AVELINO GONZALEZ CLAUDIO

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Avelino Gonzalez Claudio

In August of 1985, Avelino González Claudio was accused of participating in the planning and authorization of an operation to secure $7,117,000 from a Wells Fargo armored truck in Hartford, Connecticut on September 12, 1983, along with other Puerto Ricans and two North Americans. The operation was carried out by a clandestine organization fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico, the PRTP-Macheteros. Avelino was not arrested at the time. However, more than 20 years later, he was arrested in Manatí­, Puerto Rico, on February 7, 2008.

Avelino was born in the town of Vega Baja on October 8, 1942. As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, he became a member and then vice-president of the Pro-Independence University Federation (Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia-FUPI). In the mid-1960’s, he married and moved to New York City, earning his living on Wall Street, and working with the Puerto Rican community, joining and then leading the Vito Marcantonio Mission of the Movemiento Pro-Independencia (MPI) in New York. He and his family of four children returned to Puerto Rico, where he worked in the independence movement, including administering the political journal Pensamiento Crí­tico (Critical Thought).

When the arrests of 1985 took place, and Avelino was not arrested, he assumed the identity of José Ortega, and, while the FBI pursued him, he lived a quiet life, working as a computer teacher to support his family and contributing constructively to his nation, seeking to improve the services provided by the Department of Education.

The charges against those arrested in 1985 had various results: Carlos Ayes, Filiberto Ojeda, Juan Segarra, Norman Ramirez and Roberto Maldonado went to trial in 1989; Ivonne Meléndez Carrión also went to trial—some were acquitted, others convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from one year to 55 years; while Orlando González, Hilton Fernández Diamante, Jorge A. Farinacci, Isaac Camacho, Elí­as Castro and Angel Días Ruiz negotiated a plea agreement in 1992. They were sentenced to terms of five years in prison. Two others have never been arrested: Avelino’s brother Norberto and Victor Gerena, and are being sought by the FBI.

Avelino is currently being held in Somers, the state of Connecticut’s supermax prison, far from his family and his nation, where he is locked down 23 hours a day, with no access to family visits or phone calls, in conditions which are calculated not only to interfere with his ability to prepare a defense, but which are tantamount to torture. He was sentenced to 7 years.

Machetero Gets 7 Years For 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

HARTFORD —

Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio hardly looked the part of a notorious leader of a violent Puerto Rico pro-independence group that pulled off a $7.1 million heist of a West Hartford Wells Fargo depot more than 25 years ago.
The 67-year-old grandfather appeared frail as he shuffled slowly into U.S. District Court on Wednesday dressed in an ill-fitting orange prison jumpsuit. His hands, clasped together, shook uncontrollably at times as he was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the robbery — and ordered to pay back the money.

The 67-year-old grandfather appeared frail as he shuffled slowly into U.S. District Court on Wednesday dressed in an ill-fitting orange prison jumpsuit. His hands, clasped together, shook uncontrollably at times as he was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the robbery — and ordered to pay back the money.
 
In arguing for the sentence, federal prosecutors cautioned that although Gonzalez-Claudio's advanced age and recently diagnosed Parkinson's disease might keep him from violent crimes, he still could be influential as a key figure in the Los Macheteros organization, a clandestine group that advocates the use of violence to win Puerto Rico's independence from the United States.
 
They questioned whether he would resume his association with the group after his release from prison.
In February 2008, authorities found documents in Gonzalez-Claudio's home that they say showed he was still involved with the group. Among them was literature that provided guidance on how to conduct a "liberation struggle," a list of "military objectives or targets," a 2007 membership roster, an inventory of weapons held by Los Macheteros members, and a 23-page bomb-making manual.
 
"Los Macheteros not only remains active in Puerto Rico, but continues to issue communiqués calling for armed struggle against the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the federal government," the prosecutors' sentencing memorandum said. "Continued association with the Los Macheteros therefore presents an ongoing public safety concern."
 
Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to rob the Wells Fargo terminal on Sept. 12, 1983, and to transporting more than $7 million in cash to Mexico. Los Macheteros intended to use the money to finance a war against federal interests on the island and to support leftist insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America, according to documents seized by authorities and other evidence.
 
Los Macheteros, a self-described Marxist revolutionary group, claimed responsibility in the 1970s and '80s for armed attacks — with Cuban support — on federal interests in Puerto Rico. Federal authorities have linked the group to two rocket attacks on federal buildings in Puerto Rico, the bombing of nine National Guard airplanes at an airport in Puerto Rico, and an armed assault on a
U.S. Navy bus in Puerto Rico that killed two sailors and wounded 10 others.
 
Gonzalez-Claudio disappeared after being indicted as a conspirator in the Wells Fargo heist and was a fugitive for 22 years until his capture in Puerto Rico by the
FBI in February 2008.
 
Authorities said the robbery was well-planned. Los Macheteros had one of their own – Victor Gerena – obtain a job as a Wells Fargo guard. During the heist, the robbers overpowered the guards with a pistol and injected them with a narcotic to incapacitate them. The cash was stuffed into a car, which was delivered to fellow Macheteros in the South End of Hartford.

 

 

Man Pleads Guilty In 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

By EDMUND H. MAHONY
The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD

A key figure in the $7.1 million Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford nearly three decades ago abruptly pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to charges that include smuggling the money out of the country.

Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio, 67, was a leader and strategist of Los Macheteros, a militant, Puerto Rico pro-independence group. In the 1970s and '80s, the group claimed responsibility for armed attacks on federal interests in Puerto Rico, two of which caused the deaths of U.S. military personnel.

Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Hartford to conspiracy to commit robbery and transportation of stolen money out of the country. Under terms of his plea agreement, he would be sentenced to 7 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000. Sentencing is scheduled for later this year.

He has been in prison in Connecticut since the FBI arrested him in 2008 in Puerto Rico as he drove through the northern coastal city of Manati. While in prison, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and correctional authorities refused to provide him with medication until last month, said his lawyer, James Bergenn. In court, Gonzalez-Claudio appeared gaunt and emaciated, and the disease had taken such hold that he was barely able to speak.

Documents seized by the FBI showed that Macheteros planned to use the stolen millions to finance the violent overthrow of the U.S. government in Puerto Rico and to support leftist insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America.

Los Macheteros recruited a young college drop-out from Hartford, Victor Gerena, to be its inside man in the Sept. 12, 1983, Wells Fargo robbery. Gerena obtained a job as a Wells Fargo guard, overpowered his co-workers with a pistol, injected them with a narcotic to incapacitate them, and helped stuff the cash into a battered sedan which was driven to the depot by fellow Macheteros.

Gonzalez-Claudio and other Macheteros were accused, among other things, of hiding the cash behind hollow walls in a used motor home and driving the money, in two trips, to Mexico. Wire-tapped conversations, seized documents and other intelligence shows that most of the stolen money was flown from Mexico to Cuba, where it ended up under the control of Cuba's president at the time, Fidel Castro.

Agents continue to seek the two remaining Machetero fugitives wanted in connection with the robbery: Gonzalez-Claudio's brother, Norberto; and Gerena.

Copyright © 2010,
The Hartford Courant

 

 

 

Before you write the prisoners:

 

It is important to know that it takes time for your letter to reach a prisoner and to receive a response from him or her. If you do not receive a quick response, do not give up!! Continue to write to him or her until you receive a response.

 

If you are going to send a prisoner money for his or her commissary, it must be in the form of a money order (Postal or Western Union) with their name and prisoner number. Do not send cash and avoid sending them personal checks.

 

If you are going to send them reading materials (Books or magazines); you must make sure that it is a paperback edition. If you are sending a magazine you must remove all the staples and metal clips. The envelope you send it in must have the staples and metal clips removed as well.

 
  Avelino González Claudio
#09873-000
FCI Ashland
PO Box 6001
Ashland, KY 41105
 

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Before you send money to the Prisoners:

 

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has changed the guidelines for sending federal prisoners commissary. If anyone wants to send money to our patriots, it must be sent to the following address and in the following manner:

 

Federal Bureau of Prisons

(Prisoner’s name and Prison Number)

PO Box 474701

Des Moines IA 50947-0001

 

You must send all funds to the mailing address (above) and adhere to the following instructions:

 

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will only approve/accept the following items, which it calls “Negotiable instruments”: Money Orders, government checks, Foreign Negotiable Instruments or Business checks. NOTE: No Personal Checks; they will be sent back to you.

 

Print the prisoner’s committed name and register number (prison number) on the funds.

 

The name and return address of the sender must appear in the upper left hand corner of the envelope to ensure that funds can be returned when necessary.

 

Don’t send items other than funds top the above provided address. The BOP will discard letters, pictures and anything else you send.

 

Contact ProLibertad at:
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