However, he succeeded in embarrasing all Puerto Ricans who have decided long ago that, whatever our differences we may have with U.S. policy and between ourselves, the only way to solve them will be through peaceful activism. With the exception of the Lares (LAH-rehs) Uprising of 1868--and that was a very limited uprising--Puerto Ricans have shunned violence as a way to make things right and settle scores.
I myself remember a couple of bombs these "Macheteros" set up in my home city back in the '70s, one of them within a kilometer of my home, and the sense of terror and shame they produced in me. That turned into disgust after these terrorists killed 12 sailors out of a naval air station in Metropolitan San Juan. That cowardly attack shamed me; it didn't make me any more patriotic, any more of a "revolutionary." I never understood how these actions furthered my best interests and my dignity as a Puerto Rican.
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a murderer who died as he lived, because "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." He never understood the mind of his people, but like many of the separatist micro-minority in Puerto Rico, he followed an abstraction and decided to kill in its name. Ojeda Ríos made a god in his own image and knelt before it, labeling as "traitors" all those who opposed him.
Ojeda Ríos' death is sad and empty because it is the sad end of an empty life, of hollow ideals, and hands stained in blood. As far as I'm concerned, his death brings closure to a sad chapter in Puerto Rican history I hope it never repeat itself.
For it will be the word, and not the guns; the ballot and not the bullet, that will solve all of Puerto Rico's grave problems. Ojeda Ríos, if you can hear me from wherever you find yourself spending eternity: you went to sleep as you lived and I hope that you never arise again.
- Read more far-reaching commentary in Vivificat in Spanish.
That last-minute Klintoon pardon didn't take very well, did it.
MUCH better than another trial!
ahhhhh sweet justice.
He failed because he was trying to impose by force of arms what Puerto Rico does not want.
If the Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico want to be an independent republic, all they need to do is simply vote for independence and the United States would have absolutely no problem with that.
What the U.S. will never do is abandon the Puerto Rican people to those who would impose their politics through violence rather than through the ballot box.
"--Puerto Ricans have shunned violence as a way to make things right and settle scores."
That's hilarious, Puerto Ricans destroyed neighborhoods in Chicago for years, their drive-bys have killed scores of their own infants.
Cut Puerto Rico from the US and stop sending the PRs the billions of American dollars, and San Juan will end up looking like Port-au-Prince.
From a fellow Puerto Rican...good riddance to bad filth. I'd say, it's about time F.O.R. took the dirt nap he so richly deserved.
No doubt Ojeda was a criminal and a terrorist. His actions and those of his "revolutionary" ilk do not resemble the armed rebellion of our own Revolutionary War despite weak efforts by some to find similarities in both.
Based on Puerto Rican newspaper columns I have read, it disturbs me that people who, otherwise, would not support Machetero activities are in such an uproar over the FBI operation while almost overlooking Ojeda's violent history. Now Ojeda becomes a martyr of the "revolutionary" movement in the island, and the die-hards cry for vengeance. Oh, well; I suppose the devil has his martyrs, too.