Filiberto Ojeda Ríos
| Filiberto Ojeda Ríos | |
|---|---|
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos
|
|
| Born |
April 26, 1933 Naguabo, Puerto Rico |
| Died | September 23, 2005 (aged 72) Hormigueros, Puerto Rico |
| Nationality |
Puerto Rican 
|
| Known for |
Leader of the Macheteros |
Leader of the Macheteros
Founder of FALN
Founder of MIRA
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 – September 23, 2005) was the commander-in-chief ("Responsable General") of the Boricua Popular Army (Ejército Popular Boricua, a.k.a., Los Macheteros). According to an unsigned article in the Los Angeles Times, Los Macheteros was “a terrorist group seeking Puerto Rico's independence.” The group campaigned for, and supported, the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. In 2001, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh claimed the group was linked to acts of terrorism, but Ronald Fernandez, scholar of Puerto Rican history, suggests such labeling was an act of political convenience by the United States Government, intended to "shift the blame for any attacks on U.S. policy or personnel from us to them". Ríos was also a founder of the FALN. In a 1983 New York Times article, Robert McFadden described the FALN as a Puerto Rican terrorist organization responsible for bombings during the 1970s and early 1980s "in the name of Puerto Rican independence".
Ojeda Ríos was a fugitive from 1990 to 2005, wanted by the FBI for his role in the 1983 Wells Fargo depot robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, as well as a bail bond default on 23 September 1990, a date that coincided with the anniversary of the Puerto Rican pro-independence uprising known as El Grito de Lares. On this date in 2005, he was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house where he was living in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico in order to serve an arrest warrant. The FBI operation was questioned by local Puerto Rican authorities as well as international organizations.
...
Wikipedia