From: ez007856@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Puerto Rico:Political Prisoners(2)
Date: 15 Aug 92 19:13:47 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

In <1473800264@igc.apc.org> the "Human Rights Coordinator" posts an article:
from Proyecto Caribeno de Justicia y Paz <caribdoc>

>PLACE OF IMPRISONMENT

>[Excerpt]

>Isolation from family and the pliitcal community of support has been
>a prime weapon used against these men and women. In spite of explicit
>federal regulations mandating that prisoners be placed in prisons as close
>to their homes as possible, the U.S places the Puerto Rican political
>prisoners in prisons as far away from their homes as possible.

Again some facts are concealed in this piece of propaganda:

1) Most of These political criminals (the "machete wielding men") were 
convicted for robbing banks, firing bazookas against federal office buildings, 
and belonging to underground organizations which killed two naval officers in 
an ambush (with AK 47's) on a bus carrying unarmed naval communications 
personell in a base near Sabana Seca Puerto Rico.  All of these odious crimes 
are FEDERAL crimes and fall within Federal jusrisdiction, and cannot be tried 
in local state courts in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

2) There are no Federal Penitentiaries in Puerto Rico.  Hence, they cannot be 
imprisoned in the island but rather in Federal Penitentiaries in the U.S. If it 
were possible to house them in the inhumane Puerto Rican prisons wich 
constantly operate under heavy fines from the Federal Government for violating 
the civil rights of the prisoners jailed withing, where 80% of the penal 
population is HIV positive and everyone is armed with homemade weapons, I would 
be the first to support this.  But, such transfer into these Kentucky Fried 
chain gangs would convey a violation of their civil rights, and the Federal 
government cannot dump these prisoners in local Puerto Rican hellholes in their 
"own country", for they would soon sue the Federal Government, as have done 
other druck traffickers under federal jurisdiction which have been incarcerated 
in State "prisons". 

>For years the United States has basically banished indepedence activists,
>taking those convicted of pro-independence activity from their country and
>forcing service of prison sentences inside the U.S., as it did with Don
>Pedro Albizu Campos and other Nationalist Party leaders, 

Again, if Puerto Rico were to operate a Federal penitentiary from the 100 x 35 
mile island Albizu would have been imprisoned down there.  Like the new 
political terrorists Albizu was not imprisoned for struggling for the 
independence of Puerto Rico (much of which he did with eloquence and honor) but 
for conspiring and carrying out armed attacks to kill the governor of Puerto 
Rico, assasinate the then chief of police, participate in an armed 
"insurrections" (of only a few nationalists), carry out assasination attemps 
against the President of the United States, etc.  Let it be very clear, that 
although Albizu led a noble cause (the independence of Puerto Rico) his methods 
were not precisely those of Ghandi.  Albizu and company were not followers of 
tactics of "civil disobedience" but rather promulgators of an armed civil 
insurrection, ignoring the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Puerto 
Rican population, and have been massively rejected by ALL sectors of Puerto 
Rican society in the ballot box.

>do with Pablo Marcano Garcia and Nydia Cuevas, and with Angel Rodriguez
>Cristobal and his fellow Vieques protestors. The most recent example is the
>August 30, 1985 arrest in Puerto Rico of eleven activists, who were
>transported out of their country by the U.S. military before they could go
>forward on a hearing for bond scheduled to be heard in their own country,
>and who were then held in U.S. prisons, some for as long as three years,
>before beind admited to bail.

This excerpt must be examinied closely.  First, notice how the word "country" 
is used.  Puerto Rico is not another "country" in the political and legal sense 
of the word.  The U.S. Constitution and its laws are the Supreme law of the 
land under its territorial relationship with the U.S. which was ratified in 
1952 and 1967 by the overwhelming majority of the People of Puerto Rico, and by 
the U.S. Congress.  Puerto Rico, in this sense, is an extension of the United 
States.  So, legally they have not been tried in another "country".  

Leaving legalisms aside, if one considers the word "country" in its ethnic 
sense (national ethos), the case plea is far worse.  For these individuals 
robbed armored cars in the vecinity of non other than Hartford Conneticut, not 
San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was in this other "country" where they were tried 
since the crime was commited there, and not in Puerto Rico.  So considering 
"country" in this sense, they were tried in the "foreign" "country" in which 
they commited their non political crimes and not in their "own" country.  

I know of no "country" in the world which tries their nationals for crimes 
commited in another country.  In fact the country in which the actus delicti 
happened usually files for extradition, even if he is a foreigner (e.g., Pablo 
Escobar).  Hence, all this talk about being dragged away from their "country" 
and given a trial in "faraway lands" (where they happed to have willfully 
ambushed an armored car) is nonsense.  Moreover, the lands were so close, they 
they were able to plan the largest armored car heist in U.S. history, which 
happened all but hours away from the courthouse in which they were tried, where 
some of them freely admitted to their guilt (in spite of threats and acusation 
of "treason" from their former comrades).


>Prison officials also make assignments to prison to intentionally distance
>the prisoner under sentence from their families in the U.S. Adolfo Matos,
>whose family lives in New York, is in a prison thousands of miles away in
>southern California, although there is prison only a few hours drive from
>New York, where several of his comrades are imprisoned.

As you may see here's a fellow who's from NEW YORK and was not dragged out of 
his "country" and given a trial in Puerto Rico.  In any event, assuming there 
are no other federal regulations involved (i.e., not having former conspirators 
in a same prison).  I support in principle the plea of asking federal 
authorities to transfer Mr. Matos to a prison which is closer to his family 
where he can serve the rest of his long sentence close to his relatives, even 
if the prison is overcrowded.  In fact, I am willing to sign any letter which 
requests such transfer, if and only if that is what the only thing the letter 
requests.  

Generally, the problem with these pleas is that they are  tied to all sorts of 
absurd political endorsements.  For example, they assume that the prisoner is 
in jail for his political beliefs and hence should not be in prison, or that 
the convict is a "prisoners of war" in the ongoing fictitious military conflict 
between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, or that the criminal is some sort of 
protagonist of a medieval epic which depicts a struggle for "justice" or 
"liberation".  

If the groups that plea for the civil rights of these prisoners would leave 
out any commitment to supporting the IDEOLOGICAL BELIEFS of the criminals they 
wish to support, I am sure that their case would gain much more support from 
people who are worried about civil right violations in Federal penitentiaries.  
Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Instead, abstract appeals of 
political injustice are targeted to a population which cannot locate Puerto 
Rico on a map and does not kown the details of the case at hand, in order to 
present these fellows as victims and not as victimizers.

In any event, in a spirit of compassion, after reviewing each case 
individually, I would be willing to support pardoning these prisoners once they 
have partially served their sentences for their non-political crimes. In the 
past, having served some time in prison helped them rectify their criminal 
behaviour (c.f. Rafael Cancel Miranda and company).  And have returned to the 
non criminal methods of political struggle.

Edelmiro Salas Gonzalez