Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Puerto Rico)
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The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Armed Forces of National Liberation, FALN) was a Puerto Rican clandestine terrorist group that advocated complete independence for Puerto Rico. FALN was responsible for more than 120 bomb attacks on U.S. targets between 1974 and 1983, but is no longer active.
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[edit] Terrorist incidents by FALN
On December 11, 1974, Angel Poggi, a police officer, lost an eye and was permanently disabled by one of FALN's bombs at 336 East 110th Street in East Harlem. It was his first day on the job.
On January 24, 1975 FALN, through their Communique No. 3 claimed responsiblity for the bombing of the Fraunces Tavern, killing four people and injuring more than 50. No one was ever prosecuted for the bombing.
On April 3, 1975, FALN took responsibility for four bombings in New York City, by leaving their Communique No. 4 for the Associated Press at a phone booth. The four bombs went off within a 40 minute period. The first bomb exploded on 51 Madison Avenue, the New York Life Insurance Company. The second bomb exploded on 45 East Forty-Ninth Street, the Bankers Trust Company plaza. The third bomb exploded on 340 Park Avenue South, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company headquarters. The fourth bomb exploded on 5 West Forty-Sixth Street, the Blimpie Base restaurant. At least five people were injured from the bombings.
On August 3, 1977, FALN bombs exploded on the twenty-first floor of 342 Madison Avenue in New York City, which housed Defense Department security personnel, as well as the Mobil Building at 150 East Forty-Second Street. The first attack came at 11:30 when an employee noticed a handbag left on a window sill. He found a clock-like device and alerted fifty co-workers to flee the office. The bomb went off twelve seconds later, blasting the office doors off their hinges, but causing no injuries. An hour later, the Mobil bomb killed Charles Steinberg, twenty-six, a partner in an employment agency in the building, and injuring eight others. The FALN. warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center. One hundred thousand office workers were evacuated in the rain during the afternoon. Eighty more crank calls were received in Brooklyn. On August 4, New York Police announced the arrest for illegal possession of a shotgun, revolver, and one hundred rounds of ammunition of David Perez, twenty-seven. His roommate, Vincent Alba, twenty-six, was also questioned. Marie Haydee Beltran Torres, twenty-two, was charged by federal authorities with the Mobil bombing. A federal grand jury in Chicago on September 7 indicted her husband, Carlos Alberto Torres, twenty-five, and Oscar Rivera, thirty-four, on conspiracy and a “variety of explosive related charges” [1].
On August 8, 1977, A bomb attributed to FALN was found in the AMAX building in New York City [2].
On June 9, 1979, FALN exploded a bomb outside of Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.
On March 15, 1980, armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of Carter-Mondale in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN. On April 5, 11 members of FALN were arrested for attempting to rob an armored truck at Northwestern University; three were linked to the raid on the Carter-Mondale campaign headquarters.
[edit] FALN Pardons of 1999
On August 11, 1999, Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN that set off bombs several times in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations. [3] None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, and all of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House. Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticised by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police [4], members of Congress, and Hillary Clinton in her campaign for Senator. [5]
[edit] Famous group members
| Name | Remarks |
|---|---|
| Antonio Camacho Negron | released from imprisonment by Bill Clinton's clemency |
| Filiberto Ojeda Rios | co-founder former leader (killed by the FBI in late September 2005) |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Mahony, Edmund (1999). Puerto Rican Independence: The Cuban Connection. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut (USA).
- Mahony, Edmund (1999). The Untold Tale Of Victor Gerena. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut (USA).
- Mickolus, Edward F., Todd Sandler, and Jean M. Murdock (1989). International Terrorism in the 1980s: A Chronology of Events – Volume I: 1980-1983. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa (USA).
- Mickolus, Edward F., Todd Sandler, and Jean M. Murdock (1989). International Terrorism in the 1980s: A Chronology of Events – Volume II: 1984-1987. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa (USA).
- Daniel James (1981). Puerto Rican Terrorists Also Threaten Reagan Assassination. Human Events. United States of America.
- Mickolus, Edward F. (1980) Transnational Terrorism: A Chronology of Events 1968 – 1979. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut.
