{"article":{"id":137860,"heading":"*The Empire's Attack on Ojeda-Rios and Independence"","author":"Mumia Abu-Jamal","created":"2005-10-25 15:57:21","modified":"2005-10-25 15:57:21","last_modified":"Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:57:21","article":"

*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<\/a>); Ph. #1-800-533-8478.]

==============================================>

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

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Support the Anarchist Black Cross Federation: http:\/\/www.abcf.net<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"The September 23rd, 2005 attack and armed assault on\r\nPuerto Rican nationalist, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, left\r\nthe family and his island without his proud and noble\r\npresence, but it did not achieve its real desired\r\nobjective.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/10\/137860.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}