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| Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
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Flag of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
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Nationalist Leaders
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| 1935 Río Piedras Massacre | |
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| Location | Río Piedras, Puerto Rico |
| Date | October 24, 1935 |
| Target | Supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party |
| Attack type | School shooting, mass murder, Massacre |
| Deaths | 5 (including 1 police officer) |
The Río Piedras Massacre occurred at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, and involved a confrontation between local police officers and supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party on October 24, 1935. Four partisans of the Nationalist party were killed and one police officer wounded during the shooting.[1]
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In 1931, the United States appointed governor, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. named Dr. Carlos E. Chardón Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico. In 1935, Chardón initiated a project based on the ideas of Luis Muñoz Marín, who at the time was a Senator in the Puerto Rican legislature and member of the Liberal Party of Puerto Rico, as the Reconstruction of Puerto Rico Project. The plan which was within the established criteria of President Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal was well received and became known as "Plan Chardon".[2]
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, believed that Chardón, who had been put in charge of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) by the then U.S. appointed governor Blanton Winship, was being used by the United States to "Americanize" the university with the support of the Liberal Party.[2] On October 20, 1935, in a political meeting which the Nationalist Party held in the town of Maunabo and which was transmitted by radio, Albizu Campos denounced Chardón, the deans and the Liberal Party as traitors, who wanted to convert the university into an "American" propaganda institution.[3]
On October 23, 1935, a group of students at the university began a signature collection campaign with the intention of declaring Albizu Campos "Student Enemy Number One". A protest against the group by the pro-nationalist faction of students in turn denounced Chardón and the Liberal Party as instigators and agents of the United States.[4]
A student assembly was held at the university on Oct. 24, where Albizu Campos was declared "Persona non-grata". Chardón requested that the governor provide and place armed police officers on the grounds of the university in case the situation turned violent. A couple of police officers spotted what they believed to be a suspicious looking automobile and asked the driver Ramón S. Pagán, who was accompanied by his friend Pedro Quiñones, for his license. A fight between the men in the car and the police soon followed which resulted in the death of Pagán and Quiñones. According to the local newspaper "El Mundo" of Oct. 25th, an explosion, followed by gunfire, was heard resulting in the additional deaths of Eduardo Rodríguez Vega and José Santiago Barea.[4]
A witness of the massacre, Isolina Rondón, testified how she saw the police officers shooting at the victims and how she heard one police officer screaming not to let them "escape alive". However, her testimony was ignored and there were no charges raised against the officers. They were instead given a promotion.[5]
The supporters of the Nationalist Party killed during the shooting were[5]:
Among the wounded were:
On February 23, 1936, Colonel Elisha Francis Riggs, a former Colonel in the United States Army and who was at the time the U.S. appointed superior police officer in the island, was considered by the nationalists to be responsible for the massacre. He was assassinated in retaliation by Nationalists Hiram Rosado and Elías Beauchamp, while he was on his way home after attending mass in San Juan's Cathedral. Rosado and Beauchamp were arrested, and summarily executed without a trial at the police headquarters in San Juan, but not before Beauchamp posed solemnly for a news photographer outside and proffered a stiff military salute.[1][6]
One of the results of the assassination of Riggs was that many of the leaders of the Nationalist party were imprisoned and the members of the Puerto Rican independence movement were under greater persecusion then ever. Among the leaders who were arrested were Albizu Campos, Juan Antonio Corretjer, Luis F. Velazquez, Clemente Soto Velez, Erasmo Velazquez, Julio H. Velazquez, Rafael Ortiz Pacheco, Juan Gallardo Santiago, Juan Juarbe Juarbe and Pablo Rosado Ortiz. Ortiz Pacheco fleed to the Dominican Republic. The accusations against them by the United States Government was that they conspired to overthrow the United States Government in the island. The first trial ended in a "hung" jury. The jury of the second trail was made up solely of "Anglo-Americans" and, with the exception of Juarbe Juarbe who was found innocent, found the group of leaders guilty as charged. [7]
The news of the assassination spread throughout the United States and Puerto Rican Senator Luis Muñoz Marín, who was in Washington, D.C. at the time, was asked by Ernest Gruening, a U.S. appointed official who served as Administrator of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration from 1935–1937, to condemn Riggs' assassination. Muñoz Marín refused to do so unless he was allowed to also condemn the United States controlled police for allowing their officers to take justice into their hands such as when they passed judgment upon the nationalists and murdered them without a trial. Gruening, who up to then had been a close friend of Muñoz Marín, joined U.S Senator Millard Tydings in a legislation proposal to grant independence to Puerto Rico with unfavorable economic conditions which in the long run would leave the island in ruins. Even though the measure was seen as favorable to the political parties in Puerto Rico, among them the Liberal Party of Puerto Rico of which Muñoz Marín belonged, Muñoz Marín however, opposed the measure which he considered to be unfavorable to the island and said Bill did not progress.[2]