WEBVTT - Aguila Blanca 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.039 If pulling off one of the largest cash heights in 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.640 US history was the easiest step in Victor Horaina's mission 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.000 to help fund Puerto Rico's independence movement, it's what happened 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.919 after that day in that became the more difficult part 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:27.160 of the operation, getting himself and the stolen seven million 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:32.120 dollars in cash out of the country. For that, Victor 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:37.400 would need help, a lot of it. Fortunately for him, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.960 he had it. Remember those two car hanks the guards 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.840 heard on the night of the robbery. According to police documents, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.200 they were to alert a senior member of Los macha 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.360 Ros who was waiting outside the Wells Fargo depot in 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.080 his own car. Nobody knew at the time was one 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.560 Cigar and sat Hey Rios lurking around in the shadows 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.320 as the masterminds of this thing, waiting for Victor to 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:20.480 do what he was gonna do previously on White Eagle, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.400 and no only law enforcement had any clue that a 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.600 group of radical independent east is at an island of 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.400 the Caribbean. We're knocking off armored cars and Harker Kennectic. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:36.040 A lot of Puerto Ricans that joined probably independence movement 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:42.319 in the sixties seventies, grew up facing discriminations raising some party. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.920 Even in the community. People would talk about it from 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.200 a perspective of look, he took some of that and 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.680 he gave out toys, and you know, he did it 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.160 out of frustration the master arrests, who were upset that 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.760 they were getting the attention that they thought they deserved 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.480 for this patriotic expressionation and they wanted to get some 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.160 p policy forward. My name is em William Phelps. I'm 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.720 an investigative journalist and author of more than forty true 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.600 crime books. What you were about to hear is the 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.880 true story of a heist, one that funded an international 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:19.920 independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades. 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:35.240 This is White Eagle. There are a few key players 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:40.720 in this story. Victor Harraina is one, Philiberto Ojeda Rios 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.680 is another. A third, and the man I immediately set 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.560 my sights on when I set out to do this 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:52.320 podcast was Juan Zigara Palmer. At the time of the robbery, 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.280 he was considered one of the Macha Tero's top soldiers 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.799 and is often called one of its founders. And as 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.960 Fred current reporter Ed Mahoney explains Jan was more than 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.160 just an accomplice on the night of the robbery. He 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.800 was a mentor to Victor Harrina in the months proceeding 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.480 and following that night. The cigar is the big cup 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.240 of tier on this thing, and so he's training Victor 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.160 on what to do with the robbery and the money 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.800 and that sort of thing. In many ways, one was 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.680 the go between for Victor and Los MACHOs. He claims 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.200 to be the person who introduced Victor to Philiberto and 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.240 other members of the group, and according to several sources 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.840 I've spoken with, he remains in close contact with Victor's 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.560 family to this day. His father was a well reputated 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:47.680 lawyer in Puerto Rico who send his kids to this 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.400 boarding school in New England and then he goes through hardbar. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.160 Doctor Jose Attila's, who you heard in the last episode, 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.440 is an expert on anti colonial movements, which includes Los 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:06.880 ma Teros the story. I'm sure that you might have 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:12.240 access to him and to his history. He's really interesting. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.000 Dr Attila's is right. I did have access to one. 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.960 I had interviewed him at length and planned to use 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:25.320 hours of recorded conversations in the podcast. But after weeks 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.960 of back and forth, One abruptly pulled out of the project, 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.080 deciding it was in his best interest not to participate. 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.080 It was disappointing, of course, here's a man who was there, 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.680 an intricate spoken the wheel of the Wells Fargo operation, 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:43.720 who expressed a great desire to share his side of 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:49.239 the story, but then declines. Fortunately for us, though One 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.640 is a talker, He's spoken at length about the heist 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.520 and his time with Los mag Terro's, most notably in 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:01.680 the Last American Colony, a documentary produced by Northern Light Productions. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.000 The producer graciously shared One's interviews from the documentary with 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.480 me because in the end, to truly understand what really 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.559 happened that night in West Harford and in the years 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.599 that followed, to get both sides of this story, you 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.080 need to hear from someone who was there every step 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.479 of the way. I was waiting for him outside. It 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.719 was the longest hour or whatever of my entire life. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.000 By the mid eighties, law enforcement knew about Juan Zigara 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.880 and Los mata Tero's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.279 but the specifics, the detailed accounts of what actually happened 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:47.159 took decades to unravel, thanks in a large part to Wangara. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.719 One has always been squirrely about his initial introduction to 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.919 Victor Haraina, but has admitted that Victor traveled at some 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.680 point to see Philiberto in Puerto Rico to discuss logistics 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.320 of the robbery and future as a fugitive. After Victor 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.440 was given the green light for the job, the group 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:10.039 went into planning mode, and by March of Victor was 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.400 having regular conversations with Wan Sagara using local pay phones 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.640 to avoid a paper or electronic trail. For much of 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.280 the spring and summer of nighte Wan Zigara and Los 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:27.799 macha Ros were laser focused on Aguila Blanca White Eagle, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.760 the code name given to the West Tarford Wells Fargo operation. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:37.039 Then in August that same year, Juan and Philiberto flew 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.960 to Connecticut to help Victor finished polishing every last detail, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.920 including rehearsing the more risky aspects of the robbery scheduled 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.000 for the following month. We did several role plays in 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.440 motels in the Hartford area. We rented a room so 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.480 he practiced grabbing me by the nag and take me 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.880 to the ground, so there was gonna be no question 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.000 about him being able to a mobilized the guy with 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.720 the element of surprise and then take him down. Wand 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.800 told the producer of The Last American Colony that he 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.480 and Victor also practiced driving from the Wells Fargo depot 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.840 to local motels, timing each trip until they had it 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.880 down to a science. After the robbery, they drove directly 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.800 to the Swiss Chalet, in emptied the money out of 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.760 the bugles saber, and took off. By the time they 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.120 were gone, police would have just arrived at the Wells 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:39.200 Fargo depot. I felt we had pulled off a great job. 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.840 Nobody had been caught, nobody was hurt. Yeah, I was arrogant. 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.040 From there, both men would help Victor embark on a 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.600 daring interstate journey, the first part of which included a 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.920 less conspicuous form of transportation. They bought a motorcycle. They 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.120 put him on the motorcycle, and Victor left from there. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.600 During his drive north from West Tarford, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.000 Victor tossed his wallet at a rest stop along the 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:12.840 Massachusetts Turnpike. That wallet, which contained his I D was 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:17.920 later discovered by Department of Transportation employees. Victory eventually ended 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.240 up in Boston, and the cash and up in Springfield, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:27.800 where it was hidden. The motorcycle was the perfect solution 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.600 to Los Macha terros first obstacle, how to get one 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.800 of the country's most wanted men safely out of West Tarford. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.520 The second, much larger hurdle, was how to get about 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.880 a half ton of stolen cash where it needed to go. 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:49.800 Turns out, Juanzagara and Philipperto oheed Rios had already thought 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.520 that scenario out as well. It's a combination of the 0:08:53.520 --> 0:09:00.360 match terrists. Principally Ojeda and Cigar are up in Austin. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:06.240 They buy a loader home and they have somebody one 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.440 of these Maga Terros is some kind of a carpenter, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.199 you know, pulls a bunch of false walls and things 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.640 like that into this thing. About two weeks after the heist, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.360 one hit Victor and some of the money behind the 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.280 walls of a camper trailer, and the pair headed to Mexico, 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.680 taking some of the stolen cash with them. In the 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.360 months that followed, other members of Los MACHOs and their 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.760 associates would follow suit, traveled to New England, load up 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.720 a car or camper, and take chunks of cash across 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:45.400 the border into Mexico. In all, the group transported more 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.240 than two thirds of the Wells Fargo money out of 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.360 the US that first year, despite having some dangerously close 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.680 calls with law enforcement. Case in point, in August of 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:03.120 Juanzigara's cash heavy ampor trailer flipped over on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.559 My friend loaned me his pickup truck and camper. We 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:12.040 were on the turnpike in in Pennsylvania going down this 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:19.920 pretty steep hill and this semi blew past us and 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.400 we ended up flipped over, facing in the opposite direction 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.720 on the right hand lane of the vehicle. The money 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.480 that was hidden in the wall behind the walls of 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:36.120 the of the trailer, you know, the panels burst. One 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:41.719 of us jumped in the trailer and started throwing the 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.640 money and bags and stashing it back before the state 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.960 police arrived, and you know, sure got past that one. 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.800 Mexico was the pit stop of choice for Los Macha Terras. 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.040 It was also a place where they could easily communicate 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.079 with operatives from the Cuban gu government, including the man 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.480 who would help smuggle Victor Harana out of the country. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.000 I always called it a Cuban spy, and he was 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.480 always upset with me for saying that, because he considered 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:17.000 himself some kind of diplomatic. But you know, Cuba's had 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.280 a diplomatic department called the Department of the America's whose 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.240 function was to fallment, you know, left his insurgencies across 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:32.120 Latin America, and he was associated with that. The Cuban spy, 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:37.280 whose real name is Jorge Massetti, eventually became disillusioned with 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.080 Fidel Castro and left his job with the government. He 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.439 even wrote a book about it. But back in three 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.640 he played an instrumental role in the Macha Teros as 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:53.240 wells Fargo heist. According to Ed Mahoney, Massetti had met 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.520 Juan Zigara and other members of Los Macha Teros in 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.480 the months before the robbery and even gave them fifty 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.560 tho dollars to help pull it off an investment. Perhaps 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.680 they provided the bunch of terrells with the stuff that 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.439 they injected the guards with, and some type of crazy 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.760 radio transmitter that probably didn't work anyway, and a bunch 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.320 of things like that. Massetti told Ed Mahoney that The 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.600 group went to great lengths to help Victor get out 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.360 of the country. They dyed his hair and Victor head 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.920 out in Mexico's Cuban embassy, where they helped him acquire 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.040 a fake passport. From there, Victor bordered a flight to Cuba, 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.199 along with the first batch of cash tucked inside Cuba's 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.880 diplomatic pouch. The thing is, the FBI is not doing 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.080 anything because they don't know anything about this. I mean, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.040 they're still looking, you know, for some gang of Irish 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.559 drugs from Charlestown, you know who came down and knocked 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.679 off at Aubrey car I mean, they have no idea 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.640 what's going on. By that time, Victor her own had 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.160 been secreted in Cuba. The plan was they would get 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.120 Victor over there and he would be out of their 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.800 ancient American authorities. There's all kinds of people in Cuba there, 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:21.880 you know, hiding out from American authorities. If you've grown 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.680 up in the United States, chances are you've heard a 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.160 lot about Cuba. Our time capsule island of a neighbor 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:33.000 just ninety miles off the coast of Florida. The relationship 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.200 between the two countries is far too complex to explain 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.800 in one sitting. For that we'd need an entire episode, 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.040 but here are some of the broad strokes. Like Puerto Rico, 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.040 Cuba was annexed by the United States after the Spanish 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:53.080 American War. It was granted independence soon thereafter, but the 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.880 United States retained large swaths of land, military bases like 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:02.440 Guantanamo Bay, and a cho cold on Cuba's economy. All 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:07.720 that changed into fifties when its enigmatic former leader, Fidel Castro, 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:12.880 helped mount a revolution that toppled the country's American backed president. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:18.440 While the US initially recognized Cuba's new government, the relationships soured, 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:22.760 American citizens fled the island, and the US government launched 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:29.600 dozens of unsuccessful attempts to overthrow Castro's government economy. Fidel 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.720 Castro died in t s after nearly a half century 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:38.240 in power. Critics called him a terrorist and dictator who 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:43.440 bankrupted Cuba's economy and ruthlessly punished all forms of dissent. 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.840 Admirers saw him as a revolutionary icon who oversaw improvements 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:53.920 to literacy and life expectancy, and helped mobilize anti imperialist 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:59.080 movements around the world, including Puerto Rico. There is a 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.000 famous song says that Cuba and Puerto Rico are the 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.560 two wings of one bird. And so obviously our histories 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.640 are tied through the Spanish American War, and we've always 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.680 been kind of looking to see what the other is 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.880 doing and in close connection among artists and intellectuals. That's 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:21.160 Dr Yarimar Bonia Ramos. She's a political anthropologist and the 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.560 director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.840 College in New York. For a long time, Puerto Rico 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.000 is a kind of ambiguous zone, and during that time 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.840 politics cemented around two main currents. There were the folks 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.120 who wanted Puerto Rico to be part of the United 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.840 States and who always imagined that to be what was 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.480 to be expected. But other folks felt that that was 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.400 not what they wanted and they wanted to be their 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.160 own nation, and so there was always an independence movement 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.880 growing and growing steadily. Castro and many others behind Cuba's 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:59.080 revolution understood this, and while there were thousands of people 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.800 who fled the islands in Cuba for Puerto Rico, others 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.880 saw the Cuban Revolution as a model for sovereignty. Among 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:12.480 them Philiberto Ojeda Rios, the leader of Los mace Teros. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.160 After the Bay of Pigs, I became aware of him 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.800 initially in New York. Actually, Bob Hybel, who spoke in 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.920 the last episode, spent twenty five years with the FBI, 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:28.480 finishing his incredible career as a sack or special agent 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.680 in charge. If there's an agent who knows the relationship 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.520 between Puerto Rico and America and how Los mace Tero's 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:40.160 factor into that equation, it's Bob. Now, the Cuban Intelligence Service, 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.880 which was called G two at that time, to stay 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:48.440 offensive and began to send sleeper agents out, and Philiberto 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.560 was one of those sleeper agents. The G two is 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:57.920 a military intelligence service, or as others call it, state security. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.520 Its agents were trained by the German Stasi and the 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:07.240 Soviet KGB, and we're responsible for intelligence, counter intelligence and 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:13.160 disinformation activities inside Cuba and abroad. So from the beginning, 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:19.560 the Castro was a total supporter of Kenning independence for 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:24.440 Puerto Rico and his modus OPERANDAI of course was supporting 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:30.240 revolution to do that in any form that worked. In 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.399 ninety six, Castro told the Group of World Leaders, quote 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.240 any revolutionary movement in any corner of the world can 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.560 count on the help of Cuban fighters, and he made 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.880 good on that promise. About a decade later, right as 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.639 the US of Cuba were in talks to improve diplomatic relations, 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:53.200 Castro intervened in an armed operation of the African nation 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.840 of Angola, and more important for US in Puerto Rico's 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.919 pro independence organization to move the rail talks between Cuba 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.520 and the US, but appeal to Filiberto or hey To Rios, 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.080 who believed deeply that colonized people, which in his view 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.360 included Puerto Ricans, had a right to arm struggle. What's more, 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:19.320 he felt it was critical to reclaiming their identity. Filiberto 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:24.439 is a very interesting fear. First of all, he was 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:30.919 a trumpet player with one of the fifties bands that 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:36.760 started moving to more pro independence radicalize if you wish, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:43.760 and at some point he started moving to ARMStrokes or 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:48.880 more to left wing of the pro independence movement. At 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.560 some point he ended up in Cuba getting in training. 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.880 I think it was a revolution that show a lot 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.840 of Puerto Ricans that they could have an arm move 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:07.720 and that created a condition for mass moblization. Cuba's revolution 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.959 in the fifties. Inspired Philiberto, and Castro's government gave him 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.600 the tools he needed to try and replicate it. He 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.240 viewed himself as a patriot and he was fighting for truth, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.159 justice to the American white He thought he was at 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.480 George Washington and Puerto Rico. After Cuba, Philiberto went to 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.840 New York and later Puerto Rico, eventually recruiting Juan Zigara, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:34.320 whom he met in nineteen seventy two. Like Philiberto, Juan 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.679 was born in Puerto Rico. His family was wealthy, and 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.720 he had a long history of resistance to Spanish and 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.960 American colonialism. As a teen, he attended the prestigious Phillips 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.200 Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later Harvard University, where in 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.680 nineteen sixty nine Juan witnessed the violent suppression of hundreds 0:19:54.680 --> 0:20:01.000 of students protesting the Vietnam War. Then trying take was 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:07.160 that Vietnam had one The Cuban Revolution at that time 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.720 was like a beacon to a lot of Latin America. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:16.040 The tide of history is on the side of anti colonialism. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:21.920 We should be able to prevail. In those years. After Harvard, 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:26.280 wand began training with Philiberto and in nineteen seventy six 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:33.000 helped found Los Materos. Like Cuba's revolutionaries, Los mach Teros 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:38.280 used a clandestine cell system to organize its activities. A 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.360 central committee led the organization, but individual cells carried out 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.280 operations and information was kept to a need to know basis. 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:52.480 Government documents show that Los Machteros cultivated dozens of fake identities. 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.000 For example, in order to buy weapons for the group, 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:00.399 one would troll graveyards, picking out and then using names 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.680 of the deceased to apply for birth certificates and driver's license. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.240 He also led weapons training, having learned to fire a 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.399 gun at the Harvard Shooting Club. My expectation was that 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.160 either we won or I would end up in prison 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:21.760 or dead. Those were the three options, and you know 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.200 felt that more likely than not the prison or death 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.600 would be the more likely outcomes. But at that time 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.480 of my life, I was I was ready to take 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:36.280 on that that risk and that responsibility. In many ways, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.920 Philiberto and Juan were the ideal match for the pro 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:45.560 independence mission. Intellectual, courageous and ready and willing to give 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:49.360 up their lives for a cause they believed in deeply. 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.280 After founding Los macha Ros. They would go on to 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.480 mastermind more than a dozen violent attacks against the U. 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.280 S Government and major institutions in Puerto Rico in the 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:06.600 name of independence. Then in January, the group made international 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.080 headlines as part of its protest to a draft registration 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.879 on the island. A Puerto Rican independence group which calls 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.560 itself the Maschity Wielders, claims that knocked out half the 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.080 planes or the island's Air National Guard order Today time 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.440 bombs planted at uns Air Base blew up nine jet 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.879 fighters and damage to others. Nobody was injured. Damage was 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:34.159 put at forty five million dollars. One Cigara was integral 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.920 and planning and carrying out that attack, even touring the 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.639 Munese Air National Guard base with his family and taking 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.840 pictures in front of the planes to indicate where the 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.080 bombs would go. The final gift was when the National 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:50.960 Guard had an open house on the base, so I 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.760 brought my kids in to look at the planes when 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.639 right up to the blades, took pictures of them, and 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.159 that helps us to stay which is exactly where the 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.480 explosives was going to be located. To fund its efforts, 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:11.240 Los Mater's frequently robbed major corporations. In fact, before the 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.919 West Harford success, the group made at least four attempts 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.080 at robbing Wells Fargo armored vehicles in Puerto Rico, the 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.320 last of which involved a number of heavily armed militants 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:26.360 who got away with five and eighty seven thousand dollars 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:30.800 in cash and checks before shooting and killing the driver. 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.480 While the money from these robberies helped, the group kept 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:38.480 many members on its payroll and needed cash for salaries, 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:42.320 so after recruiting Victor Harrina, they jumped at the Wells 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:46.919 Fargo opportunity. There's no way to really know the complete 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:50.600 or even true story of how Los MACHOs first connected 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:55.240 with Victor he Rena, but in the Last American Colony documentary, 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.840 Wan tells his version about how he met Victor. The 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.600 sky approached me and he says, you know, he's working 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:07.040 on an armored truck and he transports between seven to 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:10.360 ten million dollars every Monday, and he wants to donate 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.639 it to the struggle. It's like, whoa, it's almost too 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:26.440 good to be true. Six weeks after the West Harford heist, 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:31.119 Los Mao's grew even Boulder. Hours after they fired the 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:34.480 law rocket on the FBI's federal building in San Juan, 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:39.000 a woman phoned the local Associated Press offices on behalf 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:42.480 of Los Macha Tero's taking credit for the attack. What 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:45.840 she said was launched in support of the people of 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:50.280 Grenada at the height of the US invasion. There here's 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:57.040 reporter Ed Mahoney one Cigaris. You know, protests about this 0:24:57.160 --> 0:25:00.959 being a non violent situation that wasithstanding. The FBI at 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.760 a different point of view. They thought it was very violent, 0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:06.679 and they thought there was a lot of property damage. 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:09.520 And you know, there was aqua ducts getting blown up, 0:25:09.600 --> 0:25:13.040 their bombard cars getting ripped off, the thanks getting knocked off, 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:15.800 there were saras getting shot, there were jet planes getting 0:25:15.800 --> 0:25:17.560 blown up. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on. 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:20.800 And you know, somebody in Washington said, you know something, 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:23.280 we can't let this continue to go down, and stop it. 0:25:24.040 --> 0:25:27.720 However careful It's soldiers tried to be Mistakes like the 0:25:27.800 --> 0:25:31.200 one Los Macha Teros made after firing the law rocket 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:36.600 were costly. Take for example, that seemingly inconsequential parking ticket 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:40.080 found in a car near the Federal building. That one 0:25:40.160 --> 0:25:43.000 scrap of paper set off a chain of events that 0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:48.720 eventually led to the FBI surveying Philiberto Ohada Rios's car 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:52.199 and a number of Los Macha terrorist is safe houses. 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:56.680 Pilaberto was on everybody's top ten list because you know, 0:25:56.800 --> 0:26:02.000 Philiberto was a member Boma to Charter, member of the 0:26:02.119 --> 0:26:06.120 Cuban Director in General with intelligence, So that got everybody's 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:13.440 at catching. It was in April when federal agents obtained 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:16.400 the warrant to go inside one of the safe houses. 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:22.240 There they found dozens of internal Machtero's documents, including code 0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:26.240 names for various operatives and proof of a relationship with 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:30.680 the Cuban government. It was more than enough to justify 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:35.480 installing wire taps. And then those conversations. They learned about 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:38.760 the group's involvement in the Wells Fargo robbery, and heard 0:26:38.800 --> 0:26:43.800 conversations between Wan and Philip Berto discussing whether to smuggle 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:48.120 Victor's fiancee, Anna Soto out of the US and into 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:52.320 Cuba as they had promised Victor from the start. They're 0:26:52.400 --> 0:26:57.800 talking about trying to smuggle Victor into Cuba so they 0:26:57.840 --> 0:27:01.520 can be together again. You know, the Cubans are saying 0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:03.239 to forget about him. You know, what do you think 0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:05.119 we're running here? You know, this isn't some kind of 0:27:05.200 --> 0:27:08.440 lonely hearts that we've got going over here. The wire 0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:13.480 tapped conversations would also highlight the ideological differences in the organization, 0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:17.800 as we saw with Wells Fargo, Los Macha. Taro's weren't 0:27:17.840 --> 0:27:22.000 shy about taking credit for their work, but how and 0:27:22.200 --> 0:27:25.600 when to seek out the press became a major point 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:30.080 of contention within the organization. Should they send money to 0:27:30.160 --> 0:27:34.159 local publications, When was the right time to take credit 0:27:34.240 --> 0:27:38.320 for the heist? Most importantly, who should have access to 0:27:38.520 --> 0:27:42.240 all that stolen cash? They split up the money, But 0:27:42.480 --> 0:27:44.960 what happens was Casper didn't have a lot of money, 0:27:45.080 --> 0:27:47.520 but he gave him guns, and he gave him trading, 0:27:47.880 --> 0:27:50.880 and he gave him encouragement, and he gave him support, 0:27:51.240 --> 0:27:53.600 and he gave him back up. I think the money 0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:57.399 went to Cuba on the plane with Victor. And in 0:27:57.440 --> 0:28:00.760 the final analysis, they said, is our money? And they 0:28:01.040 --> 0:28:03.880 ast us at one money and they said the money 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:05.240 at we still we said, when you could have it, 0:28:05.280 --> 0:28:08.600 that we're going to take half of it. And that 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:12.239 caused a lot of adja among the macha tarots because hey, 0:28:12.320 --> 0:28:16.400