Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña


The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional was a Puerto Rican clandestine paramilitary organization that, through direct action, advocated complete independence for Puerto Rico. It carried out more than 130 bomb attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1983, including a 1975 bombing of the Fraunces Tavern in New York City that killed four people.
The FALN was led by Filiberto Ojeda Ríos and served as the predecessor of the Boricua Popular Army. Several of the organization's members were arrested and convicted for conspiracy to commit robbery and for firearms and explosives violations. On August 11, 1999 United States President Bill Clinton offered clemency to sixteen of the convicted militants under the condition that they renounce any kind of violent manifestation. This decision drew criticism towards the Clinton administration from figures including the Office of the United States Attorney, the FBI, and the United States Congress.

History

The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional was founded in the 1960s under the leadership of Filiberto Ojeda Rios. They were one of several organizations established during this decade that promoted "clandestine armed struggles" against the United States government that the movement described as the "colonial forces of the United States". The group was founded following decades of alleged harassment, attacks, illegal imprisonments and assassination against members of the Puerto Rican independence movement. The group was part of a movement that included other clandestine organizations, including the Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado, Organización de Voluntarios por la Revolución Puertorriqueña and Los Comandos Armados de Liberación, and served as predecessor for what would become the Boricua Popular Army. The organization's intention was to draw attention to what they described as the "colonial condition" of Puerto Rico through armed action against the United States government and military.
The modus operandi of the FALN was to perform bombing and incendiary actions and then admit responsibility through press releases. The first of these news releases announced the group's intention; in this document they admitted responsibility for attacks on several locations in New York to weaken the "Yanki capitalist monopoly", and demanded the release of five political prisoners, these were: Lolita Lebrón, Oscar Collazo, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa and Irvin Flores. In this communique the organization warns that they had opened two fronts, in Puerto Rico and the United States respectively, the goal of these were to organize a People's Revolutionary Army which they expected would "rid Puerto Rico of Yanki colonialism". Both fronts were supported and maintained by allies within Puerto Rico and North America.

FALN Pardons of 1999

On August 11, 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered conditional clemency to sixteen members of the FALN convicted for conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations. None of the sixteen were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, and all of the sixteen had served nineteen 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 Archbishop 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, and members of Congress. Hillary Clinton in her campaign for Senator also criticised the commutation, although she had earlier been supportive.
The activist Oscar López Rivera rejected the 1999 Clinton pardon. U.S. president Barack Obama later commuted his sentence, and López Rivera was released in May 2017, after 36 years in prison. He had been incarcerated longer than any other member of the FALN.

Incidents

DateDescriptionReference
1950-31-10October 31, 1950Failed coup and assasination attempt on then governor Luis Muñoz Marín
1974-26-10October 26, 1974NYC FALN's 5 bombs in Manhattan, the largest in the Financial District.
1974-12-11December 11, 1974Angel 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 in New York City.
1975-1-24January 24, 1975FALN, through their Communique No. 3, claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four people and injuring more than 50. No one was ever charged with the bombing.
1975-4-3April 3, 1975FALN 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.
1977-6-4June 4, 1977FALN set off a bomb on the fifth floor of the Cook County Building in Chicago. The explosion occurred near the offices of Acting Mayor Michael Bilandic and of George Dunne, the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. It was Saturday, and no one was in either office. Although 250 election judges were attending a meeting on the fourth floor no one was harmed.
1977-8-3August 3, 1977FALN 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, 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. 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 Haydée Beltrán 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 Lopez Rivera, thirty-four, on conspiracy and a "variety of explosive related charges."
1977-8-8August 8, 1977A bomb attributed to FALN was found in the American Metal Climax building in New York City.
1977-6-9June 9, 1979FALN exploded a bomb outside of Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.
October 17, 1979FALN sets off a bomb on the fifth floor of the Cook County Building in downtown Chicago. A second bomb is disarmed about a block away. No one is injured or killed in the attack.
1977-3-15March 15, 1980Armed 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.

Known group members