Ojeda Rios death raises status issue

The Hill, October 5, 2005

Opinion

Reactions to the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, whom FBI agents shot Sept. 23, reflect the ambivalent attitude toward pro-independence extremists in Puerto Rico.

Those who are prepared to take up arms against the United States are a tiny minority and have hardly been heard from since the early 1980s, when they carried out some high-profile military operations, both on the island and the U.S. mainland.

The independence cause is largely in the hands of politicians who are respectful of the democratic process and never secure more than 5 percent of the votes.

The shooting was met with outrage even among Puerto Ricans who have no sympathy for the armed struggle and little in common with the 1,000 or so supporters of Ojeda Rios’s Boricua People’s Army (Los Macheteros) who gathered to protest in San Juan on Sept. 24. The numbers had swollen to several thousand by the time Ojeda Rios’s funeral took place Sept. 27.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered an independent inquiry into the incident, to be conducted by the Justice Department. He realized that something must be done to stem the rising tide of patriotic indignation in Puerto Rico.

The last time there was such widespread resentment at the way the United States treats the territory was when a stray bomb killed a security guard during a U.S. Navy exercise on Vieques in 1999. That incident led to a determined campaign, supported by the mass of the Puerto Rican population, which eventually forced the U.S. military to withdraw from the island of Vieques — after arguing for years that it was irreplaceable as a training ground.

The outcome is unlikely to be as dramatic this time. However, the FBI may have created a martyr for the independence cause. At the very least, Ojeda Rios’s violent death may revive a political issue — the island’s status — that the present government has downplayed. Repudiation of the FBI’s actions has brought about a rare unanimity among political groups.

The island legislature, which the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) dominates, passed a resolution, sponsored by the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), calling for an inquiry into the FBI operation. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and the chairman of the ruling Partido Popular Democratico (PPD), Tomas Rivera Schatz, agreed.

There was particular concern at reports that Ojeda Rios had been left to bleed to death and might have survived if the FBI had allowed him to receive prompt medical attention. If that turned out to be the case, Amnesty International pointed out, Ojeda Rios would be the victim of an extrajudicial execution.

Acevedo Vila was among those who thought it significant that the FBI had chosen Sept. 23 to move against Ojeda Rios; it was the 137th anniversary of the Grito de Lares, an unsuccessful call to arms against the Spanish colonial authorities in 1868. Some regarded that as a deliberate humiliation. Others detected a more pragmatic motive: Ojeda Rios was likely to be alone and unguarded, as his associates would be attending ceremonies and demonstrations.

There is widespread feeling in Puerto Rico that Washington allowed the FBI to use the cover of the global war on terrorism to settle old scores with Ojeda Rios, who had been on the run for 15 years. Acevedo Vila was not alone in feeling that the agency would not have been permitted to act this way on the mainland.

Ojeda Rios’s death brought together various tiny groups that favor immediate independence and gave the Macheteros the opportunity to vow publicly that he would be avenged. The killing also gave Venezuela an opportunity to establish its revolutionary credentials with the independence fighters. The ambassador to the United Nations issued a strong condemnation. However, a unified independence movement remains as unlikely as a campaign of violent actions to avenge Ojeda Rios’s death.

There is an ambiguity at the heart of the ruling PPD’s pro-autonomy position, as there is in most Puerto Ricans’ attitude to the United States. The PPD is divided into various factions, or tendencies, among:

• Those who want the commonwealth status granted to the island in 1952 to continue.
• Those who want it to be “enhanced” with treaty powers and limits on federal law and congressional authority.
• Those who believe that Puerto Rico must press for national sovereignty, but in “free association” with the United States.

Acevedo Vila has continued the policy of his PPD predecessor, Sila Calderon, who insisted on consensus in San Juan before raising the status issue again in Washington. This consensus never was achieved, and earlier this year Acevedo Vila vetoed an initiative, supported by all three parties in the legislature, to petition the U.S. Congress to begin a process that would have culminated in a referendum calling on the U.S. government and legislature to take action to resolve the island’s status. If the process failed to resolve the status, a constituent assembly on status would have been elected in Puerto Rico.

Acevedo Vila’s present position on this issue is markedly different from the line he took during his election campaign, when he offered PPD radicals a constituent assembly and called on independence — i.e. PIP — supporters to back his candidacy rather than waste their votes.

A White House task-force report, designed to clarify the status options open to Puerto Rico, is due to be submitted before the end of the year. However, Acevedo Vila’s critics argue that his veto may have dampened any enthusiasm the White House might have had for acting on the report’s recommendations — whatever they may be.

With the Puerto Rican government paralyzed by the standoff between the PPD-controlled executive branch and PNP-dominated legislature, there is unlikely to be any consensus on raising the status question, at least until after the 2008 elections. However, the momentum created by the death of Ojeda Rios could force politicians to address the issue. Both Washington and Acevedo Vila will have to handle carefully the aftermath of the killing if they want to avoid this.

Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis on world events for business and government leaders.