Ojeda Rios death raises status issue

Reactions to the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, whom FBI agents shot Sept. 23, reflect the ambivalent attitude toward pro-independence extremists in Puerto Rico.

Those who are prepared to take up arms against the United States are a tiny minority and have hardly been heard from since the early 1980s, when they carried out some high-profile military operations, both on the island and the U.S. mainland.

The independence cause is largely in the hands of politicians who are respectful of the democratic process and never secure more than 5 percent of the votes.

The shooting was met with outrage even among Puerto Ricans who have no sympathy for the armed struggle and little in common with the 1,000 or so supporters of Ojeda Rios’s Boricua People’s Army (Los Macheteros) who gathered to protest in San Juan on Sept. 24. The numbers had swollen to several thousand by the time Ojeda Rios’s funeral took place Sept. 27.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered an independent inquiry into the incident, to be conducted by the Justice Department. He realized that something must be done to stem the rising tide of patriotic indignation in Puerto Rico.

The last time there was such widespread resentment at the way the United States treats the territory was when a stray bomb killed a security guard during a U.S. Navy exercise on Vieques in 1999. That incident led to a determined campaign, supported by the mass of the Puerto Rican population, which eventually forced the U.S. military to withdraw from the island of Vieques — after arguing for years that it was irreplaceable as a training ground.

The outcome is unlikely to be as dramatic this time. However, the FBI may have created a martyr for the independence cause. At the very least, Ojeda Rios’s violent death may revive a political issue — the island’s status — that the present government has downplayed. Repudiation of the FBI’s actions has brought about a rare unanimity among political groups.

The island legislature, which the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) dominates, passed a resolution, sponsored by the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), calling for an inquiry into the FBI operation. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and the chairman of the ruling Partido Popular Democratico (PPD), Tomas Rivera Schatz, agreed.

There was particular concern at reports that Ojeda Rios had been left to bleed to death and might have survived if the FBI had allowed him to receive prompt medical attention. If that turned out to be the case, Amnesty International pointed out, Ojeda Rios would be the victim of an extrajudicial execution.

Acevedo Vila was among those who thought it significant that the FBI had chosen Sept. 23 to move against Ojeda Rios; it was the 137th anniversary of the Grito de Lares, an unsuccessful call to arms against the Spanish colonial authorities in 1868. Some regarded that as a deliberate humiliation. Others detected a more pragmatic motive: Ojeda Rios was likely to be alone and unguarded, as his associates would be attending ceremonies and demonstrations.

There is widespread feeling in Puerto Rico that Washington allowed the FBI to use the cover of the global war on terrorism to settle old scores with Ojeda Rios, who had been on the run for 15 years. Acevedo Vila was not alone in feeling that the agency would not have been permitted to act this way on the mainland.

Ojeda Rios’s death brought together various tiny groups that favor immediate independence and gave the Macheteros the opportunity to vow publicly that he would be avenged. The killing also gave Venezuela an opportunity to establish its revolutionary credentials with the independence fighters. The ambassador to the United Nations issued a strong condemnation. However, a unified independence movement remains as unlikely as a campaign of violent actions to avenge Ojeda Rios’s death.

There is an ambiguity at the heart of the ruling PPD’s pro-autonomy position, as there is in most Puerto Ricans’ attitude to the United States. The PPD is divided into various factions, or tendencies, among:

• Those who want the commonwealth status granted to the island in 1952 to continue.

• Those who want it to be “enhanced” with treaty powers and limits on federal law and congressional authority.

• Those who believe that Puerto Rico must press for national sovereignty, but in “free association” with the United States.

Acevedo Vila has continued the policy of his PPD predecessor, Sila Calderon, who insisted on consensus in San Juan before raising the status issue again in Washington. This consensus never was achieved, and earlier this year Acevedo Vila vetoed an initiative, supported by all three parties in the legislature, to petition the U.S. Congress to begin a process that would have culminated in a referendum calling on the U.S. government and legislature to take action to resolve the island’s status. If the process failed to resolve the status, a constituent assembly on status would have been elected in Puerto Rico.

Acevedo Vila’s present position on this issue is markedly different from the line he took during his election campaign, when he offered PPD radicals a constituent assembly and called on independence — i.e. PIP — supporters to back his candidacy rather than waste their votes.

A White House task-force report, designed to clarify the status options open to Puerto Rico, is due to be submitted before the end of the year. However, Acevedo Vila’s critics argue that his veto may have dampened any enthusiasm the White House might have had for acting on the report’s recommendations — whatever they may be.

With the Puerto Rican government paralyzed by the standoff between the PPD-controlled executive branch and PNP-dominated legislature, there is unlikely to be any consensus on raising the status question, at least until after the 2008 elections. However, the momentum created by the death of Ojeda Rios could force politicians to address the issue. Both Washington and Acevedo Vila will have to handle carefully the aftermath of the killing if they want to avoid this.

Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis on world events for business and government leaders. See www.oxan.com

The repercussions from the death of this fugitive of the law are bound to transcend the many demerits of Ojeda's life of violence and terror. The objective facts of this man's life are no longer important. His figure is now being "transfigured" into mythological proportions. He's being turned into a symbol and each political faction in the Island is eager to use this symbol to push for their own agenda.

As a Puerto Rican, I've always favored admitting the Island into the Union--except for a few months when I was between 18 and 19, when I seriously considered against it. Hey, even I had a youth.

That's still my position, but I've modified it slightly: make the Islanders equal Americans, or let them go their own way as soon as they ask for it.

As an American, I've already made a decision as to which future I want for myself, my wife, my children, and my descendants, and sadly, as long as my fellow Puerto Ricans don't make a definitive choice, that future doesn't include my beloved Island. As long as local demagogues use fear to keep the population from deciding the permanent political future of Puerto Rico, there'll be no movement for a solution and smaller-than-life men like Filiberto Ojeda Ríos will keep receving an attention and emphasis richly undeserved.

There seems to be several Puerto Ricos.

The Puerto Rico of the mainland, where everything is peaches and cream, supposedly. Who look back at the actual Puerto Rico with depression and even contempt.

The Puerto Rico of politics, government and ancilliary industries such as news media, public relations firms and every other leech that attaches itself to the political-government complex.

And my Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico where people actually work for a living. Where I help run a successful business. Where I have a very large network of family and friends. Where there is always something fun to do, 24/7. The Puerto Rico of natural beauty and rich history and great weather. One of the few places left on this planet where you can have a warm conversation with a perfect stranger. One of the last places on Earth that God rules.

Puerto Rico PING!

In Puerto Rico, a death and a new hotel are linked

BY MARY SANCHEZ

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT) - Seemingly disparate events tell the future for Puerto Rico. One is a bloody death at the hands of FBI agents. Another is the conversations of marketing campaigns and real estate developers.

On Sept. 23 FBI agents shot to death Filiberto Ojeda Rios. He was an outlaw bandit, among the most famous leaders of militant efforts to gain Puerto Rico's independence from the United States. Ojeda Rios, 72, slowly bled to death, lying on the tile of his home.

Web site photos detail the shootout, the many bullets fired. Many are calling Ojeda Rios a political martyr, and the United States an imperialist nation for the action. But at the same time Ojeda Rios lay dying, the power of U.S. investment was moving full steam ahead in Puerto Rico.

Marketing plans are being shaped for a luxury hotel on Puerto Rico's island of Vieques, once the site of protests by independentistas such as Ojeda Rios. Ojeda Rios' death just might also be the final blow to dwindling independence efforts.

Puerto Rico is too entrenched with the United States economically to ever fall under the trance of militant voices like Ojeda Rios.

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth. Its citizens are U.S. citizens by birth. But they are not allowed to vote in U.S. presidential elections, nor do they have representation in Congress. The up-side is they do not pay federal taxes.[Not true]

Puerto Rico was part of the spoils for the United States of the Spanish-American War. The island has never wrested its full independence from the United States; nor has it ever fully integrated by becoming a state.

For decades, Puerto Ricans have vacillated between the two options - never uncomfortable enough with commonwealth status to raise enough interest for change.

Some believe outrage about the death of Ojeda Rios will lead to that change. But Ojeda Rios' culpability in his death - and profitable comfort with the status quo - will likely muffle such movement.

Ojeda Rios led the Los Macheteros, or Cane Cutters. The group has been tied to attacks on the U.S. military; a bombing in 1981 killed two Marines. Ojeda Rios was wanted by the FBI for his role in a 1983 heist of a Connecticut Wells Fargo depot. His group got away with more than $7 million, only about $80,000 of which was ever recovered.

The robbery was considered an act of domestic terrorism because the money funded violence against the United States. Ojeda Rios cut his ankle-monitoring bracelet and fled before he could be tried in the robbery. Now, a Justice Department investigation into the death of Ojeda Rios has begun. It is unlikely to soothe outcries of wrongdoing.

Ojeda Rios did not die right away, according to medical reports. And he might have been saved had the FBI allowed others to enter the home. The FBI says agents feared the house was rigged with explosives. They waited 24 hours before entering the house.

Ojeda Rios' wife says the FBI shot first. The FBI claims the opposite is true.

Hundreds of Puerto Ricans took to the streets for the funeral. Rallying cries were about FBI assassinations. Ojeda Rios followers vow his death will spark the sort of outrage that freed Vieques from the grips of the U.S. Navy. They are right to question aspects of the murder.
But the outcome from renewed interest could bring more United States, in the form of investment, not independence for Puerto Rico. That is what happened with Vieques.

In 1999, a civilian guard was killed during military training on Vieques, an island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The military had long used the island for live ammunition testing, to the concern of island residents. Sustained protests eventually drove the military off the land. The vacuum opened the door to real estate developers.

The swanky W Hotels Worldwide plans to open its first hotel in the Caribbean in fall 2006.
The location: Martineau Bay, Vieques.
---
ABOUT THE WRITER
Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com.

make the Islanders equal Americans, or let them go their own way as soon as they ask for it.

Sounds good to me!
Although geographically small in area, Puerto Rico certainly has a large enough population to deserve full statehood.

Population Estimate ~ July 2004 (pdf)
Puerto Rico...............3,894,855
Oregon......................3,594,586
Oklahoma.................3,523,553
Connecticut...............3,503,604
Iowa..........................2,954,451
Mississippi................2,902,966
Arkansas..................2,752,629
Kansas.....................2,735,502
Utah.........................2,389,039
Nevada.....................2,334,771
New Mexico..............1,903,289
West Virginia............1,815,354
Nebraska..................1,747,214
Idaho........................1,393,262
Maine.......................1,317,253
New Hampshire.........1,299,500
Hawaii......................1,262,840
Rhode Island.............1,080,632
Montana......................926,865
Delaware.....................830,364
South Dakota...............770,883
Alaska.........................655,435
North Dakota................634,366
Vermont.......................621,394
District of Columbia.......553,523
Wyoming......................506,529

But this brings up a question I have...
The US Virgin Islands have a population of only 119,000, which IMHO is too small to ever achieve full statehood on their own. So how would you view combining Puerto Rico with the US Virgin Islands as one state?

I'm not suggesting that MUST be a condition for statehood...
Obviously, citizens of both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands would have to agree to it...
and Puerto Rico could still become a state without the Virgin Islands...
But I'm simply looking for a practical way to get full citizenship status for Virgin Islanders as well.

"Although geographically small in area, Puerto Rico certainly has a large enough population to deserve full statehood."

What in the hell does population size have to do with whether Puerto Rico should, could or would ever be allowed to become a state by the rest of us U.S. Taxpayers that have to pay the bills to support it?

What makes you guys think the TAXPAYERS of the United States will agree to make a state out of an island populated by 4 million freeloaders that already consumes $20 to $30 billion, U.S. Taxpayer's, hard-earned dollars in direct cash assistance, tax avoidance scams and 10's of thousands of federal government jobs, EVERY YEAR?!!

The U.S. Taxpayers have never received a single thing of value in return for all of the billions of dollars we've squandered on the residents of Puerto Rico.

What makes you guys think we'd ever agree to accept them as the 51st welfare state of the union?

Oh, I know, we're responsible for them becoming addicted to being supported by our tax dollars and so we have to continue to support them for all eternity.

Aye, bendito!

LOL!

Well, I don't think that we're all "free loaders," nor do I think that the U.S. has not profitted from its almost 110 year old possession of the Island.

There's more than meet the eye here, and irated expressions of disgust, though permissible by the First Ammendment, do not a "reason" give.

Statehood will destroy the welfare state in Puerto Rico; so will independence. Anything is better than the current status. I support admission to the Union because that's an inherent right of any and every American citizen living in American territory. You might not like it, but that's the way things are.

If the Republicans of McKinley's era hadn't started playing Empire, we wouldn't be here today arguing about it, wouldn't we? So much for Teddy Roosevelt's gun-boat diplomacy and the "white man's burden," eh?

Liberal politics have corrupted Puerto Rico's soul; I'm confident that Conservative politics will redeem it, if only given a chance.

Then again, there are some "out there" who don't want to give Puerto Rico such a chance. The best I can say about them is that they are all short-sighted. The worst I can say is that they are all a bunch of bigots.

-Theo

"Well, I don't think that we're all "free loaders," nor do I think that the U.S. has not profitted from its almost 110 year old possession of the Island."

Do you have any guess as to how many tens or hundreds of billions of the U.S. TAXPAYER'S hard-earned dollars have been squandered on Puerto Rico in direct cash assistance, business income tax avoidance scams and federal government jobs that have been hijacked to the island, by our pandering politicians, over these past 110 years?

Take a wild guess and then adjust that number for inflation.

The U.S. taxpayers have been cheated out of 33,000 acres of land on Vieques, 11,000 acres at Roosevelt Roads, a couple hundred in Sabana Seca, etc. since WWII, while losing all the BILLIONS of dollars worth of infrastructure to this pack of thieving con-artists in the process and you have the nerve to say we profited?

Tell us how? This ought to be good for a laugh.

We just built the ingrates in Puerto Rico a $3 billion dollar, 18-mile-long, Urban Train. I'll bet they could have used that in New Orleans!

"There's more than meet the eye here,"

I'll say. It's called political corruption to the 10th power by pandering politicians from both parties! That's what it is.

Here's a trivia question for you.

Where did the largest single contribution to Bill Clinton's reelection campaign in 1996 come from? Who wrote a check to Bill Clinton in the amount of $250,000 and where was he from?

"Statehood will destroy the welfare state in Puerto Rico;..."

I reiterate, the U.S. Taxpayers squander $20 to $30 billion dollars, EVERY YEAR, on Puerto Rico! That's $20,000 to $30,000 per family in Puerto Rico!"

How in the world would Puerto Rico come up with an extra $20 to $30 billion dollars a year, to pay it's own damn way, as a state or as an independent nation, without handouts from the United States?

The answer is it never will! There's nothing worth that much in Puerto Rico.

If Puerto Rico becomes a state, the U.S. Taxpayers will automatically have to give them $3 billion dollars more in order for all of the social programs, they love to cheat, to reach parity with those stateside.

"Then again, there are some "out there" who don't want to give Puerto Rico such a chance."

Show us how Puerto Rico is going to pay $20 to $30 billion dollars in NET TAXES INTO our treasury, EVERY YEAR, and we can talk about chances.

Our country needs another 4 million, greedy, ungrateful mouths to feed like we need another 9/11.

"The best I can say about them is that they are all short-sighted. The worst I can say is that they are all a bunch of bigots."

The best I can say is that anybody that believes that a big hole in the Caribbean Sea that the U.S. Taxpayers throw $20 to $30 billion hard-earned dollars into, every year, would make a great state is nuts.

I'm sorry, but the posting guidelines won't allow me to post "The worst I can say..."

LOL!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.