From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Puerto Rico: Political Prisoners (3)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:13:59 GMT

/** reg.puertorico: 28.0 **/
** Topic: Puerto Rico:Political Prisoners (3) **
** Written  6:12 pm  Aug 24, 1992 by caribdoc in cdp:reg.puertorico **
From: Proyecto Caribeno de Justicia y Paz <caribdoc>
Subject: Puerto Rico:Political Prisoners (3)


NOTE: This information was taken from LIBERTAD UPDATE [publication
      of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of
      War], April 18, 1992, p. 4. It was edited.

        Luis Alfredo Colon, member of the Ejercito Popular 
Boricua-Macheteros, was recaptured on March 16, 1992 in Rio Piedras,
Puerto Rico. 

        .....was first arrested on August 30, 1985, along with 14 
other independentistas from across the island. All were accused of 
membership in the PRTP/EPB-Macheteros, a clandestine political
military organization, and with the expropriation of $7.5 million 
from a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Connecticut on September 12, 
1983.

        All were placed on bond awaiting trial. On September 23,
1990, while on bond, both Luis and Filiberto Ojeda Rios [one of the 
persons arrested on August 30, 1985], went into clandestinity. Once
again rejoining the ranks of the EPB-Macheteros.

[His statement to the Court, without edition]

*I, Luis Alfredo Colon Osorio
 Declare and clarify to the press and the people of Puerto Rico in
 general the following:

 I do not recognize U.S. Federal jurisdiction in Puerto Rico, nor 
 the courts imposed on this land by the power of armed force.

 I denounce the cmapaign of lies that the FBI is carrying out in
 relation to my arrest and the supposed control substance they 
 allegedly found on me at the time on my arrest. The enemy practices
 such tacticss in order to tarnish and demoralize the independence
 movement.

 Nevertheless, I declare that the drug problem in this country
 [Puerto Rico] is not, as they allege, the main cause of crime in
 our country. Although I recognize that a great number of people
 in our country, children, to youngsters and adults from all 
 social spheres, use drugs as a form of escape and survival, they
 are not, nor will they ever be, the main cause of our problems.

 The real cause is nothing but the socio-political situation produce
 by a Machiavellian pla directed and orchestrated by the U.S. 
 government in order to sustain a relationship of political control
 over all aspects or our development as a free and sovereign nation.

*Today, before our country and all the countries of the world,
 the U.S. Government is guilty of and responsible for all the deaths
 that occur on a daily basis in our country. 

*I denounce any intent of the FBI to repress, terrorize of pressure
 humble and good Puerto Rican people, such as members of the PNP(2),
 Populares(3), Independentistas and people that are not affiliated 
 with any political party, merely for having given a fellow Puerto
 Rican a plate of rice and beans.

*The only court with the power, the global mandate andd the right to
 judge me is the Hague International Court.

*I have been arrested due to the conflict between the Puerto Rican
 nation and the U.S. Government; therefore I take a stand according
 to the Geneva Convention and claim all the rights that are guaranteed
 to any Prisoner of War.

*Even though this fact is irrefutable, I will not stop using all the
 mechanisms within our reach to defend myself against the injustice
 committed against me, our country and the Independence movement.

*When I was arrested I had a booklet with various phone numbers, that
 included family members and Puerto Ricans friends that have nothing 
 to do with my situation, or my political beliefs.

 And the FBI is going to use this booklet to repress and terrorize
 these good Puerto Rican people. In the booklet I have telephone
 numbers fo doctors, family members, friends and journalists.

*And finally, a greeting to all Puerto Rican people to have faith in
 God. In this slow decolonization process, together with poetry, the
 arts, the guitar and song, with honest day to day practice, and with
 the power of a whole nation in the different trenches of struggle,
 from the legal to armed confrontation, we will achieve results
 desired by all: liberty. And all is done for love.


** End of text from cdp:reg.puertorico **

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