cuba.  In early 1966, I became the Alternate Delegate to the Organization of Solidarity for the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin American (OSPAAL). From 1966 to 1969, I was also a member of the Directorate of the Association of Puerto Rican Residents in Cuba.  I was the editor of the Puerto Rican publications that were directed at our community and to other Latin American communities in Cuba.

In 1969, I returned to my country, Puerto Rico, engaging in diverse political activities as part of the Puerto Rican revolutionary movement in our struggle for independence. I physically witnessed the police attack against the central officers of the Movimiento Pro Independencia (MPI). In 1970 I was arrested in Puerto Rico and accused of being an organizer of the Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario en Armas (MIRA) which was involved in armed struggle during those years.  I was never convicted of such charges. In 1980, the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.  From 1970 until my arrest, I lived clandestinely in my country.  The persecution of independentistas by the federal colonialist forces, the numerous attacks and assassinations executed by the right-wing forces (including police ‘death squads’, and other vigilante groups which were organized or encouraged by the CIA and the FBI) and the repeated threats against my life made by these same elements have not permitted me to assume an open role in the struggle for the independence of my country. This personal experience confirmed the significance of the concept of ‘clandestinity’ which is an unfortunately necessary response to the consistent repression of the nationalist movements in particular and the independentista movements in general.

by Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios April 26, 1933 – September 23, 2005

For more info on the Puerto Rican independence movement…
www.september23.org

Sidebar: You can get a T-shirt of Filiberto from RICANSTRUCTED… RICANSTRUCTED is a design company i founded that is dedicated to the independence of Puerto Rico.

FILIBERTO RICANSTRUCTED by vagabond ©

Shortlink: - http://wp.me/p1eniL-I4

The Rebel History Kept Hidden From You

A Link Between Struggles by vagabond ©

“In this great future, you can’t forget your past.” – Bob Marley

“Puerto Rico has a history that is very heroic and prolific. Naturally, as a colony, there exists a history of double interpretation; the colony, and the history of the anti-colonial struggle. In reality, the colonial history does not apply to us. It is more fitting for the colonizer. Ours, the only one, is the anti-colonial history because it is the history of our native people who survived and are in constant battle to defeat the powerful colonial forces. It is the history of our Puertorriqueñidad.” – Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Ríos

On September 23rd of 1868 a few hundred Puerto Ricans marched into the Puerto Rican mountain town of Lares waving a flag with a white cross in the center dividing four rectangles, two blue rectangles on the top and two red rectangles on the bottom with a star in the left hand top blue rectangle. They marched into Lares with weapons and took over the municipality and declared Puerto Rico free and independent from Spanish colonial rule. That flag and the rebellion that carried it was designed by Ramon Emeterio Betances and sown by Marianna Bracetti and would become know as the flag of Lares and the rebellion that took Lares would become known as El Grito De Lares, The Cry of Lares.

This uprising was 12 years in the planning and was initially planned for September 29th, but had to be pushed up due to a betrayal the rebel forces suffered. However Lares was taken by these Puerto Rican revolutionaries without resistance and before the Spanish even knew there was a revolt. The Puerto Ricans immediately set up a provisional government with a President, Government Minister, Justice Minister, Minister of Treasury and Secretary of State.

Betances who was born in Cabo Rojo to a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother planned the revolt in exile from the Dominican Republic and was struggling to get arms and ammunition to Puerto Rico in time. On the next day, September 24th the Puerto Rican revolutionaries marched into the town of San Sebastiàn where the Spanish were prepared for them. The Puerto Ricans were defeated in San Sebastiàn. The betrayal which had pushed the attack on Lares up by six days prevented Betances from getting his shipment of arms and ammunition to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic in time to support the ongoing revolt.

Although the Puerto Ricans lost the battle they did not lose the war. Puerto Ricans continued to organize and fight for their freedom. In the following year slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans were eventually able able to negotiate their autonomy from Spain. In November of 1897 Spain granted Puerto Rico it’s autonomy only to have it revoked in July of 1898 when the United States invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish American War. On December 10th of 1898 the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain and Puerto Rico was handed over to the United States as war reparations.

The United States is still a colonial power in Puerto Rico and the struggle that began with the father of Puerto Rican independence, Ramon Emeterio Betances, still continues. In the late 1960′s Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios took the battle for Puerto Rico’s independence into a new stage. It was Comandante Filiberto who was the father of the underground armed resistance movement in Puerto Rico and in the United States. In 1967 he founded MIRA, Movimento Independetista Revolucionario Armado (Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement). Shortly after that he had a hand in forming the FALN, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nationalista (Armed Forces for National Liberation) in the United States. He also founded the EPB, Ejercito Popular Boricua (Popular Puerto Rican Army) affectionately known as Los Macheteros. All of these groups used clandestine guerilla warfare tactics against the United States in an effort to free Puerto Rico from colonial rule and all of the groups were considered terrorist organizations by the United States.

All of this activity made FIliberto a target for the FBI.  When the FBI raided his home, he was put on trial for shooting and wounding an FBI officer in 1985. An all Puerto Rican jury found him not guilty by reason of self defense. In 1988 he was put on trial again, this time for the 1983 Wells Fargo Armored Car Robbery in Hartford Connecticut that netted $7 million for the Macheteros. On September 23rd of 1990, while out on bail and awaiting trial, Filiberto cut off the electronic shackle that monitored his movements and went into clandestinity. Until September 12th of 2001, Filiberto Ojeda Rios was the FBI’s most wanted man. On September 23rd of 2005 the FBI surrounded Filiberto’s home in Hormigueros a short ride from Lares where thousands of Puerto Ricans were celebrating El Grito De Lares and listening to a speech that FIliberto had recorded for the occasion. As Filiberto’s speech played in Lares the FBI shot and wounded Filiberto Ojeda Rios at his home in Hormigueros. The wound was not fatal but the FBI refused to approach his body for over 24 hours and Filiberto bled to death.

In an effort to commemorate El Grito De Lares of 1868 and 2005 RICANSTRUCTED has designed a series of Limited Edition T-shirts. There are two design in two different color selections. One of the designs features an image of Betances face with an outline of a Lares flag superimposed over it. The back of the shirt features the number 143 to signify the 143rd anniversary of El Grito De Lares. Superimposed over the 143 is the RICANSTRUCTED logo of the outline of a Machete with a star in the center. The RICANSTRUCTED logo is a variation on the original logo of the EPB, Los Macheteros. The back also features the date of El Grito De Lares formatted with the year, month and day.

LTD. ED. BETANCES EL GRITO143 by vagabond © for RICANSTRUCTED

The second design is an image of Filiberto with the outline of a Lares flag superimposed over him. The back of the shirt for this design features a 6 for the 6th anniversary of the FBI’s assassination of Filiberto. The RICANSTRUCTED logo is superimposed over the 6 and also features the date of the 2nd Grtio formatted as year, month and day. Both of the designs are available in red and sky blue.

LTD. ED. FILIBERTO EL GRITO6 by vagabond © for RICANSTRUCTED

There are only 25 shirts of each of the designs and colors. The deigns are available on Unisex Organic T-shirts, Regular T-shirts and Womens Spaghetti Strap Tank Tops. The shirts are made on demand and take a day or two to fulfill before being shipped out.

If you didn’t know the history of El Grito de Lares it’s through no fault of your own. This history has been kept from you so that you’re separated from your past. If you’re separated from your past then your future can belong to anyone who lays claim to it. If our colonizers can erase our past then they can write our future. These T-shirts are a good way of letting others know that you know your history and they’re good at starting a conversation for those who don’t know and are curious. These aren’t just T-shirts, they’re weapons to be used to reclaim a rebel history that our colonizers need us to forget.

The Rebel History Kept Hidden From You #nothingtobegainedhere #ElGritoDeLares nothingtobegainedhere.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/the…—
vagabond (@vgbnd) September 22, 2011

A Communique By The Popular Puerto Rican Army (EPB)

The logo for the EPB Ejercito Popular Boricua (Popular Puerto Rican Army)

SOME BACKGROUND ON THE EPB AND THE COMMUNIQUE
The EPB – Ejercito Popular Boricua or Popular Puerto Rican Army is a clandestine underground organization using any and all means to end US colonial rule in Puerto Rico which has lasted well over a century. United Nations Resolution 1514 which is a resolution on decolonization allows for colonized countries to use whatever means available to them towards achieving their liberation and prohibits the colonizer from hindering them in their struggle towards independence. Despite that, the US has labeled the EPB, Los Macheteros, as a terrorist organization. The EPB was founded by Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios. In 2005, on September 23rd, a national holiday in Puerto Rico that commemorates an uprising against Spanish colonial rule, the FBI assassinated Filiberto Ojeda Rios in an effort to demoralize the independence movement. The communique below refers to the assassination of Comandante Filiberto and the historical connection to the 1930′s, an era of incredibly harsh, even barbaric repression against the independence movement and the Nationalist Party in particular, which was the vanguard independence organization of the time. 
– vagabond

MESSAGE FROM
EJERCITO POPULAR BORICUA – MACHETEROS
DENUNCIATION AND ACCUSATION OF IMPERIALISM’S TWO ARMED FOOLS: THE FBI’S LUIS FRATICELLI AND JOSE FIGUEROA SANCHA

JULY 23, 2011 

Sisters and brothers of Puerto Rico:

The disgraceful figures of governor Blanton Winship and of police chief Elisha Francis Riggs, who in the 30′s represented the most extreme repression against the independence movement, especially against the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, has again had an accurate reincarnation in the performance of Luis Fraticelli and Jose Figueroa Sancha against the independence-supporting political opposition of our country. First, it would be well served to denote what is the “political opposition” at this moment. As we know, the role of the so-called opposition of the PPD [Popular Democratic Party, Commonwealth status supporters] and of others has been disappointing, even though they have the ease of being able to expose the abuses of this administration; and, notwithstanding, the empire decided to attack the most dangerous part of its occupation of our country: that which keeps it at bay. It decided to take on those of us who view armed struggle as a legitimate right toward being free.

Our opposition, which will never retreat nor negotiate its positions, became the continuous objective in the plans of these two sinister characters (Fraticelli and Figueroa Sancha), who live in the continuous negation of what their natural homeland really is. Why did or do they dedicate their energies to attack the independence sector that preserves the right to armed struggle? Why did or do they target those who do not have an electoral political party, or rather, that group that can organize press conferences at any time yet exists in the underground? And finally, why go against the Puerto Rican insurgency? This shows us how important it is for a country that is politically subjugated to maintain alive the process of armed struggle. It is now, when it has even more relevance, as stated by our comrade Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios, “…we are the revolutionary rearguard”, that it backs up the struggles of our people to be free. This rearguard, as we have stated earlier, has become the most important objective of Fraticelli and Figueroa Sancha’s plan. And we ask ourselves, how much did they achieve with their criminal goals?

During multiple interviews, before leaving his post, the disgraceful director of the FBI claimed among his achievements the assassination of our comrade Filiberto and the imprisonment of Avelino and Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, due to their being instrumental pieces of the million dollar expropriation from Wells Fargo in 1983. Refusing continuously to admit the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, Fraticelli attempted, using the corporate press, or rather the large media outlets (El Nuevo Dia, Primera Hora, El Vocero, and others), to justify the execution, for which he blamed the incident on our comrade. However, this disgusting agent forgot that his own superiors in the imperialist federal government criticized him for at least six (6) basic errors in the operation of the execution and in the management of the situation. All of this is contained in an extensive document, put out by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States, which contradict the achievements that he repeatedly tries to have people believe, using journalists for the task. Apart from being a murderer, he is a perfect liar.

With regard to the arrests of Avelino and Norberto, this only shows us that it is the active agenda of the FBI to continue to search for more Macheteros which should lead us to examine the role we play in the decomposition of the colony. The visits by federal agents to responsible citizens in our society, the vulgar surveillance of those citizens and the use of technology to invade everyone’s privacy only exposes the desperation felt by a system that fears every day that the true representative of the struggle against imperialism gains ground within the national consciousness. As was heard and observed, this was expressed by Fraticelli himself, in one of his expositions of public relations, when he stated that: “there will always be Macheteros”. This reality, expressed like a reading on the wall of the national conscience, illustrates the greatest fear: his and of the so-called security agencies of the United States: Los Macheteros represent the revolutionary rearguard of a people that seeks how to confront the elements of repression previously mentioned.

Although the departure of Fraticelli was capitalized on in the media by him in his interest towards damage control, that of his partner, Jose Figueroa Sancha, was carried out with very little explanation by his part, regarding his failure. He did not elaborate on his decisions and his contribution to the repression of independence supporters, because again, the media, accomplices of these ruffians, carried out their usual damage control. The ad campaigns and the business that this represents with other clients were successful in keeping critiques of this issue to nothing. However, the free media coverage that the corporate media gave to Fraticelli compromised Figueroa Sancha in the widely accepted perception that his job, that of being a tool for his master, implicates him in the reality of his other failure: “there will always be Macheteros”. The experience of having lived with these two things (Fraticelli and Figueroa Sancha), reincarnations of Winship and Riggs, leaves us with a profound task of defending those who were the victims of these two armed fools of the empire: with continued denunciations, with the support of armed struggle as a tactic and strategy against colonialism, and the resolve of our struggle to demonstrate that another Puerto Rico is possible: FREE AND SOVEREIGN.

LOS MACHETEROS WILL ALWAYS EXIST!, because the HOMELAND demands it for its preservation.

LONG LIVE LOS MACHETEROS!
LONG LIVE A FREE PUERTO RICO!
ALWAYS ONWARD TO VICTORY!

ESPANOL
MENSAJE DEL
EJERCITO POPULAR BORICUA – MACHETEROS

DENUNCIA Y SEÑALAMIENTO DE DOS BURROS
ARMADOS DEL IMPERIALISMO: DEL FBI
LUIS FRATICELLI Y JOSE FIGUEROA SANCHA

23 DE JULIO DE 2011

Hermanas y hermanos puertorriqueños:

Las nefastas figuras del gobernador Blanton Winship y del jefe policial Elisha Francis Riggs, quienes, en los años treinta (30), representaron los mas extremos de la represión contra el movimiento independentista, muy en especial, contra el Partido Nacionalista Puertorriqueño, han vuelto a tener una fiel reencarnación en la ejecutorias de Luis Fraticelli y Jose Figueroa Sancha, hacia la oposición política independentista de nuestro país. Antes, sería bueno señalar lo que es la “oposición política” en este momento. Como sabemos, ha sido decepcionante el rol de la llamada oposición del PPD y otros, que tienen la facilidad de señalar a diario los atropellos de esta administración; y, no obstante, el imperio decidió atacar la parte más peligrosa para su enseñoreo sobre nuestra tierra: la que lo mantiene a raya. Decidió emprenderla contra los que vemos la lucha armada, como un legítimo derecho a ser libres.

La oposición nuestra, la que nunca retirará ni negociará su postura, resultó ser el objetivo continuo en la agenda de estos dos funestos personajes (Fraticelli y Figueroa Sancha), que viven en la continua negación de lo que es su patria natural. ¿Por qué dedicaron o dedican sus esfuerzos a atacar al independentismo que sostiene el derecho a la lucha armada? ¿Por qué apuntaron o apuntan a quienes no tienen un partido electoral, o sea, a la agrupación que puede convocar conferencias de prensa en cualquier momento y vive en la clandestinidad? En fin, ¿por qué ir contra la insurgencia puertorriqueña? Esto nos demuestra, cuan importante es para un país subyugado políticamente, sostener vivo el proceso de la lucha armada. Es ahora, cuando cobra mayor vigencia, lo que dijo nuestro compañero, Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, “…somos la retaguardia revolucionaria”, que va tras las luchas que libra nuestro pueblo para ser libre. Esa retaguardia, como dijimos antes, se convirtió en el objetivo más importante del plan de Fraticelli y Figueroa Sancha. Y nosotros preguntamos, ¿cuánto lograron en su meta criminal?

En múltiples entrevistas, antes de su salida del cargo, el nefasto director del FBI, reclama entre sus logros, el asesinato de nuestro compañero Filiberto y el encarcelamiento de Avelino y Norberto González Claudio, por ser estos, piezas instrumentales de la expropiación millonaria de la Wells Fargo en 1983. Negándose, continuamente, a reconocer el asesinato de Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Fraticelli intentó, utilizando la prensa corporativa, o sea, a los grandes medios de comunicación (El Nuevo Día, Primera Hora, El Vocero, y otros), justificar la ejecución, para lo cual, responsabilizo al compañero por lo sucedido. Sin embargo, este asqueroso agente se olvidó, que sus propios jefes del gobierno federal imperialista, lo señalaron, por lo menos, en seis (6) errores básicos en el operativo de ejecución y la crítica en el manejo de la situación. Todo esto obra en un extenso documento, hecho por la Oficina del Inspector General de los Estados Unidos, en el cual se desmienten los logros que repetidamente hace creer a la gente, utilizando a los periodistas para eso. Además de asesino, es un perfecto embustero.

En cuanto a los arrestos de Avelino y Norberto, ello solo demuestra que es una agenda activa del FBI, continuar buscando más macheteros, lo cual, nos debe llevar a reflexionar sobre el rol que cumplimos, en la actual pudrición de la colonia. Las visitas de agentes federales a ciudadanos responsables en esta sociedad; las torpes vigilancias a éstos y el uso de la tecnología para invadir la privacidad de todos, solo exponen la desesperación de un sistema, que teme cada día, a que el verdadero ente representativo de la lucha contra el imperialismo, logre mas terreno en la conciencia nacional. Como habrán escuchado y observado, eso quedo expresado por el propio Fraticelli, en una de sus exposiciones de relaciones publicas, cuando manifestó que: “siempre existirán Macheteros”. Esa realidad, manifestada como una lectura en la pared de la conciencia nacional, ilustra el mas grande temor: el de él y el de la agencia mal llamadas de “seguridad” de los Estados Unidos: Los Macheteros representan la retaguardia revolucionaria de un pueblo que busca como enfrentar a los elementos de represión, como los ya mencionados.

Si bien la salida de Fraticelli ha sido capitalizada mediáticamente por él, para su interés de reparar daños; la de su yunta, Jose Figueroa Sancha, se dio con muy pocas explicaciones de su parte, sobre su fracaso. No abundó sobre sus decisiones y su aportación a la represión independentista, porque, otra vez, los medios de publicidad, cómplices de estos rufianes, hicieron su acostumbrado control de daños. Las campañas de anuncios y el negocio que eso representa con sus demás clientes lograron que la crítica sobre ese tema fuera nula. Sin embargo, el afán publicitario gratuito que la prensa corporativa le dio a Fraticelli comprometió a Figueroa Sancha en la percepción aceptada de que su trabajo, el ser de alicate del amo, lo implica en la realidad de su otro fracaso: “siempre habrá Macheteros”. La experiencia vivida con estos dos elementos (Fraticelli y Figueroa Sancha), reencarnadores de Winship y Riggs, nos deja con la profunda encomienda de defender a quienes fueron victimas de estos dos burros armados del imperio, con la denuncia continua; con el sostén de la lucha armada como estrategia y táctica contra el coloniaje; y la firmeza en nuestra lucha para demostrar que otro Puerto Rico es posible: LIBRE Y SOBERANO. ¡SIEMPRE EXISTIRAN LOS MACHETEROS!, porque la PATRIA así lo reclama para su preservación.

¡QUE VIVAN LOS MACHETEROS!
¡QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!
¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

The Birth And Attempted Assassination Of A Nation

Los Gritos by vagabond ©

“While thousands of Puerto Ricans on the island/nation of Puerto Rico were commemorating El Grito de Lares, our national day of revolutionary struggle against Spanish colonialism, and were listening to the annual message of our Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the feds chose to begin their attack on his home. This was not a routine arrest of a “criminal”. On the contrary, it was a planned military assassination of one of our most important leaders in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence.”
- Dylcia Pagan former Puerto Rican political prisoner & prisoner of war

On September 23rd of 1868 in a mountain town of Lares in the center of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico a few hundred men and women led a revolt for independence against Spanish colonial rule. Since Columbus first landed on the island and “claimed” it as a possession of Spain in 1493 there has been a resistance to imperialism. The first struggles were waged by indigenous Taino populations and as the Spanish brought African slaves to the island they joined the Tainos and built communities around their resistance that were known as Cimarones or Maroon communities.

The mixture of Taino, African and European blood and culture had created something new and in the 1850′s Puerto Ricans began to act on seeing themselves as a distinct nation. The man who was known to have been the catalyst for this new paradigm shift into nationhood was Ramon Emeterio Betances. He planned and led the revolt on Spain in September of 1868 and because he did, he’s known as the father of the Puerto Rican nation. Although the revolt of September 23rd of 1868 better known as El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares), failed at it’s goal of achieving independence, in the short term, it galvanized support for independence and in the long run put Puerto Rico on the road to autonomy and independence from Spain. The failed uprising inspired other Puerto Ricans to organize for their independence and to protest against . There were times when the protests escalated into battles as was the case in Las Marias , Adjuntas, Utado, Vieques, Bayamon, CIeles and Toa Baja. And it’s for this reason that September 23rd of 1868, El Grito de Lares, will forever be known as the birth of the Puerto Rican nation.

Betances El Grito 143 by vagabond © for RICANSTRUCTED

Over time the Spanish were forced to make concessions and give Puerto Rico more and more autonomy. In 1898 just as Puerto Ricans were on the verge of negotiating their complete autonomy from Spain the Spanish-American War broke out and Puerto Rico went from being a colony of Spain to being a colony of the US.

In December 1898 the US took control of Puerto Rico and has since then been trying to justify the colonization to Puerto Rican’s, the world and itself. The resistance to Puerto Rico’s colonization that began with Spain continued with the US. In the 1960′s Puerto Rican independence leader Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios began organizing clandestine armed organizations like MIRA, Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement and the FALN, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional the Armed Forces Of National Liberation and the EPB Ejercito Popular Boricua the Puerto Rican Popular Army that would use military means to fight for Puerto Rico’s independence. Filiberto was the father of the clandestine armed movement for the liberation of Puerto Rico. All of these groups were considered terrorist groups by the US and Filiberto was a fugitive of US law enforcement and one of the top most wanted men by the FBI.

FIliberto's El Grito 6 by vagabond © for RICANSTRUCTED

In 2005 on the 137th anniversary of El Grito de Lares while Puerto Ricans gathered to commemorate the birth of their nation (albeit one still struggling with colonialism) the FBI had found Filiberto. He had been living clandestinity in Puerto Rico for 15 years and throughout those 15 years he frustrated US law enforcement by giving radio and television interviews and writing articles for the newspapers and magazines about the colonial situation in Puerto Rico. On every Grito de Lares, Filiberto would send a message to the crowds that gathered to commemorate El Grito in Lares. While the crowd gathered to hear speakers and poets and musicians in Lares the FBI had Filiberto’s home in the small mountain town of Homigueros just a few miles away, surrounded.

The FBI started a shootout and Filiberto defended himself by returning fire. In the gun battle Filiberto shot and wounded an FBI agent. It was one man against 300 FBI agents. The FBI brought in a special sniper team that shot and wounded Filiberto. The FBI refused to give him medical attention and as he bled the pre-recorded speech he sent to Lares played. The FBI waited over 24 hours to approach Filiberto and as they waited the 73 year old man bled to death.

Filiberto’s assassination outraged Puerto Ricans. Even Puerto Ricans who didn’t believe in independence or didn’t agree with Filiberto’s decision to use violence in furtherance of independence were outraged by the circumstances of his death. Filiberto’s funeral was the largest funeral in Puerto Rican history. The route from the church to the cemetery was lined with Puerto Rican men, women and children every step of the way waiting to catch one last glimpse of him, yelling slogans of support for Puerto Rican independence and accusing the FBI of assassination. The trip from the church to the cemetery should have been 25 to 30 minutes but it took ten times that amount of time, it took five hours because the streets were clogged with people paying their last respects to a hero who had sacrificed everything for his people and their freedom.

Dylcia Pagan, herself a former member of the FALN and former US held Puerto Rican political prisoner and prisoner of war noted that the assassination of Filiberto on El Grito de Lares, a national Puerto Rican holiday, was not just an attempt to assassinate Filiberto but an attempt to destroy the spirit of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Filiberto’s assassination by the FBI was a message meant to discourage those who fought for Puerto Rico’s independence but it backfired. Instead of discouraging the Puerto Rican people they created another martyr to the cause of Puerto Rican liberation and what began with a birth on September 23rd of 1868 and survived an assassination attempt on September 23rd of 2005, continues today. Instead of destroying everything that El Grito de Lares stood for, the US government created it’s own Grito de Lares.

¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre y Soberana! ¡Filiberto Vive!

The designs above are Limited Editions that were for done for RICANSTRUCTED, a design company that’s dedicated to supporting Puerto Rican independence. The designs were done to commemorate both El Grito of 1868 and El Grito of 2005. The first design is of Ramon Emeterio Betances marks the 143rd anniversary of the uprising and the birth of the nation. The second design is of Comandante Filiberto Ojeda Rios who was assassinated by the FBI in an attempt to destroy the idea of nationhood for Puerto Rico and it marks the 6th anniversary of his death. The designs are limited to 25 each and are available on Men’s and Women’s standard weight T-shirts and on organic unisex T-shirts. On September 23rd people will gather in Lares once again to renew their resistance and to remember the sacrifices made for a nation that still seeks it’s freedom, get a shirt, plan a trip to Puerto Rico and join Puerto Ricans and other freedom loving supporters of Puerto Rican independence and let your voice be heard.

RICANSTRUCTED

The birth of a nation in 1868 & it's attempted assassination in
2005… #nothingtobegainedhere #RICANSTRUCTED nothingtobegainedhere.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/the…—
vagabond (@vgbnd) August 09, 2011