Separatist Movements in USA

Boricua Popular/People's Army

The Boricua Popular/People's Army - or Ejército Popular Boricua in Spanish - is a clandestine organization based on the island of Puerto Rico, with cells in the United States. They campaign for, and support, the independence of Puerto Rico from U.S. colonial rule. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes the Boricua Popular Army as a terrorist organization.

Also known as Los Macheteros ("the Machete Wielders") and the "Puerto Rican Popular Army," their active membership was calculated in 2006 by Prof. Michael González Cruz, in his book Nacionalismo Revolucionario Puertorriqueño, to be composed of approximately 5,700 members with an additional unknown number of supporters, sympathizers, collaborators and informants throughout the U.S. and other countries. A report by The Economist places the number of active members at 1,100, excluding supporters.

The group has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings, attacks against the United States armed forces, and armed robberies since 1978, and was led primarily by former FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Filiberto Ojeda Ríos until his death in 2005.

The name Machetero evokes images of an impromptu band of Puerto Ricans who assembled to defend the island of Puerto Rico from the invading forces of the United States Army during the Spanish–American War, between July 26 and August 12, 1898. Macheteros de Puerto Rico were dispatched throughout the island, working in cooperation with other voluntary groups including the Guardias de la Paz in Yauco and Tiradores de Altura in San Juan. These voluntary units were involved in most of the battles in the Puerto Rican Campaign. Their last involvement was in the Battle of Asomante, where along units led by Captain Hernaíz, defended Aibonito Pass from invading units. The allied offensive was effective, prompting a retreat order from the American side. However, the following morning the signing of the Treaty of Paris was made public. Subsequently, both Spanish and Puerto Rican soldiers and volunteers disengaged and Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States.

The Boricua Popular Army, was organized in the 1970s by Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Juan Enrique Segarra-Palmer and Orlando González Claudio. The group began its operations as such in 1976, however it can trace its origins back to the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN).

Upon its beginnings, the group attracted a wide variety of Puerto Rican independence supporters, including some of the members of the University Pro-Independence Federation of Puerto Rico (FUPI) and the Pro-Independence Movement. Only some members of the above groups supported the Macheteros' ideology and methods.

Notable incidents

·         On August, 1978, the group accepted responsibility for the murder of San Juan police officer Julio Rodríguez Rivera while attempting to steal his police car.

·         In 1979, two attacks were made on unarmed US Navy technicians. In the first, on December 3, Macheteros opened fire on a bus carrying sailors to Naval Security Group Activity Sabana Seca, killing CTO1 John R. Ball and RM3 Emil E. White, as well as wounding nine others. A second attack, on off-duty sailors returning from liberty, killed one and wounded three. The attack was in retaliation for the murder in a prison of a member of the Macheteros by the prison guards who were retired Marines.

·         On January 12, 1981, in the 1981 Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport attack, Machetero commandos infiltrated the Puerto Rico Air National Guard's Muñiz Air National Guard Base, located on the northeastern corner of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. The infiltrators destroyed or damaged ten A-7 Corsair II light attack aircraft and a single F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter-interceptor aircraft. Total damages were estimated to be in excess of $45 million in 1981 US dollars. The subsequent investigation concluded security at the base was so lax that the attackers managed to enter and depart the base without ever being detected. The attack later served as the basis for upgrading base security, especially flight line security, at all Air National Guard installations on civilian airports in the United States to the same level as active duty U.S. Air Force installations.

·         On September 12, 1983, in an operation entitled Águila Blanca (White Eagle) the group assaulted the Wells Fargo depot located in West Hartford, Connecticut stealing a total of seven million dollars. After the robbery, the Macheteros threw some of the stolen money into the air from high floor buildings and used most of the remaining sum to fund their continued operations. According to a written statement from the Macheteros, the action was a symbolic protest against the "greed-infested men and mechanisms which strain our elected officials, government agencies, and social aspirations in this country, as well as in Puerto Rico." Under Puerto Rico, US and international law, the act was categorized as terrorism due to the way it was executed, the organization's stated motives and the trauma suffered by the Wells Fargo security guards. The criminal charges filed against the participants in this robbery include: Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Robbery of Federally Insured Bank Funds, Armed Robbery, and Conspiracy to Interfere With Commerce By Robbery.

·         In 1998, Los Macheteros claimed responsibility for an explosion at a small power station in the San Juan metropolitan area. The explosion caused limited power outages.

·         On September 23, 2005, the anniversary of "el Grito de Lares" ("The Cry of Lares") members of the FBI San Juan field office surrounded a modest home in the outskirts of the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, where Ojeda Ríos was believed to be hiding. The FBI claims that it was performing surveillance of the area because of reports that Ojeda Ríos had been seen in the home. In their press release, the FBI stated their surveillance team was detected, and proceeded to serving an arrest warrant against Ojeda Ríos. The FBI claims that as the agents approached the home, shots were fired from inside and outside the house wounding an FBI agent. The FBI alleges it then returned fire fatally wounding Ojeda Ríos. A subsequent autopsy of Ojeda's body determined that he bled to death over the course of 15 to 30 minutes. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission started an investigation of the incident shortly after Ojeda Rios' death. Their report was due out on December 31, 2009.

 Terrorism vs. national liberation

Supporters of independence for Puerto Rico argue that the U.S. favored the establishment of the present Commonwealth status to create a perpetual consumer base for U.S. and foreign products and services. Foreign products and services are redirected to Puerto Rico and other "unincorporated" lands of the United States to satisfy a portion of foreign trade agreements, while allowing domestic products and services a greater "home" market share.

The majority of the Puerto Rican electorate has favored a continuation or enhancement of the present Commonwealth status (50%), or statehood (46%). However, the "ELA soberano" or "Sovereign Commonwealth", a principle based on the development of Puerto Rico's political status based on autonomy has been approved by the Popular Democratic Party, one of the two major parties, for more than a decade after winning the 1998 referendum under the fifth column.

According to federal and international law, as well as the proposed definition of terrorism under the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime, Los Macheteros is considered a terrorist organization due to the methods they have employed to further their agenda. Beginning in the 1960s, the FBI infiltrated Puerto Rico's free press and political circles in order to monitor and disrupt efforts related to the independence movement. This operation was part of COINTELPRO.

Another argument by the independence movement is that the Macheteros are continuing the historical rebellion that Puerto Ricans such as Pedro Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party have waged, against U.S. domination of the island. It is known, for example, that Los Macheteros deliberately chose September 12 for their White Eagle assault on the Wells Fargo depot, because September 12 was the birthday of Puerto Rican Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos.

Recently, the Macheteros have focused on public education regarding the use of Culebra and Vieques as bombing targets for the U.S. Navy; the disproportionate number of military bases on the island (compared to states in the Union); the proportion of deaths within independence and nationalist leaders, including the alleged experimentation with radiation on Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos while he was incarcerated; the secret testing of Agent Orange on Puerto Rican soil; and cancer "experiments" administered by Cornelius P. Rhoads, in which he admitted killing Puerto Rican patients and injecting cancer cells to others, working as part of a medical investigation conducted in San Juan's Presbyterian Hospital for the Rockefeller Institute.