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Puerto Rican Rebel Dies in FBI Shootout
AP via Guardian Unlimited ^ | September 24, 2005 | By FRANK GAUD

Posted on 09/24/2005 6:19:56 AM PDT by cloud8

HORMIGUEROS, Puerto Rico (AP) - A Puerto Rican nationalist leader wanted in the 1983 robbery of a Connecticut armored truck depot to finance his political movement was killed in a shootout with FBI agents, sources said.

Police said gunfire erupted Friday as agents surrounded the farmhouse where Filiberto Ojeda Rios, 72, was hiding in the western town of Hormigueros and at least one agent was wounded.

A law enforcement agent who spoke on condition of anonymity and Hector Pesquera, president of the Hostiano independence movement, told The Associated Press Ojeda Rios was killed. But there was no official confirmation.

Main Puerto Rican radio and TV stations carried reports that Ojeda Rios, who had been in hiding for 15 years, was either captured or killed.

The robbery of $7.2 million from the Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Conn., constituted an act of domestic terrorism because it allegedly was carried out by 19 members of the Puerto Rican militant nationalist group Macheteros, or Cane Cutters.

Puerto Rico's police chief, Pedro Toledo, told Radio WKAQ that FBI agents had arrested Ojeda Rios' wife. He confirmed that an FBI agent was wounded in the gunbattle and taken to a hospital.

FBI spokesman Louis Feliciano confirmed a "tactical operatio" in the area but declined to elaborate. Law enforcement agents said the operation also involved U.S. Marshals, Puerto Rican police and Puerto Rican prosecutors.

They were reluctant to go on the record about the operation because of the sensitive issue of independence and sovereignty in a U.S. territory. Some 500 people protested the move against Ojeda Rios late Friday, blocking a main avenue in the capital San Juan.

"This was done on purpose ... to try to humiliate us," Jorge Farinacci, president of the Socialist Front, said at the demonstration. "It's to tell us 'You do not have the right to independence.'"

A second law enforcement agent who also spoke on condition of anonymity said four Puerto Rican prosecutors arrived at the scene late Friday, and said this indicated someone had been killed and their presence was needed to remove the body.

Ojeda Rios, leader of the Macheteros, is one of four men still wanted for the Wells Fargo robbery. He was released on bail in 1988 after about three years in prison awaiting trial in Connecticut. In 1990, he cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet and went into hiding.

He was convicted in absentia in 1992 on charges of robbery, conspiracy and transportation of stolen money and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Only about $80,000 of the $7.2 million has been recovered. The federal government believes most was used in Puerto Rico to finance the independence movement.

The United States seized Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but cannot vote for U.S. president, have no voting representation in Congress and pay no federal taxes.

Most Puerto Ricans are split between those who support making the island a U.S. state and those who favor keeping its status as a U.S. commonwealth. A small but vocal minority supports independence.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ctrobbery1983; fbi; ojedarios; prnationalist; puertorico
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You can run, but you cannot hide.
1 posted on 09/24/2005 6:19:58 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8

This guy is no leader.

A punk is a punk is a thug.

He will now meet the ultimate judge and jury.


2 posted on 09/24/2005 6:22:15 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (9-11 is your Peace Dividend)
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To: cloud8

"Rebel"? KMA. Terrorist.


3 posted on 09/24/2005 6:22:33 AM PDT by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: cloud8

Didn't Hillary pardon him along with the other PR terrorists?


4 posted on 09/24/2005 6:24:41 AM PDT by dfwgator (Flower Mound, TX)
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To: cloud8
"... said four Puerto Rican prosecutors arrived at the scene late Friday, and said this indicated someone had been killed and their presence was needed to remove the body."

Now we know the answer to the age-old question: "How many Puerto Rican prosecutors does it take..."

5 posted on 09/24/2005 6:25:00 AM PDT by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: cloud8

This is a terrorist Clinton will be unable to pardon!


6 posted on 09/24/2005 6:25:18 AM PDT by Nateman (Laws need a sunset clause, if only to keep congress busy renewing them!)
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To: cloud8
"and pay no federal taxes"

and get government handouts...so what do they wish to be independent FROM? Welfare?
7 posted on 09/24/2005 6:26:57 AM PDT by NewCenturions
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To: cloud8
A bit of background here -- the robbery of the Wells Fargo depot was a one-man, inside job. A WF guard (and Hartford resident) named Victor Herena surprised two of his truck-mates at gunpoint, tying them to chairs and injecting them with a substance that was designed to do who knows what -- it made them woozy and sick, anyway. He then loaded several hand-trucks worth of cash into the trunk of his car and drove it to Brainard Airport, a GA facility on the south side of Hartford.

Loading the cash into a single-engined plane (IIRC, belonging to his father,) he took off in the dead of night and was never seen again. Speculation has always centered on Cuba as an ultimate destination. The "Macheteros" that figured in the above article were Victor's support-system, both in Hartford and in PR, and probably Cuba too.

8 posted on 09/24/2005 6:36:55 AM PDT by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: dfwgator
> Didn't Hillary pardon him along with the other PR terrorists?

I was wondering the same thing. cllinton pardoned the FALN terrorists. NYPost link. I don't know if there's a connection to Rios and the Macheteros.

9 posted on 09/24/2005 6:40:03 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8

Are these some of The A**HOLES that BeelzeBubba pardoned?


10 posted on 09/24/2005 6:45:28 AM PDT by bandleader
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To: Snickersnee

> Speculation has always centered on Cuba as an ultimate destination. The "Macheteros" that figured in the above article were Victor's support-system, both in Hartford and in PR, and probably Cuba too.

Then the violent element of the PR independence movement is/was linked to/financed by Castro?


11 posted on 09/24/2005 6:45:40 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8

Protest spinning? Spanish speakers, what say you? Macheteros = Cane Cutters or Machete Wielders (Machetes).


12 posted on 09/24/2005 6:47:58 AM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Jabba the Hutt's bigger, meaner, uglier brother.)
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To: cloud8
A small but vocal minority supports independence.

A small but COMMUNIST minority supports independence.

13 posted on 09/24/2005 6:48:45 AM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
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To: cloud8
Then the violent element of the PR independence movement is/was linked to/financed by Castro?

Who woulda thunk it?

14 posted on 09/24/2005 6:49:30 AM PDT by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: cloud8

Watch for the "US Out of Puerto Rico" signs during the anti-American demonstrations today in Washington. This guy is a hero to the Left.


15 posted on 09/24/2005 6:49:36 AM PDT by RedRover
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To: Snickersnee

THANX


16 posted on 09/24/2005 6:57:03 AM PDT by dennisw (If you can serve a cup of tea right, you can do anything - Gurdjieff)
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To: Snickersnee

> Who woulda thunk it?

What I'm thinking is a clintn-Cuba-PR connection. And now we've got to throw Fidel's buddy Hugo Chavez into the equation.


17 posted on 09/24/2005 6:57:54 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8
I played high school basketball in Puerto Rico back in 1970. My team was from Mayaguez, I was the only "gringo" on the team. Hormigueros was then a hotbed of "independentista", anti-American sentiment. Apparently, the town-folk heard that the team from Mayaguez had a gringo playing on the team, and our bus coming into town was met with demonstrators. I knew the politics of the area, (Mayaguez was not that way, I was treated well there) but I wanted to play, and felt that maybe nothing would happen.

Unbeknownst to me, the game day happened to coincide with the celebration of the birthday of the founder of the independentista movement, so there had been speeches in the plaza, and the townspeople had apparently been whipped into a frenzy. I had become the symbol of something they intensely disliked.

The game was played to an overflow crowd, and suffice it to say there were NO American flags being displayed. The Hormigueros team had a six foot ten center, named Carlos Prieto, who later became a team-mate of mine in college, our tallest player was maybe six-five. I am six-four, normally a 2 guard, and I had to guard this dude. I had noticed in warm-ups that there was this muscular, tatooed, much-older than high-school looking fellow on their team, and you could tell he didn't have enough skill to be on a basketball team, and I wondered what on earth he was on their team for.

The ball was tipped up, and after a few trips up and down the court, I went up for a rebound and the goon nailed me square in the face with a viscious elbow. I lost a tooth then and there, and the game was stopped to patch me up. I went back in and played absolutely the worst game in my career, yes, I had been intimidated to the point of ineptitude. The crowd had been calling me names prior to the re-arrangement of my face, but it all stopped once "Paco" nailed me, I guess they felt sorry for me. I never went back to Hormigueros.

18 posted on 09/24/2005 7:01:50 AM PDT by wayoverontheright
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To: wayoverontheright

Wow. You tell that story like it happened yesterday, not 35 years ago.

I guess Hormigueros is still an independentista/Macheteros hotbed.


19 posted on 09/24/2005 7:17:36 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8
Wow. You tell that story like it happened yesterday, not 35 years ago.

I am reminded of it every time I brush my teeth.

A town called Morovis was then, and I understand still is the center of the independista movement. It's in the middle of the island, in the mountains.

I found as many patriotic, pro Americans in Puerto Rico as I had in the states, the independentistas are socialists and have represented a minority for a long time, it's just that on that day they had all convened on Hormigueros, I guess.

20 posted on 09/24/2005 8:04:29 AM PDT by wayoverontheright
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