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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
New Medical letter for Avelino
UPDATE ON THE CASE OF PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONER
AVELINO GONZALEZ CLAUDIO
Tuesday
August 4th, 2009 Update:
Puerto
Rican Political Prisoner Avelino Gonzalez Claudo is being denied medical treatment!
Since his incarceration, he has developed a neurological condition. In November 2008, Avelino requested, several times,
medical attention receiving only a “I do not know”, “I will read some books” answer from the Doctor
assigned to his facility.
Avelno
has been mvoed to anew prison, so the campaign has a new target: Peter J. Murphy, the Warden of Avelino's
new prison, MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution
We cannot let our brother suffer! DOWNLOAD THE PDF LETTER AT THE TOP OF THIS PARAGRPAH AND
FAX/MAIL IT ASAP!
October 8th, 2008 Update:
THERE CAN
BE NO TRIAL DATE AT THIS TIME!
The date for the beginning of the trial which is to be presided over by Judge Alfred V. Costell of the Hartford
Court had been established as November 6, 2008. The lead attorney for Avelino
has informed us that there is no way that the trial can begin on November 6 because the process of discovery of evidence has
barely begun. All the evidence to be presented by the prosecution, including
everything that was ceased during the break-ins in 1985, must be given to Avelino and that has yet to be done by federal prosecutors.
At this time we do not know if on November 6th there will be any type of hearing of Avelino’s
case. During the month of November there will be meetings with Avelino’s
lawyers in Harford in order to assess the steps taken and to be taken by the prosecution and the defense.
THE
JUDGE INTERFERES WITH DEFENSE PREPARATIONS
Judge Alfred V. Costello denied requests for coverage of expenses needed by the defense for preparation of aspects
of the case that require travel to Puerto Rico in order to interview witnesses and visits to sites that are linked to the
case and the arrest of Avelino.
SOLIDARITY
IN THE UNITED STATES
Solidarity in the United States with Avelino has been actively maintained by the sisters and brothers of the
ProLibertad Campaign and the Hartford Committee, who maintain extensive and up-to-date communication both in the U.S. and
internationally in favor of the freedom of all political prisoners detained in North American jails.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR PRISONERS
Compañera Estrella Lagares informs us about the Vigil to be held this weekend in support of the freedom of our
political prisoners that has been organized by the Human Rights Commission:
--Plaza Colón in Old San Juan
--Beginning Friday, October 10 until Sunday October 12, 2008
The Committee of Family and Friends of Avelino González Claudio in Puerto Rico will be participating in this
Vigil with banners, informational literature, pictures and an educational palm card about Avelino González who is currently
imprisoned in Hartford, Connecticut.
There was a press conference on October 8, 2008, Avelino’s birthday, at 10:30 a.m. at the Puerto Rican
Bar Association headquarters in Miramar.
The Committee of Family and Friends of Avelino González ClaudioPuerto Rico
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WRITE TO AVELINO
GONZALEZ CLAUDIO
Avelino González Claudio
#357422
MacDougall-Walker
Correctional Institution
1153 East Street South
Suffield, CT 06080
Who is 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 is awaiting trial in federal court in Hartford.
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