*The Empire's Attack on Ojeda-Rios and Independence" by Mumia Abu-Jamal
THE EMPIRE'S ATTACK ON OJEDA-RIOS AND INDEPENDENCE
[Col. Writ. 10/6/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The armed agents of Empire attacked the home and
family of the 72-year old revolutionary, shot him, and
left him to bleed to death for hours in his home in
Hormigueros, in the island's mountainous regions.
Dr. Hector Pesquera, president of the Hostosiano
independence movement, nailed it when he said, of the
heavily-armed FBI assault, "They did not come to
arrest Filiberto Ojeda, *they came to kill him*."
Nor was it mere coincidence that the date the FBI
chose to raid the Ojeda home was the island's day of
national historical significance.
Sept. 23rd was the 107th anniversary of "El Grito de
Lares", when thousands of Puerto Ricans annually mark
a day of resistance against the Spanish colonizers.
Today, it remains a colony of the Americans.
By the slaughter of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the issue
of Independence has arisen like a flame within the
hearts of Puerto Ricans.
When word arrived of his assassination, I flashed,
almost immediately, back to Dec. 4, 1969, when Fred
Hampton, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Black
Panther Party chapter in Illinois, and Peoria's Black
Panther Capt. Mark Clark were assassinated in their
home in Chicago.
The FBI was behind those murders also. And just like
that assassination, the government reacted to their
political assassinations with lies.
But, again, the objectives of the Empire was to
extinguish the fires of freedom and independence from
the heart of the nation. If reaction to Ojeda's murder
is any indication, then they have failed miserably.
There are events in the life of a people, that marks
them. That sparks them. That moves their minds and
hearts from acquiescence to resistance.
This may prove just such a moment.
Dylcia Pagan, former Puerto Rican political prisoner,
wrote, within hours of the slaughter:
"What occurred was a political assassination of a
Puerto Rican warrior orchestrated by a US FBI Federal
Task Force. Even the municipality mayor Pedro Garcia
in a radio interview stated that this occurrence was
not a coincidence. The initial strategic firing by the
FBI took place at 3:00 pm; at 6:00 to 6:30pm another
follow-up firing occurred. The president of the Utier
Union, Roberto Santos, that represents the electrical
workers of Puerto Rico, called a major radio station
to inform the Puerto Rican people that he had been
informed by the FBI that all electrical power to the
municipality of Hormigueros would be cut off. It took
two days for all of us to know their justification
which was that they needed to utilize their
[infra]-red
equipment for security measures. Hormigueros has been
under federal seizure for the last four days. All of
the Puerto Rican Press has not been allowed to bring
their cameras into Filiberto's residence ...."
Pagan adds: "In 1898 El Grito de Lares was a fight
against Spanish colonialism. Today in 2005 a new Grito
de Lares emerges against US colonial rule over our
nation, Puerto Rico."
The spirit that led to the assassination of Filiberto
Ojeda Rios is precisely the spirit that led to the
brutal, and illegal invasion and occupation in Iraq.
It is capitalism run wild. It is imperialism in its
nakedness.
It is the spirit that wishes to crush all expressions
of human freedom, while doing so in the name of
"Freedom!"
It is state terrorism, pure and simple, against the
very idea of freedom and true independence.
There is only one real response that can bring
change.
Broad, deep, mobilization of the people against this
neoliberal nightmare.
Resistance.
Resistance.
And More Resistance!
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM: A Life
in the Black Panther Party*, from South End Press
(
http://www.southendpress.org); Ph. #1-800-533-8478.]
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