By Manuel Ernesto Rivera / The Associated Press
February 11, 2009
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/politica/noticias/hilton_fernandez_dice_que_el_fbi_lo_investiga/531165

Today, Machetero leader Hilton Fernández denounced the fact that two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents went yesterday to the place he lives in Trujillo Alto, and told a security guard that they are investigating him.

“We denounce the FBI’s presence in our community as an attempt to intimidate and paralyze the work of the Avelino González Claudio Defense Committee,” said Fernández, who was accused along with González Claudio of the theft of millions of dollars from a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Connecticut in 1982.

Today Fernández went to the federal building and had lunch in the cafeteria, “to make it crystal clear, with our presence here, that the FBI and its repressive agencies are not going to intimidate our community or the compañeros and collaborators and volunteers working on the defense of compañero González Claudio.

“They went to my community, which is a (housing) cooperative. Since the 80′s, they haven’t been around persecuting me. I am the political spokesperson of the Committee of Family and Friends of Avelino González Claudio, who was arrested exactly one year ago,” he said at an improvised press conference, under a tarp where the media gathered in front of the federal court.

The Associated Press made unsuccessful attempts to get a reaction from the FBI. Two voicemails left on the cell phone of the agency’s spokesperson and at this office were not immediately answered.

The independentist leader, who served a little more than three years in prison for charges related to the theft, associated the FBI agents’ visit with the expected arrival of González Claudio’s attorney, Jim Bergenn, to begin preparing his defense.

González Claudio, who federal authorities also connect with the Boricua Popular Army, known as The Macheteros, was arrested February 7, 2008, in Manatí and held without bail in Guaynabo. He was later transferred to a maximum-security prison in Hartford. He had been a fugitive since 1985.

According to Fernández, the security guard at the housing cooperative wrote a report about the two FBI agents’ visit, one of whom was identified as Pacheco.

He stated that the guard told the two agents that Fernández is a “serious and calm” man, and, according to his report, the agents responded: “You better believe that this is a serious matter, and a serious investigation, more serious than you might believe.”

“It seems to me that the object is to intimidate our community, intimidate the administration of the cooperative with the purpose of affecting our preparation (for González Claudio’s defense),” he pointed out.

The Associated Press contacted the housing cooperative, but the administrator was not in her office at the moment, according to her secretary.

The FBI considers The Macheteros to be a terrorist organization. However, the Puerto Rican independence movement has for decades accused the United States of political persecution.

By Eugenio Hopgood
April 9, 2008

http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/puertoricohoy/noticias/caso_cerrado/389412

Attorney General Roberto Sánchez Ramos revealed today that scientific evidence compiled by the Institute of Forensic Sciences in the death of Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos shows that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent who fired the fatal shot lied when he justified his act.

Regardless, Sánchez Ramos indicated in an extensive presentation that the Department of Justice closed its investigation because it lacks sufficient evidence to accuse the federal agents of criminal charges to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

He said he would ask federal congressional representatives of pertinent committees to initiate a legislative investigation into the death, and urged resident commissioner Luis Fortuño to join these efforts to shed light on the facts, once and for all.

The evidence compiled by the IFS determined that the agent identified by the pseudonym “Bryan” could not have seen Ojeda Ríos, as affirmed by the investigators of the Office of Investigator General (OIG) due to the conditions of visibility of the window, located 19′ feet away, during dusk on September 23, 2005.

“Bryan” told that federal office that he fired because he could see Ojeda Rí­os pointing a gun at him from inside the residence.

Sánchez Ramos maintained that the FBI’s rules for the use of deadly force prohibit an agent from shooting through a closed door; and that he understood that shooting through a window through which there was no view to the inside of the home would also violate those rules.

It was established that the trajectory of the bullet first pierced the refrigerator before hitting Ojeda Ríos’ body.

On the other hand, pathologist Francisco Cortés reported that the IFS estimated that Ojeda Ríos lasted 15 to 30 minutes before bleeding to death after having been shot.

Sánchez Ramos made the reservation that various experts had different opinions, some of whom said it took considerably longer for him to die.

The Attorney General indicated that they did consider the possibility of bringing charges of manslaughter against the federal agents, under the premise that Ojeda Rí­os bleed to death due to the fact that he was not provided medical assistance in time.

Nonetheless, said the official, they didn’t make the accusations due to the fact that they could not establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that such an intervention would necessarily have saved the life of the Machetero leader.

Northern Correctional Institution
287 Bilton Road,
POB 665
Somers, CT 06071