FBI raids target Puerto Rican independence group
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The FBI raided a business and five homes in Puerto Rico on Friday to prevent what it described as a potential terrorist attack by a militant Puerto Rican independence group.
No arrests were made in the six raids across the island but an FBI statement said its agents were seeking to prevent a terrorist attack and gathering evidence in a continuing investigation.
FBI Special Agent Harry Rodriguez said the searches targeted Puerto Rico's radical Boricua Popular Army, which is known as the Macheteros, or machete-wielders, and has sought independence for the U.S. Caribbean territory.
Ojeda Rios, the 72-year-old founder of the Macheteros, was a fugitive when he was fatally wounded in a shootout with FBI agents in the Hormigueros area of western Puerto Rico in September. His group was blamed for a wave of bombings and killings targeting civilians and military sites in the 1970s and 1980s.
The FBI provided no details about any evidence seized in Friday's raids on six locations in the municipalities of San Juan, Trujillo Alto, San German, Mayaguez, Aguadilla and Isabela.
An altercation between agents and members of the local media broke out during one of the search operations after a reporter started interviewing one of the residents affected.
Reporters complained of having had pepper gas thrown at them but the FBI said that it simply used nonlethal force to prevent reporters and passersby from straying into a potential crime scene.
The FBI said agents were hit by unknown objects as they departed and that some of their vehicles were damaged.
Puerto Rican officials have urged the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ojeda Rios' death and whether he may have survived if he had been given speedy medical attention.
He was shot through the neck and shoulder with a single bullet, the FBI said, and died on the 137th anniversary of a revolt against Spanish military rule in Puerto Rico.
No arrests were made in the six raids across the island but an FBI statement said its agents were seeking to prevent a terrorist attack and gathering evidence in a continuing investigation.
FBI Special Agent Harry Rodriguez said the searches targeted Puerto Rico's radical Boricua Popular Army, which is known as the Macheteros, or machete-wielders, and has sought independence for the U.S. Caribbean territory.
Ojeda Rios, the 72-year-old founder of the Macheteros, was a fugitive when he was fatally wounded in a shootout with FBI agents in the Hormigueros area of western Puerto Rico in September. His group was blamed for a wave of bombings and killings targeting civilians and military sites in the 1970s and 1980s.
The FBI provided no details about any evidence seized in Friday's raids on six locations in the municipalities of San Juan, Trujillo Alto, San German, Mayaguez, Aguadilla and Isabela.
An altercation between agents and members of the local media broke out during one of the search operations after a reporter started interviewing one of the residents affected.
Reporters complained of having had pepper gas thrown at them but the FBI said that it simply used nonlethal force to prevent reporters and passersby from straying into a potential crime scene.
The FBI said agents were hit by unknown objects as they departed and that some of their vehicles were damaged.
Puerto Rican officials have urged the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ojeda Rios' death and whether he may have survived if he had been given speedy medical attention.
He was shot through the neck and shoulder with a single bullet, the FBI said, and died on the 137th anniversary of a revolt against Spanish military rule in Puerto Rico.
posted by Marko at 2/10/2006 07:48:00 PM
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