WEBVTT - Where is Victor Gerena? 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.200 One of the most controversial powers the President of the 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.000 United States holds is their ability to pardon or grant 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:17.000 clemency to virtually whomever they choose. There are parameters, of course, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:22.080 pardons only applied to federal crimes. A pardon can't prevent 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.360 an officeholder from being a peach nor can it expunge 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.120 a conviction. In any event, it's a pretty awesome power, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:35.320 one that's been exercised freely. There was George Washington's pardon 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.480 of the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion, President Nixon's commutation 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.720 of Jimmy Hoffa's prison sentence, and of course President Ford's 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:48.440 pardon of President Nixon. The reason I gave the pardon 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:55.160 was not as to Mr Nixon himself. Presidents have pardoned 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.560 draft dodgers and drug dealers. Their actions have been praised 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.560 and criticized. It should be able to be done in 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.920 federal courts across the country. There is actually already wide 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:09.240 consensus that certain kinds of pardons could be considered criminal acts. 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.759 It does not convey any sense of guild or any 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.360 correction to that. It is an old, old power given 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.320 for the purpose of correcting injustice. Former President Bill Clinton 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:24.160 was no exception. In August eleven, Clinton offered clemency to 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.480 more than a dozen Puerto Rican nationalists, including members of 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.240 the f A l En and several of the Macha 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:36.920 Terro's connected to the Wells Fargo heist. It came with conditions, however. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:42.600 The recipients were required to sign a statement renouncing terrorism. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.800 Some had to serve the remainder of a shortened prison sentence, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.640 but still the message was clear. The President believed that 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.800 while the insurgency group's methods at the time may have 0:01:54.840 --> 0:02:00.080 been flawed, their fight was just and freedom, or at 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.240 least a version of it, was hovering right around the 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:10.640 corner previously on White Eagle, the Taro's committing the Wills 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:15.480 far gldhist was one of the biggest mistakes they were made. Fundamentally, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:20.280 the Wells Fargo case was an attempt to criminalize the 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:25.799 Porto Rican Arms Struggle independence movement, but to do so 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.560 in a place where there would not be so many 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.880 sympathizers to that movement. For some foods they were like 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.799 but the men. For others they were heroes and you know, celebrated. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.120 My name is Zem William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalists 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.840 and author of more than forty true crime books. What 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.360 you were about to hear is the true story of 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.880 a heist, one that funded an international independence movement and 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:59.960 sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades. This is white eagle. 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:11.440 Presidential pardons and clemency decisions typically lead behind a rumble 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:16.239 of discontent. President Clinton's decision to grant clemency to twelve 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.960 members of the f A l N and four members 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.560 of the macha Ros left nothing short of an earthquake. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.720 For years, powerful voices on the left, including Coretta Scott King, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.560 former President Jimmy Carter, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had been 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.560 pushing for the move and yet everywhere you look someone 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:41.280 was angry. I believe strongly that the decision the President 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.960 made was the wrong one and may well have some 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.600 terrible impacts down the line. Should we consider the freedom 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.800 of Charles Manson. He wasn't there at the time that 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:57.160 the Lobianco's were stabbed to death, oren Sharon Tate was killed. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:02.400 They're not granting murderers and bombers of other kinds clemency. 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.520 It's only days who claim they're doing something political Unlike 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:12.520 a pardon, which essentially erases a conviction, clemency reduces a 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.560 penalty without clearing the person's criminal history. In this case, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.400 the Macho Terros who had been given a conditional offer 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:25.520 had already served time behind bars. Even with that, Clinton's 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.520 move was unpopular. For one many questioned the timing, which 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.520 was seen as suspicious. I can't tell you who told 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.960 me this, but the story goes like this, Hillary Clinton 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.440 is going to run for state. Here's Hartford current reporter 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.680 Ed Mahoney, and she knows she's gonna lose upstate New York, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:45.800 but if she gets New York City she can win. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.080 She sets up a bunch of meetings with the power 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.719 brokers in New York, and she goes to see this 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.599 guy named Hermann Badillo, who's the Puerto Rican guy who's 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.200 a Democratic Party boss. So she goes over and she 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.040 meets and goes, well, you know, Mrs Clinton, very nice 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.960 to see if I'm looking new for it, because I'm 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.080 gonna run for the Senate and I want to know 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.360 what I can do to get your support this And well, 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.800 we needed a new subway stop at Yankee Stadium, and 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.039 we need this, and we need that and we need 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.240 the Bruckner Boulevard repaved. And she's taken in notes and said, okay, 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.000 well that's good. Well I think we can handle all this. 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.200 And finally some guy who's sitting in the back of 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.479 the room goes, and they want the political prisoners free, 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:30.839 and she goes, what do you who are you? What? 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.120 What do you mean? Political prisoners? And but you know, 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.279 the rest of doo't listen to him. He's nuts. He's 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.520 always look with political prisoners, you know. So who are 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.320 the political prisoners? She says, well, these are the freedom fighters, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.440 you know. But they'll listen to that. There's no way 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.520 anybody's gonna get them out of g Also, don't even 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.599 concern yourself with it. Republicans in particular claim the clemency 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.560 offer was an attempt to boost Hillary clinton Senate run 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.839 in New York, which has a large Puerto Rican population. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.440 In fact, it became such a hot button issue that 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.400 she event truly came out against the move, despite initial 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:07.359 reports claiming she had supported it. The first Lady herself 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.919 complicated matters over the weekend when she said that the 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.280 offer should be rescinded after initially supporting it. That drew 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.440 fire both from Democratic Hispanics, who said that they felt 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.200 that she had abandoned them, and from Republicans who claimed 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.920 the First Lady was using her position to manipulate New 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:28.920 York politics. In her statement condemning the move, Hillary Clinton 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.839 criticized the prisoners for taking too long to formally renounce 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:38.200 violence in exchange for clemency, saying their silence quote speaks volumes. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:43.400 The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn the clemency offers, 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.640 as did the FBI, the U S. Attorney's Office in 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.320 the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A series of hearings in 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.960 the House and Senate were held on the matter, including 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:58.800 one on September one, led by House Oversight Committee Chairman 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.640 Indiana congress Sman Dan Burton. What we want to know 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.160 is why did the President make this decision? What is 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.720 the public benefit? Who advised him on this issue? Was 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:15.080 the FBI consulted the Bureau of Prisons. That's why we're 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.560 holding us hearing today. Over the course of five hours, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.880 dozens of people spoke, including victims and family members of 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.920 victims of the f a l n's attacks in New 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:31.080 York and Chicago. The next. Indiscriminate bombing in this country 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.200 will probably not kill me or anyone else in my family, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.400 but it may harm someone that you all know or love. 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.960 Members of the FBI, not only by their name or 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.760 by their actions, by the crimes they committed. I think 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.160 you could clearly associate the Los Macha Teros with violence 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:55.280 and crime and congressional leadership, including Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.239 who read from a letter he received from President Clinton, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.680 who didn't appear at any of the hearings. The question 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.200 of clemency for these prisoners was a very difficult one. 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.960 I did what I believe equity and fairness dictated. I 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:15.000 certainly understand, however, that other people could review the same 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.320 facts I did and arrive at a different decision. President 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.800 Clinton refused to comply with the subpoena for documents related 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.800 to his decision, though he did share more than a 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.360 thousand letters written on behalf of the prisoners, including some 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:34.480 dating back. He also spoke about it with members of 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:39.560 the White House Press pool. My judgment was that, uh, 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:45.400 these people should be offered a conditional of clemency for 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:51.080 two reasons. One, none of them, even though they belonged 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.120 to an organization which had espoused violent means. None of 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.719 them were convicted of doing any bodily harm to anyone, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:05.239 and two they had all served sentences that were considerably 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.079 longer than they would serve under the sentencing guidelines which 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:13.239 control federal sentencing. Now. Of the sixteen offered clemency, fourteen 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.080 eventually accepted, and eleven were released within a matter of weeks. 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:22.360 Juan Zara accepted the clemency offer. He spoke about it 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.320 in the Last American Colony documentary that am I sorry 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.360 that I decided to fight fight for my country? No, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.040 I'm not. I mean could have done things differently? Yes? 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.959 Absolutely do I now think that violence is not the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.839 means to achieve anything. Absolutely. Yeah, That's a lesson learned 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.200 in life for me. In President Clinton's letter that was 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.719 read by Congressman Waxman during the hearing, jan Cigara's commutation 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.160 was fully explained. I commuted the sentence of one and 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.320 Riki Cigara Palmer so that he would be eligible for 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:00.199 parole after serving nineteen years in prison, consistent at the 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.560 time served by the Chicago petitioners. The timing of my 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.520 decision was dictated by the fact that my former Council 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.199 Charles Ruff, committed to many of those interested in this 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.400 issue that he would console with the Department of Justice 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.760 and make a recommendation to me before he left the 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:23.439 council position. Political considerations played no role in the process. 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.439 President Clinton has always disputed the notion that the commutations 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.000 were tied to any type of political bid. He noted 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.840 that a number of high ranking people asked for the 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.960 move well before he made it, including members of Congress, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.560 Puerto Rican and US church leaders, as well as seventy 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:48.480 five thousand signatures from citizens demanding the prisoner's freedom. As 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.640 for his wife's Senate campaign, which he'd go on to win, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.960 President Clinton was firm with reporters she had no idea 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.840 and the decision to grant clemency was a stun merritt 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.079 nothing else. She didn't know anything about it until, as 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.160 far as I know, until someone from her her office 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:11.400 called and asked her for a comment. Because I did 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.280 not discuss it with her. I haven't discussed other clemency 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.439 issues with or I didn't think I should discuss this one. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.840 So it was up to her and entirely appropriate for 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:22.840 her to say whatever she wanted to about it. But 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.280 I did what I thought was right, and that's what 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:38.320 I'll continue to do. Wanzagara was released from prison in 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.160 two thousand four after serving the remainder of his commuted sentence. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:47.000 He returned to Puerto Rico, where he lives today. Outcomes 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.600 different for other members of the Macha Teros. Of the 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.560 seventeen people indicted in the Wells Fargo case, only ten 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.040 ended up serving time in prison. Three were arrested after 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.320 years on the run, including Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, a senior 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.120 Macheterros leader who the FBI viewed as the group's public 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.640 relations are. After twenty five years, police finally caught up 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.080 with Norberto and Puerto Rico, where he'd been living under 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:20.280 a fake name. Then, of course there's Philiberto Ojeda Rios, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.720 the leader of Los Macheteros. He'd spend the next fourteen 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.640 years on the run, popping up every now and then 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.680 for interviews and to lend his name to communicates. That 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.120 all changed in two thousand five. Civil rights lawyer round Kubi, 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.960 who you heard in the last episode, was part of 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.600 the Macheteros legal team. He doesn't believe for one minute 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.480 the FBI wasn't aware of where Philiberto had disappeared to 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.480 after cutting off his ankle monitor. They insisted that they 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:55.280 had no idea until they came upon his safe house 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.960 through a lot of good luck. But when I would 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.040 go down there, I knew who could give a message 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.839 to to get to Philiberto. So I figured that if 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.000 Frank Koby knows to give a message to Blank and 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.199 it will get to Philiberto, really can the FBI really 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:19.520 not know? On September two thousand five, FBI agents approached 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.360 a farmhouse on a rural hillside in western Puerto Rico. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.240 Inside was the mandate sought for more than a decade, 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:33.319 Filiberto Ojeda Rios. What happened on that day is detailed 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.679 in an FBI after action report, though I should note 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.280 some of the folks I spoke with questioned its accuracy. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.160 According to the report, FBI agents attempted to arrest Philiberto 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.800 just before four pm local time. What followed was quote 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.560 a brief but intense exchange of gunfire between the Macha 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:59.200 terrorist leader and three federal agents, one of whom was 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:04.120 seriously in in the ninety minutes standoff that followed, Philiberto's 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.200 wife surrendered and was arrested without further incident. The Bureau 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.040 said it then engaged in a brief dialogue with Philiberto, 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.880 during which he requested that a member of the press 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:20.680 be made available to him. Shortly after communications ended, then 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.440 at six or eight pm, a refrigerator door inside the 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.800 house was opened and a federal agent spotted Philiberto through 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.840 a window, crouched down with a weapon in one hand. 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.640 The agent then fired three shots, one of which hit 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:41.120 above Philiberto's bulletproof vest. Several people at the scene admitted 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.680 to hearing a loud cry in the sound of a 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.840 person hitting the floor. After that, the agents waited for 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:54.240 eighteen hours, then they moved in. I spent the whole 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.520 night hoping that he had some tunnel and had been 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.240 able to take an know, you know. They kept saying 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.200 that the place was surrounded, and then he hadn't come 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.360 out and said it was only later that we learned 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.400 that they had shot him and just refused to provide 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.560 any kind of medical attention until after he was dead. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.760 De Liberto Ojeda Rios was declared dead at two pm 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:25.200 on September He was seventy two years old, and autopsy 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.560 report revealed he'd actually bled to death the night before, 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.400 a slow and painful process that would have taken anywhere 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.800 from thirty minutes to two hours, meaning if he had 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:42.760 gotten immediate medical care, Filiberto would have survived. Here's retired 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.040 FBI agent Bob Hybel. It was not an execution. I 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.680 guarantee you it was not not the where the bureau works. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.240 Similar to debates over the life Philiberto lived, there was 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.920 discourse over the way he died, and general tells what 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:02.560 happened was extra usial kill. The FBI knew that he 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.680 was living there for at least five years, and they 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:12.280 choose September twenty three, which is the day of the 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.480 Lattice Uprising, which is commemorated by Poo. Independence movement is 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:22.720 important in Puerto Rico, and so the manpower and the 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:30.240 gunpower use against Hiliberto was extraordinary and I think it 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:35.200 wasn't required. In two thousand six, Puerto Rico's Department of 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.280 Justice sued the FBI for information about the raid and 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.920 the bureau's various rates of Macha Tero safe houses. The 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.560 case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:52.440 refused to hear it. A United Nations Committee on Decolonization 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:57.800 also called for an independent investigation into the quote assassination 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.360 of Philiberto o Hey the re es that resolution we 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.040 should know was sponsored by Cuba. The Department of Justice's 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.760 Office of the Inspector General did eventually release the results 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.520 of its own investigation, which cleared the FBI of any wrongdoing. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.919 It states that agents were in imminent danger, that Philiberto 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.800 had readily engaged in a shootout with FBI agents in 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.600 the past, and that there was concerned he'd booby trapped 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.920 his house to prevent entry. I knew that Philiberto managed 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.719 to do something that almost no one managed to do, 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:40.320 which was to survive a shootout with the FBI. One shootout. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.880 But I might know if anybody who survives to shootouts 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:52.159 with the FBI. And while I know the popular narrative 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:59.440 is that he was assassinated I just as a personal matter, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.399 out a political matter, or anything else, I disagree with 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:08.359 that a little bit. He was armed and he was 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.639 shooting back. But this was a shootout, in my view, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.520 between two different groups of soldiers, one of them representing 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:25.240 the occupying colonial authorities treading on occupied soil, and the 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.159 other by a patriot and a freedom fighter who was 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.639 resisting the occupation. Do I think that he wanted to 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:37.440 die with a hole in his lung slowly bleeding out 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.760 because the FBI was too terrified to go into the 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.320 safe house. No, I don't think he wanted to die 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:49.680 precisely that way, but I do think, to quote phil Oakes, 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.440 it was the life of a rebel. He lived in 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:58.439 a rebel's life. He died. Philiberto was considered many things. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.600 To some he was a hero, a rebel, an artist, 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.199 and a patriot. To others, he was a terrorist and 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.600 a foreign agent. During the course of my research, I've 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.600 seen him compared to the likes of Dr Martin Luther 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.919 King Jr. Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and of course the 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:23.399 del Castro. He was a truly, truly dedicated person. He 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.879 was a patriot in his own view. He was single minded. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.159 He wasn't allowed to have a family, he couldn't live 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.840 with his children. He sacrificed his entire life for a cause. 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:39.199 It's kind of a remarkable thing. Feliverto remembered as a fighter, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.560 also a musician, a lover of Puerto Rico, a lover 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.440 of also the land of agriculture, you know, the memory 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.960 of him finding refuge, you know, in the Puerto Rican 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:57.919 countryside and of being violently killed unnecessarily. One of the 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.959 only narratives that Philiberto objected to that Philiberto was a 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.480 Cuban agent, and he hated that, you know, he he 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.640 had few objections as to how he's portrayed by the 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:16.040 colonialist media. But Philiberto was not an agent of anybody. 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:21.879 Philiberto was a Puerto Rican patriot and was subordinate to 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.440 know foreign power, be a Cuban or American or Soviet 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.600 or anything else. I think we can't think about Los 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.480 Marcetos as part of a historical process University of Illinois 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.800 professor Dr. Jose Attilus. But they were part of a 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.680 struggle for independent self determination and antic colonialism that it's 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.160 really important so much as did some things that they 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.439 probably shouldn't have done, but they were relevant in the 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.679 transformation of Puerto Rico and also kind of maintaining Puerto 0:20:55.800 --> 0:21:00.320 Rico as a different nation to the US. And as 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.800 every political movement, they have their good teens under bad teens, 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.800 which brings us to the final pieces of this story. 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.080 What's left of the struggle and why Puerto Rico was 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.960 still to this day seen as America's last true colony, 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:27.359 and where in the hell is Victor Herrena. At the 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.160 start of every episode, I refer to this story as 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.040 one about a robbery that would go on to fund 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:38.600 an international independence movement. What the robbery didn't do was 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.280 funded revolution. And while Philiberto is seen by many Puerto 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.560 Ricans as a hero and patriot, the complete and total 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.639 independence he advocated for never got the support he wanted. 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:56.240 Here's Dr Yarimar Bonia Ramos, an expert in Caribbean politics. 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.800 I think that there is a solid block of Puerto 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.600 Rican's that want statehood, that consistently vote for statehood, and 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.920 that number is increasing. What the rest of the population 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.679 wants is hard to explain, hard to define. For some 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.679 of them, it depends on what's on offer, and you know, 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:20.080 it's not clear to them what the possibilities are. In November, 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:24.720 of voters participating in a non binding referendum said they 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:28.080 were in favor of statehood, though I should note just 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.280 over half of the island's population took part in that boat. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:38.760 Jennifer Gonzalez Cologne is Puerto Rico's non voting representative in Congress. 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.000 We cannot vote for our commander in chief. We do 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:47.080 not have four members of Congress, yet Congress has all 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:55.040 power overalls. For now. Puerto Ricans living on the island 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:59.000 exists in a state of limbo. They are US citizens 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.280 and can move freely to and from the mainland, but 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:06.240 they can't vote in presidential elections, generally, don't pay federal 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:10.240 income tax, and have no voting member in Congress. Unlike 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:14.679 Alaska and Hawaii, which became states after existing as territories, 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:20.480 Puerto Rico has remained an unincorporated US territory, a commonwealth 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.720 in charge of its internal affairs, but at the mercy 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:26.520 of the US government when it comes to a number 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:30.200 of things, including trade, the location and use of its 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:35.640 military basis, foreign relations, telecommunications. The list goes on as 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.800 the legal tax day. We belong to but are not 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.840 a part of the United States. We are a property 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.520 or a possession, and indeed, the former president asked if 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.479 he could sell us, so it left kind of no 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.520 doubt about the relationship that we have. And then when 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.439 Hurricane Maria came and federal aid was so slow to arrive, 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:02.080 and we got paper towels instead of housing assistance. I think, 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.800 you know, all of that cemented the idea that no, 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.280 we are not part of the fabric of the United States. 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:11.520 Puerto Rico has been in the dark since Hurricane Maria 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:15.520 slammed the island last week. Of the power lines have 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.520 been knocked out and it may be months before they're repaired. 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:21.600 It texted in a Brada. We get an A plus 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:23.320 and I'll tell you what, I think We've done just 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:26.120 as good in Puerto Rico, and it's actually a much 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:30.840 comfort situation. Many people feel very bad about everything that 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:33.960 happened with Trump, but there there are ways in which 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:38.640 the policies that he enacted were just the application of 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:42.000 the political relationship that we have. And in many ways 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:46.080 he just made clear what other politicians have just covered 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:51.640 up with facades and pretty language and obscure rules and procedures. 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:54.760 And in fact, it was under Obama that you know, 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:59.359 this revelation of our lack of sovereignty began to become 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:03.560 apparent with the imposition of the from Law, the Federal 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:09.160 Oversight Board, our inability to declare bankruptcy or renegotiate our 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:12.000 own debt. All of that happened you know, under a 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:15.200 different president. So I think it's important to not pin 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:18.280 it all on one president, and in some ways he 0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:22.040 did as a favor in saying the quiet parts out loud. 0:25:25.160 --> 0:25:28.200 Efforts for Puerto Rican statehood on Capitol Hill if move 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:31.520 forward and stops and Starts, and two thousand twenty one, 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:35.920 lawmakers introduced two bills aimed at changing Puerto Rico status 0:25:36.440 --> 0:25:40.840 as a commonwealth, the Puerto Rico Self Determination Act and 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:45.280 the bipartisan Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act. As for Puerto 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:50.760 Rico's future, Dr Bonilla says she's optimistic. I think Puerto 0:25:50.880 --> 0:25:54.000 Rico in the past decade and certainly in the decade 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:58.760 to come, has been going through the most rapid historical 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.440 transformation in its history. The way in which they imagine 0:26:03.000 --> 0:26:06.520 our political possibilities, I mean the fact that we topple 0:26:06.600 --> 0:26:11.000 the governor and for the first time came together across 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:15.520 political divisions and have been coming together to protest austerity, 0:26:15.600 --> 0:26:19.440 to demand increase in salary for public workers, to also 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.920 demand the end of gender violence and demand greater inclusivity. 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:26.960 I see a Puerto Rico that is under great threat, 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.520 including the threat of climate change, but I also see 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:35.280 a Puerto Rico that is very much invested in dealing 0:26:35.280 --> 0:26:38.560 with those threats in new ways, and while independence is 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:41.760 an option, many of the experts I spoke with, including 0:26:41.880 --> 0:26:46.240 Dr Bonia and Dr Jose Attila's, say the armed independence 0:26:46.280 --> 0:26:49.439 movements of the past have taken a back seat to 0:26:49.520 --> 0:26:55.639 the island's main political parties. After the assassination of Filiberto 0:26:56.080 --> 0:27:01.960 Trios in two thousand five kind of disappear. There have 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:07.000 been some communityis by some branches of the Matos, but 0:27:07.640 --> 0:27:11.119 I think we can say that they are no longer 0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:15.520 present nor alive. There certainly is not armed struggle to 0:27:15.640 --> 0:27:18.760 the extent that there was in a previous era, but 0:27:18.920 --> 0:27:22.760 there are still groups that operate in the tradition of 0:27:22.840 --> 0:27:28.159 clandestine movements, who sometimes do things without necessarily, you know, 0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:33.520 identifying themselves. As for the man who started this whole story, 0:27:33.880 --> 0:27:37.800 Victor Harrina is the last fugitive from the Wells Fargo 0:27:37.960 --> 0:27:42.240 robbery case who was still at large. He remained on 0:27:42.320 --> 0:27:47.480 the FBI's ten most Wanted Fugitives lists until two thousand sixteen. 0:27:48.119 --> 0:27:53.040 That's thirty two years longer than any other fugitive in history. 0:27:53.560 --> 0:27:56.600 I've asked everyone where they think Victor is and if 0:27:56.880 --> 0:28:01.320