MIM Notes 194      September 15, 1999

Continue struggle to free Puerto Rican POWs and end imperialism

by MC17 & MC45

On August 11 President Clinton offered to commute the sentences of 
11 Puerto Rican Prisoners of War held in u.$. dungeons. He also 
offered to reduce the sentences of two other Puerto Rican POWs. 
Amerika imprisoned these men and wimmin because of their 
opposition to u.s. imperialism in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, this 
is not yet a victory for the movement because Clinton attached a 
number of strings to the offers.

For the prisoners, accepting clemency would mean avoiding contact 
with each other and with the independentista movement (including 
individual activists, meetings and demonstrations), and signing 
statements renouncing violence. Release from prison under this 
offer would also require the prisoners to meet monthly with 
probation officers; they would be restricted in travel and barred 
from associating with anyone who has a criminal record.

Clinton offered the deals on the recommendation of Charles Ruff, 
the chief White House counsel, who has now left his post. Some in 
the White House have said the commutation was a response to 
tremendous public pressure and outcry against the unjust and 
disproportionate sentences of the Puerto Rican POWs.(2) Although 
the prisoners' freedom has not yet been won, this step by Clinton 
demonstrates the potential strength of protest to achieve winnable 
battles on the course to smashing imperialism entire.

The u.$. is a colonizer of Puerto Rico, of the internal Black 
semi-colony, and of the many other Latino and First Nations that 
are denied their right to national self-determination in 
territory, economy, language culture and government. MIM 
approaches all of our activism around prisons from the 
understanding that all prisoners in Amerika are political 
prisoners. But we recognize the special importance of our brothers 
and sisters who were imprisoned because of the their revolutionary 
political work. We make the distinction of calling these Puerto 
Rican prisoners POWs because as colonized people they were 
actively waging a war for liberation; they were convicted of this 
activism as a crime. We call for the unconditional release of all 
Puerto Rican prisoners of war. As of yet, the U.$. government has 
yet to uphold international treaties and recognize the prisoner of 
war status of the anti-colonial freedom-fighters in Puerto Rico.

Prisoners expose united snakes' scheming

Alejandrina Torres, currently captive in Danbury, Connecticut, 
summed up the sentiments of the prisoners and those on the outside 
fighting for their freedom: "What they are proposing is to gag us 
... Anything that has to do with exercising our right to self-
determination would be a thing of the past. They think if we keep 
our mouths shut their burden of colonialization will go away."(1) 
Antonio Camacho Negron is another of the POWs, he was released 
once before from a u.$. prison after serving 11 years. He was re-
arrested and imprisoned in 1998 after showing his disdain for 
Amerikan law and the conditions of his parole by failing to meet 
with a Magistrate at his appointed time, and by associating with 
independentistas.(3)

The Puerto Rican POWs in u.$. prisons have served 16 years of 
their sentences which range from 35 to 90 years. The 11 prisoners 
who have been offered commuted sentences were prosecuted for 
attacks against property but for no violence that resulted in 
injuries to people. They were labeled terrorists for their fight 
for the liberation of Puerto Rico and several were accused of 
being members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). 
All of the prisoners refused to participate in their trial because 
they do not recognize the united snakes' authority to govern their 
land or their political activities.

Two other Puerto Rican POWs are being left to serve out their full 
sentences. Oscar Lopez has been told he must serve ten more years, 
and Juan Segarra another five, before they will be offered 
conditional clemency.

In addition there are thousands of Puerto Ricans locked in 
Amerikan gulags today. All of these people were prosecuted in 
courts of the government that forcibly occupies their national 
territory; they did not have the benefit of juries of their peers, 
and many were convicted of crimes that would not have be 
prosecuted if they were white.

Many Puerto Rican prisoners have been locked up in retaliation for 
their political organizing, framed for crimes they did not commit. 
Although these prisoners were convicted of a variety of non-
political crimes, MIM considers them to be political prisoners, 
along with all the other prisoners in this country's gulags. 
Prisoners in Amerika have been arrested, convicted and sentenced 
by a court system that works in the interest of sustaining 
Amerikan military and economic domination over its colonies -- 
both within and outside u.$. borders. This criminal system has no 
legitimate authority to dispense anything like justice.

FBI attacks against activists continue

Locking up these Puerto Rican POWs was a u.$. Federal Bureau of 
Investigation's (FBI) counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO). 
The FBI designed a series of COINTELPROs to destroy the Maoist 
Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party and the American Indian 
Movement. These attacks -- including misinformation campaigns 
conducted against individuals and organizations, blackmail of 
organizers using persynal information obtained through FBI 
wiretaps and informants -- were also directed against Martin 
Luther King, Jr., the Coalition in Support of the People of El 
Salvador (CISPES), and many others.

Convictions of COINTELPRO targets were sometimes gained on 
political charges like seditious conspiracy; more often activists 
were framed for more common crimes like theft.(4) (In the case of 
Puerto Ricans convicted on such charges, the idea of sedition 
rings hollow. Puerto Ricans receive many benefits of u.$. 
citizenship that other colonial subjects do not, but this 
citizenship was forced on Puerto Ricans in 1917 when Amerika 
needed footsoldiers in the first World War.) The COINTELPROs were 
exposed in the 1970s and were supposed to have stopped, but they 
continue today.

Dr. Jose Solis Jordan, a professor at DePaul University from 1992 
until 1995 and a Puerto Rican independence activist, was convicted 
on March 12th of this year of bombing a u.$. Army car. Puerto 
Rican independence activists assert that Rafael Marrero, active in 
Puerto Rican nationalist organizing for years, is an FBI informant 
who worked to frame Solis. Marrero spoke as the main prosecution 
witness at Solis' trial. Solis has stated that after his arrest, 
the pigs pressured him to inform on others active in the Puerto 
Rican liberation movement in exchange for his freedom.

Responding to the question of why he is being targeted by the u.s. 
government, Solis wrote: "because I represented the possibility of 
critical thinking that tears the mask from the face of 
colonialism. Because my academic publications make colonialism a 
pedagogical issue. Because I will not be silent. Because I will 
not join their efforts to criminalize the struggle, not even if it 
costs me my liberty." MIM Notes and MIM Theory have carried pages 
of explanation and debate on this point: it is not necessary to 
commit a crime as defined by Amerika, it is not necessary to take 
up armed struggle against Amerika to be locked behind bars in this 
country's prisons. This is not a free country as the hundred-plus 
years' u.$. occupation of Puerto Rico, the history of COINTELPROs 
and the existence of political prisoners plainly show. To raise 
genuine opposition to u.$. imperialism is sufficient justification 
for being put in prison, in the protocols of the criminal 
INjustice system.

Fight winnable battles

In December, 1998, Puerto Ricans were offered a sham vote -- 
choosing among the options of current territorial status under the 
U.$., "free association" under a treaty with the u.s. government, 
independence, statehood, and none of the above. National self-
determination in the form of liberation from u.$. occupation is an 
option that Amerika denies Puerto Ricans -- with life terms in 
prison for those who work for liberation if necessary, and with 
terms of release that seek to discredit the movement for national 
liberation if possible.

MIM supports all peaceful and armed efforts of the Puerto Rican 
patriots against the U.$. government. That is what all Marxist-
Leninist-Maoists must do to uphold the right of self-determination 
in Puerto Rico. At root in this age of imperialism, the Puerto 
Rican people are entitled to fight any way they choose. Some will 
fight better than others, but we must uphold the rights of all 
Puerto Ricans to fight for their independence. All Puerto Rican 
patriots are our friends.

MIM joins with the brothers and sisters in the u.$. prisons and 
with all those working for their release in educating young people 
and anti-imperialist activists on the history of u.$. occupation 
of Puerto Rico. Because Amerika is working so boldly in 
contradiction to its own claims of democracy, it is possible to 
turn non-revolutionary people in this country against continued 
imprisonment of the POWs. We do this work in the context of 
building independent institutions of the oppressed, like MIM 
Notes, that are our means of educating and organizing for broader 
anti-imperialist and revolutionary struggle.

Notes:

1. Boston Globe 22 August 1999, p.A1.
2. San Jose Mercury News, 12 Aug. 1999.
3. MIM Notes 162, 15 May, 1998.
4. To see how the FBI succeeded in destroying many organizations 
that had strong popular support, order a copy of Agents of 
Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party 
and American Indian Movement, by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander 
Wall from MIM for $20.
5. For more on MIM's line on Puerto Rican national liberation, see 
MIM Notes 161, 1 May, 1998. Available from MIM for $2, and free on 
our website. Or see our Boricua page: http://www.geocities.com/ 
CapitolHill/Senate/5973/boricua.html