The new governor of Puerto Rico, a statehood proponent, nominated as chief of police the 2nd in command of the FBI office in Puerto Rico, a man who participated in the assassination of Filiberto and in the violent assault on the nation’s media as they covered an anti independence operation. Attached is the statement Filiberto’s compañera made at the confirmation hearings. He was confirmed.
The Table of Solidarity has gathered on the occasion of the Public Hearings to denounce at this forum the nomination of an FBI agent to be Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police. Various witnesses expressed their rejection of this pretension on the part of the governor-elect of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, naming José Figueroa Sancha as the head of the Puerto Rico police force.
Statement of Elma Beatriz Rosado at the Public Hearings concerning the nomination of an FBI agent as Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police
January 18, 2009
Good afternoon. My name is Elma Beatriz Rosado. I am a woman who struggles for the independence of Puerto Rico, and I come representing myself and the Filiberto Ojeda Ríos Foundation, named after the compañero assassinated by the FBI on September 23, 2005 in Hormigueros. Good afternoon to the court reporters at the Public Hearings into the matter of the nomination of an FBI agent to lead the Puerto Rico Police.
To begin with, I want to denounce the infiltration of an FBI agent, an agent of the government of the United States, into the Puerto Rico Police.
I want to oppose the intervention of the government of the United States into the affairs of Puerto Rican life.
In the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico, we have suffered mistreatment and unending abuse. It is the truth. But it is also true that we have had triumphs which we are proud of, because we have managed to maintain our identity, our culture, and above all, our dignity. We have yet to achieve our freedom, sovereignty and independence. That is why we struggle.
Ours is an asymmetrical fight. The United States maintains an intense control over the Puerto Rican people exerting condemnable actions, day after day. Starting with the colonial condition, which, as imperial power, the United States has maintained over our country, countless rights have been snatched from us, and we have been exposed to humiliations and mistreatment.
We will not accept this any more. The United States must answer for the aggressions and attacks it has committed against our people. The list of these aggressions is far too long.
Today, particularly, I am going to refer to one that touches us very closely. In the name of our people, I want to repeat here the denunciations I presented before the International Workshop held in Havana last December, the tenth of December, about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
We denounce, condemn and repudiate the political assassination, the extrajudicial execution, of
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos by the government of the United States on September 23, 2005, in an operation in which more than 273 FBI agents participated.
We denounce, condemn and repudiate the torture carried out by the United States government on
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos when he was left to bleed to death, actively preventing him from receiving any medical attention.
We denounce the United States government’s politically motivated imprisonment of three Puerto Rican patriots, Carlos Alberto Torres, Oscar López Rivera, and Avelino González Claudio, for their struggle for the liberation of Puerto Rico. Two of them have served 27 and 28 years in prison.
We denounce the constant repression which the government of the United States conducts against those who struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico.
We denounce the nomination of the second in command of the FBI to be Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police, an agent who participated in the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos and who participated for many years in actions against those who struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico. We cannot possibly allow such mercenaries to live among us, and we certainly cannot allow them to try to control our nation, taking posts within the country’s police force to repress us unendingly.
We denounce the colonial condition of Puerto Rico and the illegal presence of the United States on Puerto Rican territory and the state terrorism committed here.
We condemn the government of the United States for its constant aggressions and threats in Puerto Rico, in our sister Republics of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in all nuestra America and every part of the world.
Now, when forces opposed to the Bolivarian revolution meet in Puerto Rico with functionaries of the United States government, they are demonstrating a lack of respect for our country. The United States thinks that it can do here what it cannot do in its own territory. From here, they plan and rehearse their attacks on our sisters and brothers in Latin American and other nations of the world.
And it must stop now!
We cannot allow them to continue isolating us from our Caribbean and Latin American community. The ties that bind us to our brothers and sisters are blood ties, cultural ties, historical ties, natural ties. It is a crime that they try to stop Puerto Ricans from traveling to Cuba, to meet with our Cuban brothers and sisters. The blockade of Cuba—another illegal intervention by the U.S. government— must be lifted. As I speak for Puerto Rican brothers and sisters as Caribbeans and as Latin Americans, I also speak of other U.S. interventions in our surroundings.
We demand that those responsible for the torture and assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos be identified and held responsible, and we demand the immediate and unconditional release of our three Puerto Rican compañeros and brothers unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government. We also demand the immediate and unconditional release of our five Cuban compañeros and brothers unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government.
I want to mention some of the conclusions of the Table of Solidarity:
The nomination of the second in command of the FBI in Puerto Rico exposes the federalization of the Puerto Rican police force.
We denounce, repudiate and condemn that nomination.
We urge the Puerto Rican people to organize to recognize, combat and defend themselves against repression.
We invite the Puerto Rican people to join in activities in solidarity with the compañeros and compañeras who are persecuted for their work for our homeland and for mass repudiation of repressive agencies.
We need only to point out the political assassinations, the persecution of independentistas by way of subversive files. Let us not forget the counterintelligence program which the FBI carried out in Puerto Rico, dividing Puerto Rican families.
FBI, out of the Puerto Rico Police!
FBI, out of Puerto Rico!
Political assassinations must cease!
Repression must end!
FBI, out of Puerto Rico!
Thank you very much.
I would like to add, I want to point out, that the FBI has no legal, moral, ethical or any other authority to justify its presence and intervention into the life of the Puerto Rican people. They are the ones who are illegal. They are the ones who are undocumented.
I would like this tribunal to review just what power the FBI has for being in Puerto Rico, because they are here illegally, and they have to leave.
The intention to humiliate the Puerto Rican people is evident. Is there not a Puerto Rican in the Puerto Rico Police with the capacity to lead the police force? That is a question that should be answered.