Page 322 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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302———Puerto Rican Nationalist Terrorism

By the early 1980s, several members of the FALN Workers). (The other three groups were the Arizona
and the Macheteros were already serving lengthy chapter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the
prison sentences. Willie Morales, the alleged leader of May 19 Organization, and the Jewish Defense
the FALN, had been convicted of possession of explo- League.) However, by 1987, which is often cited
sive devices in 1978; his “bomb factory” exploded in as the end of the threat of Puerto Rican nationalist
Queens, New York, maiming both his hands. (He later terrorism, most key members were behind bars or
escaped prison and fled to Cuba.) In April 1980, 11 living in exile.
FALN members were captured in Evanston, Illinois. In 1999, U.S. president Bill Clinton commuted the
Three more FALN members were arrested in June sentences of 16 Puerto Rican nationalists amid great
1983, in Chicago, marking the end of the FALN bomb- controversy and a Senate measure (passed 95-2) that
ings, but not the organization. condemned the clemencies as “deplorable.” (U.S.
president Jimmy Carter faced little opposition when,
MACHETEROS ON THE MAINLAND in 1979, he granted clemency to the nationalists who
attempted to assassinate Truman in 1950 and those
On September 12, 1983, the Macheteros struck for the who stormed the House of Representatives in 1954.)
first time outside of Puerto Rico, stealing more than The release of these nationalists reignited the debate
$7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, about whether the Puerto Rican nationalists should be
Connecticut. The theft, one of largest cash robberies considered terrorists or patriots, criminals or political
in U.S. history, elicited strong response from federal prisoners.
authorities. On August 30, 1985, more than 200 FBI
agents were deployed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to See also FALN; FRAUNCES TAVERN BOMBING; MACHETEROS
disassemble the Macheteros.
At the time of the Wells Fargo robbery, only eight Further Reading
groups merited full-investigation status by the Fernandez, Ronald. Los Macheteros: The Wells Fargo
FBI. Five of these were Puerto Rican—FALN, the Robbery and the Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican
Macheteros, FARP (Armed Forces of the Popular Independence. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
Resistance), MLN (Movement for National Liber- Morris, Nancy. Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics and Identity.
ation), and COR (Committee of Revolutionary Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.