 |
| Rally in San Juan in honor of Filiberto. |
Los Macheteros is an exemplary work of
journalism. Ronald Fernandez immersed himself in investigating what was to
become the largest bank robbery in the U.S. In doing so, Fernandez unknowingly
discovered the radicals behind the bank robbery, the illegal battle being waged
by the FBI against them, and the historical, political and culture battle at the
center of the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. The book isn’t just about
how a poor, low paid Well’s Fargo security guard, Victor Manuel Gerena Ortiz,
expertly stole $7 million, but how Victor’s act was part of a larger guerrilla
battle being waged in Puerto Rico against American colonialism. Fernandez’
quest to understand the guerrilla movement led him to the jungles of Puerto
Rico. By doing this he was able to prove his credentials and was later
introduced to militants of Los Macheteros, but not in Puerto Rico, instead
right in his hometown of Hartford, CT, in the belly of the beast. Los Macheteros captures the instant when
the struggle for Puerto Rican independence was forced into the national
political discussion. More telling, however, Los Macheteros encapsulates
the struggle being waged for a free Puerto Rico and its abilty to withstand the test of time and repression.
On
September 12th, 1983 Well’s Fargo employee, Victor Gerena, forced
his coworkers to put hoods over their heads and bound them together. “To
oversee $30 million in West Hartford, the company paid $4.75 an hour.” (p. 3). What
followed would lead FBI detectives into a three-decade long chase for the
conspirers. Fernandez captures how the FBI refused to believe that a 25 year
old Puerto Rican could successfully pull off a bank robbery. In fact, according
to attorney Michael Graham, the FBI had nothing else to do but to “declare war
on an innocent family” who in reality did not know anything about Victor’s
whereabouts, even less, about the secretly planned robbery (41). September 12th
happens to also be the birthday of the founder of the Puerto Rican independence
movement, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, a fact that would later become an integral
part to linking Los Macheteros to the robbery. But who were Los Macheteros? And
why were they targeting a bank in Hartford, Connecticut? Los Macheteros, also
known as Ejercito Popular Boricua,
were the successors to the Fuerzas
Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquenas (FALN), a paramilitary group
founded by the late Filiberto Ojeda Rios, whose strategy for independence was
to attack symbols of American dominance in Puerto Rico. Fernandez sums up the
struggle the militant group faced:
Los Macheteros were up against eighty-eight years of
American dominance and, as if that wasn’t a challenge enough, they were seeking
to establish a sense of pride in youngsters who had never been to the
island…what the group offered was self-esteem via participation in a meaningful
movement. And to kids exposed to prejudice, kids called “spics”, Los Macheteros
offered a way to fight back. (p107)
West Hartford was home to a large population
of Puerto Ricans, the majority of which migrated from New York City to work in
the Tabaco Industry. However, after the collapse of that industry in the early
1970’s, the living situation for most Puerto Ricans declined, most either
returned to New York City or took up low paying and unstable jobs in West
Hartford’s service sector. This fact would prove to make the initial
investigation on Victor’s whereabouts difficult, as the majority of Puerto
Rican’s in West Hartford overwhelmingly supported his actions. In fact, it
wasn’t until Victor Gerena began writing letters to the local papers that the
police began to broaden the scope of their investigation and reach out to the FBI
in Puerto Rico.
 |
| Student's of the UPR protesting against attempts to raise tuition and police presence on campus. |
Fernandez
chronicles the battles between the FBI and Los Macheteros in Puerto Rico prior
to the 1983 bank robbery. In fact, Los Macheteros had already robbed a smaller
amount of money from Well’s Fargo several years earlier in the island. The confrontation between the police and Los
Macheteros were cemented after the massacre of Cerro Maravilla in July 25th,
1978. The massacre took place after two independistas surrendered during an
attempt to blow up a communications tower. This further proved to militant
independistas the need to have an efficient and disciplined revolutionary
military unit. The main act of violence carried out by Los Macheteros, which
started the hunt against them was the December 17th, 1979 ambush of
a Navy bus in Sebana Seca, which resulted in the killing of two U.S. sailors.
The battle between the U.S. and the Puerto Rican government took the
conventional form of arms fighting, but also entailed a super active counterintelligence
operation against Los Macheteros and anyone who was deemed to be “too radical”,
as was the case with Carlos Noya Murati. Carlos was a prominent member of the
leftwing Puerto Rican Socialist League, and after being wrongly subpoenaed, he
twice refused to take an oath of allegiance to a country he did not recognize,
resulting in jail time. Los Macheteros, like other Latin American guerrilla
movements have a Maoist ideological background. However, they’re to be
differentiated from guerrilla groups like Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces
(FARC) whose origins arise from that country’s lack of an agrarian reform and
whose founders were firm Marxist believers.
In the case of Los Macheteros, the struggle is less about an economic
model, and more about the struggle for an independent nation in an “occupied”
country. Thus, Los Macheteros also fought to preserve a Puerto Rican identity
and culture, a fact that Fernandez’ paints elegantly. In West Hartford, several
months after the robbery the group sent hundreds of toys to be distributed to
children in the Puerto Rican communities during the celebration of Los Reyes
Magos, usually a week after the new year. Not only were Los Macheteros trying
to win sympathy, but also they were invigorating their claims to be an
organization fighting to protect a Puerto Rican identity. An identity they felt
has always been under attack. Under this same light, Victor Genera began
sending teasing letters to Hartford detectives, under the
more Latin American name, Victor Manuel Gerena Ortiz. His letters included
messages of solidarity to the Puerto Rican community and to the Latino
community in general.
Victor Gerena
received a decent share of support in Hartford after his daring robbery.
Nonetheless, Los Macheteros as an organization did not share the same similar
support. Fernandez argues part of the problem, historically, has been the
inability of the independistas to connect the two issues of an impoverished
state and the islands status as a colony. In other words, economic issues like
unemployment or crime were not treated as part of the broad problem of being a
colony whose identity culturally and economically speaking has been tied to
interests from the north. In a survey quoted by Fernandez, 51% of Puerto Ricans
viewed Los Macheteros as a terrorist organization whose goals and actions are
unacceptable (p236). This is part of the
reason why Los Macheteros remain such a clandestine organization. Another
reason why they also remain marginalized is the ferocity for which the U.S. has
pursued nationalists. Fernandez outlines head of the CIA J. Edgar Hoover view
in the 1960’s:
Hoover suggested that, to undermine the dangerous
current of nationalism, the following tactics be employed: the use of
informants to disrupt the movement and create dissension within the groups…the use
of handwritten letters to plant the seeds of suspicion between various
factions…the use of anonymous mailings concerning Puerto Rico’s relationship
with the U.S. to be sent to subjects within the independence movement who might
be psychologically affect by such information…(157).
The U.S. has always been wary of
nationalist figures; especially those that seek to organize in the states. Which
is why the fact that Victor Gerena still remains at large, (presumably in Cuba)
is an alarming one for the authority’s image. Since the killing of Filiberto
Ojeda Rios in 2005, and the 1999 pardoning by President Bill Clinton of various
machetero militants Los Macheteros as an organization have been virtually
silent.
The
struggle for a free Puerto Rico has taken up several of fronts, from political
parties, to mass militant parties and to underground guerrilla organizations.
The ideas of freedom, that is, to be identified as a Puerto Rican, and to make
decisions for Puerto Rico, based on the will of its citizens, will forever
foment the idea of independence. In the last decade we have seen Puerto Rico in
deep class struggle, in the front lines are the Puerto Rican Teacher’s
Federation (FMPR) and the students of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR).
Sadly, Ronald Fernandez is no longer here with us to be able to chronicle the
ongoing struggles being waged in Puerto Rico and it’s consequences
and actions of solidarity here in the states.
Bibliography:
Fernandez, Ronald. Los Macheteros: The Wells Fargo
Robbery and the Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence. New York: Prentice
Hall Press, 1987, Print.
