Puerto Rican Grand Jury Resisters

Mesa de Solidaridad denounces latest case of FBI persecution

This information was translated from a press release issued by the Mesa de Solidaridad contra la Represión (in English, Table of Solidarity Against Repression)

The independentisa organizations that comprise the Table of Solidarity Against Repression denounce the ongoing persecution by the FBI and other repressive agencies of the United States government against compañeros who struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico. The pattern of harassment of independentistas since the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos on September 23, 2005 has not stopped, but rather, has increased.

Early morning on October 28, 2008, several vehicles full of FBI agents penetrated the neighborhood where the well-known independentista Norberto Cintrón Fiallo lives, and waited until he left his house for work. During most of the morning, four vehicles follow the compañero while he carried out his work as an investigator for the Legal Assistance Society. The compañero detected them and headed toward the central offices of his employer in Río Piedras. From there he phoned his attorneys and several media outlets. The four FBI vehicles parked strategically around the offices of the Legal Assistance Society and stayed there, surveilling the area around the building, until mid-afternoon.

The Table of Solidarity denounces this new act of repression against an independentista, which, in this case, follows an established pattern against compañero Norberto Cintrón Fiallo for more than 30 years. This pattern has included, among other things, the fabrication of cases, surveillance, searches, and imprisonment for his refusal to accept the jurisdiction of the federal Grand Jury.

The Table of Solidarity Against Repression states that compañero Norberto Cintrón Fiallo is not alone. He has and will have our solidarity and support in every sense of the word. We call upon our people, who have also received the impact of interventions from this same repressive agency of the intervening government in our homeland, to stand in solidarity with compañero Norberto, who has dedicated his life and struggle for the well being of and justice for the Puerto Rican people.

The Table of Solidarity reminds you that we must not let the FBI provoke us. Instructions are not to be intimidated, not to answer questions, to remain silent, to phone your attorney as soon as possible, and don’t fall prey to provocation. Every act of persecution by the repressive agencies of the U.S. should be denounced. The people must be on the alert to mobilize and denounce every attack against compañeros and compañeras who struggle for true the sovereignty and freedom of Puerto Rico. Be aware of the agents’ movements. Make note of the license plate numbers of their vehicles and call the news media. We must all protect ourselves from this monster who interferes in our homeland to defend the political interests of the powerful.

The Table of Solidarity Against Repression formed in December of 2007 to support three young Puerto Rican residents of New York who were subpoenaed to a federal Grand Jury to testify in an investigation of the Popular Boricua Army–Macheteros. Since then it has continued to meet, doing unitary work and work in solidarity against repression, and with the participation of a broad sector of the independence movement. Since December of 2007, the Table has organized several activities to protest and to inform the people about repression, especially about the anti-democratic institution of the Grand Jury.

The Table of Solidarity Against Repression invites independentista, socialist, community, environmental and union organizations and our people to unite in the activities of solidarity with compañeros and compañeras who are persecuted for our work for our homeland and in massive repudiation of the repressive agencies. We say no to repression, no to the Grand Jury, and we will allow not even one more political prisoner.

TABLE OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST REPRESSION

October 29, 2008

Contact:
Liliana Laboy 787 406-1838

Puerto Rico: Surveillance, Violence And Rebellion

Jesús Dávila, Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, October 30, 2008 (NCM) – The surveillance by several agents in four vehicles of independentist leader Norberto Cintrón Fiallo, for which the United States government has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, is, as of this writing, the most serious incident to take place in the last remaining days until elections.

The cases are heating up the atmosphere prior to Tuesday’s elections, for which the polls say the opposition New Progressive Party will defeat the incumbent Popular Democratic Party, opening the path for the newly formed Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico and predicting high probabilities that the small but influential Puerto Rican Independence Party will maintain its electoral franchise.

Those who promote not voting in the colonial elections are also active, including a street theater group that performs a traveling satirical play in which they urge people to vote for “No One.”

The ostentatious persecution of Cintrón Fiallo— effectuated by four vehicles that surveilled him for hours, from his home and across from his work— took place only a few days after the Boricua Popular Army–Macheteros announced they had penetrated the secret information systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On that occasion, the Macheteros made public the name of one of the alleged participants in the operation of the commando group that killed its commander Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in 2005.

Cintrón Fiallo, a Puerto Rican born in the Dominican Republic and who leads the Puerto Rican Workers Guild, has been the target of persecution for many years. As part of this long history, he was imprisoned as a result of accusations that later were dismissed; there have been attempts to link him with armed clandestine actions; and he served time in prison for refusing to cooperate with a U.S. Grand Jury.

Months after Ojeda’s death, Cintrón Fiallo’s house was searched, as were the homes of other well known independentists, in an operation where the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security used helicopters in a great display of force. The FBI’s movements, which have also included grand jury subpoenas served on Puerto Rican independentists in the U.S., have not produced a single arrest of the leaders of the Macheteros, nor its commander, who identifies himself only by his nom de guerre “Guasábara.”

To date, the only arrest they have managed to announce is that of Avelino González Claudio, fugitive since 1986 and alleged to have participated in the theft of $7 million from Wells Fargo, for which the Macheteros took responsibility in 1983. In that case, it was the national Police of Puerto Rico who turned over the fugitive to the FBI.

This week, immediately following the new surveillance, Cintrón Fiallo reaffirmed his anti-election position in a message in which he called on people to follow the example of Ojeda Ríos and said, “we are waging a truly revolutionary movement, we are developing a true strategy to convince the people, the working class, of the benefits of becoming a republic which is free and truly sovereign.”

In fact, the message alludes to the eminent Pedro Albizu Campos, which emerged on the eve of the commemoration of the nationalist uprising of October 30, 1950.

Cintrón Fiallo’s case took place ten days after the surveillance and aggression against the famous independentista photographer Farrique Pesquera, in the capital neighborhood of Santurce. In both cases, people recorded the license plate numbers of the vehicles used by the alleged police agents.

Meanwhile, violent acts have also been noted in the context of the pro-U.S. parties, and half a dozen incidents have already been reported, including the burning of campaign vehicles of the opposition New Progressive Party, as well as fights in which bottles have been thrown.

At the same time, social rebellion is spreading. This same week, administrative workers at the University of Puerto Rico managed to paralyze the eleven public university campuses. The university administration decreed the university closed until after the elections, when the Brotherhood of Non Docent Employees decided to go on strike demanding economic conditions similar to those conceded to other university workers.

Just the week before, the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico—whose union representation was declared null by the government— won an important triumph in defeating the attempt by a government backed union affiliated with the U.S. union Change to Win, to organize all public school teachers. That confrontation in which the U.S. union invested millions of dollars, has been one of the worse defeats suffered by the government’s labor strategy.

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