The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and the United States in the Twentieth Century 0275952266, 9780275952266

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The Disenchanted Island

The Disenchanted Island Beco RIGCOAND THE UNITED STATES PN SEES Vibe LES eisBING)Rave Seuenvl Edition

Ronald Fernandez Foreword by William M. Kunstler and Ronald L. Kuby

PRAEGER

London

Westport, Connecticut

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fernandez, Ronald.

The disenchanted island : Puerto Rico and the United States in the

twentieth century / Ronald Fernandez : foreword by William M. Kunstler and Ronald L. Kuby.—2nd ed. 2 Cnn Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-95226-6 (hardcover : alk. paper).—ISBN 0-275-95227-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Relations—Puerto Rico. Relations—United States. I. Title. E183.8.P9F47 1996 303.48'27307295—dc20 9540087

2. Puerto Rico—

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 1996 by Ronald Fernandez All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-40087 ISBN: 0-275-95226-6 0-275-95227-4 (pbk.)

First published in 1996 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

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Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). LORS Says

5 453.24

a mi hermano, Luis Nieves Falcon

Contents

Foreword by William M. Kunstler and Ronald L. Kuby Acknowledgments Puerto Rico: Prostrate and Paralyzed San Juan and Washington, Ponce and Boston Puerto Rico: The Permanent Possession King Monty

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Revolution and Reaction

109

Prisoners of War

157

Absolutely Clear

165

Stink Bombs and Heart Attacks

201

Continued Colonialism

229

Epilogue

269

Selected Bibliography

271

Index

273

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Foreword On August 25, 1989, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, acting as his own attorney, gave his closing argument to the jury in a U.S. court in San Juan. The indictment, drawn in the name of the United States of America, charged

that Ojeda Rios had shot at and assaulted agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecutor had been appointed by President Reagan, the judge by President Carter, and the American flag stood in the courtroom, but the jury was Puerto Rican. Far from denying his actions, Ojeda Rios embraced them, and asked the jury to uphold the right of the Puerto Rican people to use force, in self-defense, against the unwanted, foreign presence of the United States of America. Said Ojeda Rios: You heard several members [of the FBI] tell you how much they feared for their lives when they heard shots. They, who came attacking, shooting, breaking down doors, shattering windows. ... They, with all their experience as members of a unit that specializes in assault operations, say that they were afraid. And I, alone with my wife, listening to their screams and deafening blows, their shots, their

battering and destruction... ,[they] in their war uniforms with their weapons and painted faces—I was not supposed to fear for my life. | was not supposed to do anything to defend my wife’s life, or my own. This is typical of oppressors. The oppressed are never supposed to think and act according to our own human

nature, because for them, we are not human!

And much less should we, according to their mentality ... have the audacity to prevent their abuses, attacks, and assassinations.

In concluding, Ojeda Rios told the members of the jury that he placed absolute trust in them, their moral valor, and their sense of justice. He

x

Foreword

told them that their decision would define what it means for “the more than century-old struggle of us Puerto Ricans seeking our Puerto Rican identity. What matters, above all, is that you do justice for this Puerto Rican homeland. You can judge me. History will judge us all.” Just a few hours later, the jury unanimously found Ojeda Rios innocent of all charges, including even illegal possession of weapons. It was the first time in the history of federal prosecutions that a defendant successfully claimed self-defense after shooting at agents of the FBI. The verdict has not changed the course of Puerto Rican history as much as ratified it. It was one thing for Ojeda Rios, a radical independentista advocate with a deep admiration for the Cuban Revolution, to preach the doctrine of armed resistance to the United States. But how could twelve citizens of Puerto Rico, drawn at random, the beneficiaries

of a U.S. cultural, political, and economic presence, agree with him? In this eminently readable work of history, Ronald Fernandez provides detailed and complex answers to this question. Fernandez meticulously documents the evolution of American colonialism in Puerto Rico, mercilessly exposing the lies, cynicism, economic pretensions, racism, and

denial of democratic rights that have so often characterized American domination over Puerto Rico. From the conquest of Puerto Rico as a spoil of war in 1898, through the current continued suppression of its independence movement, the actual wishes of the Puerto Rican people remain irrelevant to American planners. Whenever Puerto Rican wishes have threatened to become an obstacle to American

political or economic

interests, the FBI has gone to work

with ruthless and sometimes murderous efficiency. The FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO

operation, designed to disrupt, misdirect, and neutralize

legitimate opposition groups, targeted all of Puerto Rico’s independence leaders and advocates. One of Fernandez’s most original and fascinating contributions is his uncovering of a previously-secret Carter administration review of the FBI’s operations in Puerto Rico. The review confirmed what independence activists and civil libertarians had known for decades—that the FBI had conducted extensive and prolonged ‘‘dirty tricks” operations against legal, nonviolent political groups in Puerto Rico. The Carter review concluded that ‘the entire record leaves the United States highly vulnerable to an attack by both independence parties. ...The U.S. has repeatedly and pridefully declared its policy on political status to be that of selfdetermination. Yet here is a record of a decade of hanky-panky. ... What is not acceptable is a campaign of disruption of what functioned as a legally constituted party.’’ The results of the review were immediately suppressed and the Carter administration, like its predecessors and successors, again made the requisite annual trip to the United Nations to

Foreword

x1

“pridefully declare” that the Puerto Rican people had freely chosen their status in a democratic manner. There are no American heroes in this book, nor is there a happy ending. Yet it is imperative for Americans to know our own contribution to the perpetuation of colonialism, particulary as some prepare to celebrate Columbus Day 1992. When the sun rises on October 12, 1992, marking 500 years of colonialism, Americans would do well to take a look at

Puerto Rico and the destruction wrought there in the name of ‘‘democracy.”” The island today has a per-capita income of one-half that of Mississippi, the poorest state in the United States. Its rates of suicide, mental illness, drug addiction, crime, alcoholism, and sterilization of women are

among the highest in the world. The land, water, and air are polluted by multinational corporations to which U.S. environmental and labor laws frequently do not apply. U.S. military bases occupy 13 percent of Puerto Rico’s land, including the beautiful island of Vieques, used by the Air Force as a practice bombing range. The people of Puerto Rico are governed less democratically now than they were a century ago under the crumbling Spanish empire. Tragically, eighteen Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war are incarcerated in U.S. prisons, for long terms and under barbarous conditions, for fighting for the freedom of their homeland.

As lawyers, we have been both proud and privileged to have represented some of these defendants in politically motivated criminal trials. We have witnessed, at first hand, their anguish over the colonization of their native land and their determination to see their country become what it ought to be—a free and independent nation. To attain this goal, they—like the rebellious American colonists in 1776—have been willing to risk ‘‘[their] lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor.”’ Mr. Fernandez’s book superbly documents the background of their struggle and provides an indispensable tool for understanding the justness of their cause. We hope that it gains the widest currency possible. William M. Kunstler Ronald L. Kuby

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