Message from Avelino Gonzalez Claudio

 

September and October are months during which we celebrate important holidays of liberty.  In September we conmemorate El Grito de Lares, the holiday in which the puerorican nationa was born, and in October the Nationalist Revolution of Jayuya, where many died demanding freedo from US colonialism.

 

In September we celebrate El Grito de Lares (The Outcry of Lares).  El Grito de Lares reaffirms and confirms for all time, the existence of the Puerto Rican Nation, before the world and before the authority of the Spanish Monarchy.  Armed struggle is also established at Lares as an undeniable resource and method in the struggle for freedom.

 

With the October Nationalist Revolution our national resistance is validated in the face of the colonialist plans to deceive the world, through the United Nations, and establishes the firm determination of Puerto Ricans to never surrender the homeland without first offering their lives in its defense.  This was also validated by the heroes and martyrs of the attacks on the residence of President Truman and the attack on the Congress of the United States.

 

At the end of the 20^th Century the standard bearers of the armed struggle was the organization, Los Macheteros led by the late Jorge Farinaci and Filiberto Ojeda who was so vilely assassinated by the FBI.  The Macheteros attacked the Muniz Military Base that led to the destruction of the planes of the U.S. Air National Guard.

 

In the 21^st Century it is the task of new generations to take up the mantle of struggle and to define their own strategies and tactics in order to give continuity to the struggle by elaborating their own goals while always following the example of the heroes and martyrs that have come before them.

 

The Struggle Continues!

 

Avelino González Claudio

Northern Correctional Institution

Somers, Connecticut

September 2008.

 

 

Message from Carlos Alberto Torres

 

Compañeros and Compañeras:

 

My warmest greetings to all of you.  Although I am not able to be with you physically, it is my hope that you will feel my presence through these words.

 

Today, with this commemoration we remember one of the glorious moments in Puerto Rican history.  It was 140 years ago when Puerto Rican patriots transformed their love and commitment to our homeland into decisive action.  Risking and sacrificing their lives and fortunes these men and women fulfilled their patriotic duty and in this way they reaffirmed that our destiny as a people is to be a free nation.  From that moment to the present generations of Puerto Ricans following the example of our Grito de Lares have struggled and sacrificed to obtain our freedom.

 

I remember today that Comandante Filiberto throughout his life was also one of those illustrious sons of Lares; a defender of our homeland who during another 23 of September took his last mortal breath, his last guerrilla stand, taking up arms with gun in hand.

 

Today we remember him and today we reaffirm once again:  ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!

 

Thank you,

Carlos Alberto

Federal Grand Jury threatens Puerto Rican Independentistas

by Oscar Lopez Rivera

True to the priorities of the National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN), including an end to the continuing political repression and criminalization of progressive sectors of the Puerto Rican community, the NBHRN has supported Tania Frontera and Christopher Torres from the moment the FBI served them with subpoenas in December

2007 to appear before a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York.

On June 27, NBHRN once again demonstrated its support. Along with the Comité Pro Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico (Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico), and through their New York National Lawyers Guild attorneys Alan Levine and Jeffrey Rothman, they presented in court a Motion to Intervene in the Motion to Quash the Grand Jury Subpoenas served on Frontera and Torres. The motion asserts that the subpoenas have a chilling effect on the constitutional rights of association and expression of both organizations, particularly given the long and sordid historical trajectory of the United States colonial domination of Puerto Rico and its unceasing efforts to criminalize and destroy the movement for the independence of Puerto

Rico.

Unbeknownst to counsel, the court filed the motions under seal, and assigned the case to Judge Carol Amon. On June 27, as on previous dates when Frontera and Torres were scheduled to appear, the Hostos One Eleven Grand Jury Resistance Coalition convened a demonstration on the courthouse steps, and then entered the courtroom to watch the proceedings.

The government asked the judge to clear the courtroom, arguing that grand jury matters are to be secret. Lawyers for Frontera and Torres, Susan Tipograph and Martin Stolar, of the National Lawyers Guild, recounted that in their vast experience with grand juries, the public has never been excluded from hearings on motions to quash, nor have such motions ever been filed under seal.

The court ordered briefs on the secrecy issue, as well as on the motion to intervene, and ordered the government to respond adequately to the motion to quash and reveal whether the subpoenas or grand jury questions were founded in illegal electronic surveillance.

The motions were to have been argued on July 28. If they were denied, and if Frontera and Torres refused to collaborate, as they have publicly stated, the ranks of Puerto Rican political prisoners would undoubtedly have grown by two.

This swelling of the ranks would take place one month after the adoption of the annual United Nations De-colonization Committee resolution, affirming the application of international law requiring de-colonization to the case of Puerto Rico, and urging, among other things, that the president of the United States release all Puerto Rican political prisoners.

Carlos Alberto Torres and the Network are preparing his parole campaign, which as of this writing, is set for February 2009, as well as being engaged in a fundraising campaign for his pottery workshop, E lCemi. Carlos is also adjusting to his new surroundings, after being transferred to FCI Pekin, IL. For more information on the campaign, please email alejandrom@boricuahumanrights.org.