OCR Text |
Show The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand Page 6 The Utah Independent July 7, 1977 F. A. One of the most dangerous of the numerous terrorist groups functioning in the United States and elsewhere is the Fuerzas Armadas dc Libera- cion National Puertorriquena . - FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation for Puerto Rico), This organization, like other units of the un- - derground Communist revolutionary movement, is highly secretive but they are known to have been involved in a long series ot terroristic bombings, So far, only one of its members has been identified and even he, whose identity was learned quite by accident, is a fugitive. Most of the key people in the Weather Un- derground, who have been responsible for a number of bombings, have been identified and warrants are out for their arrest, but because of the concerted efforts under way to prevent the FBI and police intelligence units from having under- cover agents and informants infiltrate the subver- sive organizations, very little is known about the FALN membership. During the summer of 1974 the FALN revolutionary terrorist group broke into the headlines (October 26, 1974) when it. detonated five bombs outside New Yprk City banks in support of a rally the following day organized by the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee--PRSa support group for the (Castroite Communist) Puerto Rican Socialist Party PSP. The leaders of the PSP - formerly named the Movimiento Pro Independencia (AM PI) which has maintained an office in Havana since the early 1960s, praised the FALN bombings jn support of their cause and repeated their statements of previous years that armed action. ... and armed struggle as a sort of urban guerrilla arc definitely present in Puerto Rico in an irreversible way. I. Ml In The FAL.N's bombing program has consistently been ciose support of the demands of the Puerto Klcan Socialist Party. I he FALN is believed to terrorist bave been derived from groups of the 1960s and early 1970s such as MIRA an(j the Armed Commandos of Liberation-CAPSP-relat- ed L. rSp mcmber Eduardo Pancho Cruz, believed to be a member of MIRA and with known 'Guban connections, was convicted of possession sentence. PSP 0f explosives and received a ncver attempted to conceal its relationship with CAL. Said PSP founder and secretary-generJuan Mari Bras: There is no liberation without a liberating army. We don't occupy ourselves with the development of this army. That task belongs to others (but) we have given full moral support to CAL because we consider it an important ingredient in raising !n 1973 7-v- ear al (fje mass s(rUggie CALs armed actions included the 1972 bombing of the Miss U.S.A. contest in Puerto Rico. CALs communiques were publicized by the Cuban Government and its Tricontinental Magazine which in 1972 published a CAL statement in which they described themselves as' the fighting arm of the Puerto Rican independence movement whose purpose was to undermine the stability and colonial peace of the imperialist invaders and to precipitate the power of the working class. independence, and socialism. An FALN Communique (No. 6 of October 27," 1975) read in part: Today, armed units of the FALN commemorate 25th Anniversary of the October1 30, 1950 revoiution in Puerto Rico against Yanki domination. . . by launching a simultaneously coordinated attack against Yanki government and Since that time the FALN terrorists have taken monopoly capitalist institutions in New York, and Puerto Rico. responsibility or been credited by law enforcement. Washington, D.C., Chicago, We demand the immediate independence of analysts with over 49 bombings including: December 1, 1974, the maiming of a New York Puerto Rco am1 the unconditional release of the five Puerto Rico Nationalist prisoners: Oscar City police officer bv a booby trap device. Collazo, Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, January 24, 1975, a lunch t.mc explos.on m New Andm Fjgugroa Cordgro md ning Fhrgs York Citys FrauncesTavern which killed 4 people We aho wish w draw aUetUion w ,he just cause an injure over o the Panamanian people who wish to recover April 2, 1975, four bombs exploded almost their canal zone. We express unconditional outside banks and businesses in of port for them in the realization that the removal New York City. the Yanki colonialists from the area ' is just as June 14, 1975, two bombs exploded and a third important as our national independence. Should was never found in Chicago hours before the start the Panamanian people be forced to resort to of a Puerto Rico Day parade. arms, the FALN will give them whatever support . October 27, 1975, simultaneous bombings in is necediary. Washington, D.C. at the State Department, and in The FALN welcomes the support given the Puerto Rican national liberation struggle at the Chicago and New York City. Jtinc 7, 1976, four bombs detonated at Chicago solidarity conference in Cuba and the meeting of nations in Peru in September. office buildings; one target was the headquarters We especially acknowledge the moral support' of the Chicago Police Department. June 25, 1976, four bftmbs were exploded at given to our organization by the Cuban people and banks, an office building and a police station in government in a speech made by Prime Minister Fidel Castro in August in which he said that the New York City. W Cuban " WU d September 21 1976, a bomb exploded at the New York Hilton where the Governor of Puerto suPPorl Grand juries investigating the terrorist activities Rico was appearing are being resisted by subpoenaed The FALNs many communiques generally dc- - f th.e FDALN activists who may. have deluded mand immediate independence for Puerto Rico, Puerto terronst group and .ts members. and the immediate release of five convicted Puerto knowledge of the to answering grand juty questions is Rican Nationalist Party terrorists who attempted The resistance coordinated by atorncys of the Na.ona to assassinate President Truman and killed a being Gu. cited as the foremost legal Lasers guard in 1950, and who tried to murder several of the Communist Party wt.ch now Members of Congress in a wild shooting spree in bul,wak '"dudes many Castro.tes and New Left activists, the House gallery in 1954. C, 1 sup-simultaneou- Non-align- ed s?ver7 ld-Nl- .G, sly among its Old Left membership. The NLG first developed grand jury resistance tactics against grand jury investigations of the Weather Un- derground terrorists and their network of supporters. In early November 1976, a Chicago Federal grand jury1 which had been convened in February 1975, began to subpoena activists following dis- covcry of an FALN bomb factory in the apartment of Carlos Alberto Torres, 24, a former student at the University of Illinois Circle Campus. Torres, his wife, Heidi, and a friend, Oscar Lopez Rivera, have disappeared and . are being sought for questioning. Among those subpoenaed in Chicago are Myrna Salgado Lopez and her husband, Jose Lopez. They arc founders and instructors at the alternative Rafael Cancel Miranda High School, named for one of the Pi&rto Rican Nationalist Party terrorists who attempted to murder Members of Congress in a House gallery shooting spree in 1954. L opez, who also teaches history at Northwestern Illinois University, was a speaker at the National Lawyers Guild's National Conference on Government Spying in January 1977. Others subpoenaed include three Chicago members of the Committee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Nationalists, a group which includes PSP cadre and members of the small Nationalist activists from Party; and two Mcxican-Amcrica- n New Mexico, Pedro Archuelltc Moises Morales and Juan Lopez. A coalition of some 20 organizations, the December 4 Coalition, with offices at Room 1362,; 58 West Jackson St., Chicago, III. 60604, is organizing in support of the grand jury resisters, is a group at the Centro Betances. 2156 W. North Ave., Chicago, 11L The FAL-N'- s Carlos Torres left considerable evidence in his bomb factory which was discovered accidentally after a burglary in which thieves stole dynamite sticks and offered them for sale to a street gang. FALN letterheads, documents and pamphlets were found with the explosives. Also found were letterheads from the Protestant Episcopal Church's National Hispanic Commission of which Carlos Torres was a board member. Torres was at the Hispanic Commission's New York City office on October 26, 1976, 8 days before his bomb factory was discovered. On January 7, 1977, Maria Cueto, 33, director of the Hispanic Commission, and her secretary, Venezuelan Raisa Nemikin, 27, were subpoenaed by the second Federal grand jury investigating FALN terrorism. The two attempted to have the subpoenas quashed on grounds that the subpoenas invaded religious confidentiality. Their motion was rejected. On Friday, February 25th, Nemikin was held in contempt and was ordered to surrender herself to.authorities at 2 p.m. The Court of Appeals granted a stay in order to consider her contempt apppeal. It is interesting that when authorities sought to inspect Hispanic Commission typewriters, office equipment and records, Rt. Rev. Paul Moore and n Puerto Rican Bishop Francisco attempted to quash the subpoenas. However, the Episcopal Church's ranking prelate Bishop John Allin, made all the materials available to the FBI. According to press reports, among the questions Nemikin has refused to answer are whether she can identify 'Hispanic Commission funds that went to the FALN from; its autonomous $291,000 a . . L j 7 ( . m 1-- j day Reuss-Proyla- E I |