On the Grand Jury Subpoenas, the Puerto Rican People and the Launching
of the Hostos January 11 Grand Jury Resistence Campaign In El Barrio

By William Gerena-Rochet

Special to Virtual Boricua, Revised January 20, 2008

The three young Puerto Ricans subpoenaed by the FBI, as defined by the radio-talk shows, emails and the press, are “independentistas,” or “pro-independentistas activists.” It seems there is no shade of difference here, but there would some if one added “pro-independence sympathizers,” and there would be a whole lot more “world of a difference” if any of the three were just called Puerto Ricans. To support the three, a coalition has been formed and a rally organized for the date of the Grand Jury hearing at the Federal Court in Brooklyn on January 11, 2008.            

On talk-radio WBAI, Sally O’Brian correctly includes the description of the Subpoenaed 3 as young Puerto Rican cultural workers: something that makes a lot of sense if one were to know anything about the three individuals.

I think the way they are described makes a world of a difference when it comes to the type of support they will be given and the space they need to decide what role they will play in the subpoena process – where a judge can either demise, or have the person go in front of a panel of Grand Jurors. The refusal to cooperate, or appear in front of the Grand Jury means an automatic jail sentence for any or all of the 3 resulting in serious social and economic disruptive consequences for them.

One always hopes for broad support when it comes to a cause or movement, but as the history of the left, or in this case, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement demonstrates – the nature of, or the parameters of a struggle will determine how broad support can be. Calling them Independentista activists (at this juncture of history) will lead to support coming mostly, or just from the Left, or Independence activists. It won’t be a broad support as was in the struggle to end the occupation and military activities on a municipal entity of Puerto Rico, the island of Vieques.

The fact that two of the subpoenaed are the sons of current or former activists has been a pattern of repression: go after the offspring of leaders. One case that comes to mind was the assassination of the son of Independence leader Juan Mari Bras in 1976. When one thinks of these horrible situations the conclusion is that those who commit them are terrorists.

In this post 9-11 Era the Bush-Cheney Administration – in what they see as a permanent war against terrorism that has steered the nation into a  “global war,” or “war footing” – their policies has produced unlawful measures under the heading of “homeland security,” putting into jeopardy democracy as we know it in the United States. With legislation and practices such as the Patriot Act, illegal wire tapping, torture, a private army called Black Water and other measures on a grand scale, some of which the Puerto Rican people favoring independence have experienced way before 9-11, it comes as no surprise that a new wave of repression against Puerto Ricans is being packaged with all of the above.

But just as the American people need to come together and fight a growing US Authoritarian system, Puerto Ricans on the Island and in the US have to do likewise, join forces to fight unjust government measures that result in limiting or erasing civil liberties for all.

Keep in mind that what may be unjust measures for a few can (think of the Japanese in California during WW II), in a “permanent war,” or a war with no end in sight, lead to the road to fascism in a short period of time. (Google anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller for his historical poem First they came…).

As an example HR 1955, otherwise known as “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 404 in favor, 6 against and 22 who did not vote. This law could very well criminalize legitimate political activities, dissidence, free expression and other traditional forms of protest such as civil disobedience. The Senate is the next stop for this proposed piece of police-state legislation. Once this ominous legislation becomes “law of the land,” it will be applied to all US possessions and any place under federal jurisdiction such as Puerto Rico.

But now we must be clear that the FBI has acted as a terrorist organization in its own right – having no limits as to what measures they undertake to disrupt and destroy organizations including the immoral practice of the assassination of individual leaders (something the CIA does on the international scene). We are not talking of an FBI fighting gangsters and who knows if anything close to the X-Files exists. The FBI tactics have been used on many organizations that have disparate progressive agendas anywhere from labor, civil rights and human rights, peace, African-American, Native American organizations and in the case of Puerto Rico – given the US use of extraterritoriality – national liberation.

They assassinated Filiberto Ojeda Rios in Puerto Rico on September 23, 2005, a date commemorated every year as the birth of the Puerto Rican nation against Spain in 1868.  The date chosen for the Grand Jury Subpoenas for the three young Puerto Ricans is January 11, commemorated as the birth date of Eugenio María de Hostos (1839-1903) who in his lifetime championed human rights (an abolitionist, labor and women’s rights as well as the Independence of Puerto Rico combined with a Federation to the islands of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, “La Confedaración Antillana”). A conclusion that can come out of this is that the agents who plan these repressive events are cultural terrorists.

A meeting of a group of activists took place in El Barrio East Harlem on December 26, 2007 to support the three, and a coalition was formed and a rally organized for the date of the Subpoena hearing on January 11. 

In this meeting the role expected of the subpoenaed 3 came up – as expressed by those individuals who seem to be Independence activists and will go the rout other activists have taken before, such as reported by Jesus Davila of El Diario/La Prensa: “In the past, due to the fact that some pro-independence activists have traditionally refused to receive the subpoenas from the Grand Jury or to respond to its questions, many have ended up behind bars.” Some and many does not add up to all.

The possible consequence of imprisonment for the stand of no-cooperation at all with the Grand Jury was one that several individuals were expecting of the Subpoena 3, and by extension would seem something they would do if in their place.  The meeting as a whole did not come up with this position. In fact, it was stated that what any of the 3 will do is between them and their lawyers.

It seems to me that given the different strategies for obtaining Independence for Puerto Rico, it should not be incumbent on any one individual, or all three, to necessarily take the stand of no cooperation based on a position the seems as an equivalent of peer pressure because several people in the meeting expressed something similar to “by any means necessary,” which generally has been interpreted by core activists as “by any means, punto (period).” I personally stand for an open, legal and pacifist form of struggle. Would I want to see my son go to prison because we have to go by the position held by the line of thought and action of “by any means period?”

The FBI in Puerto Rico has targeted the Popular Boricua Army-Macheteros, a clandestine or underground Independence organization. In fact, according to the Special Agent in Charge of the F.B.I. in San Juan, Luis Fraticelli, he has said that the agency intends to capture Commander Guasábara, who succeeded Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, as the head of the Macheteros, after he was killed by U.S. commandos in 2005. When Ojeda Ríos was assassinated many people besides the Independentistas were outraged with assassination and the above-the-law and disrespect to the Puerto Rican government. In fact, Puerto Rican governor Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá was so upset that he sought an investigation of the FBI’s actions (Is he paying for it now?). By the way, Fraticelli is quoted as saying he is going after “Terrorist,” not the Independentistas.

Yes, in the case of this recent Grand Jury Subpoena, people need to be upset that the Justice Department has targeted Independentista activists and cultural workers and threatened to compromise their careers, or economic wellbeing.

Furthermore, the movement has yet to establish a “Resistance to the Grand Jury Fund” to cover the expenses of those willing prison over “no-cooperation.”

So in regards to how to answer the subpoenas there is a duality of identification here: one as a cadre of an organization that works towards national liberation and the second being “The Nation:” anyone who identifies with being Boricua, or has that “Puerto Rican feeling” as José Feliciano popularized with the lyrics of his song.

The FBI’s agenda is to indiscriminately go after anyone in the Puerto Rican Nation with the aim at getting to the core of an organization: Los Macheteros. True that in certain historical situations countries have had to either undertake armed struggle, or its freedom fighters have had to go underground and form “cell” type structures. But, especially in today’s age of the internet and rapid forms of communication, the struggle for a country’s Independence can bypass such tactics and to this end, the response to the subpoenas will need to be one of multiple responses and not a unitary “no cooperation with the FBI under any circumstances.”