Speaker 1: The mystery of the seven million dollar Wells Fargo robbery
Speaker 1: in Connecticut two years ago apparently was partially solved today
Speaker 1: with the arrest of thirteen people. On a surprise disclosure.
Speaker 1: On August night, more than two hundred federal agents descended
Speaker 1: upon dozens of locations across Puerto Rico and the continental US.
Speaker 1: The FBI raids began after dawn in San Juan and
Speaker 1: nearby cities. Eleven people were rounded up in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: another was arrested in Dallas, one more in Boston. Thirteen
Speaker 1: suspected members of Los Macha Tero's and their associates were
Speaker 1: arrested in connection to the Wells Fargo heist, among them
Speaker 1: Juan Zigara, who learned of the indictment beforehand and fled
Speaker 1: to Mexico with his wife and kids. It didn't work,
Speaker 1: As one explains in the Last American Colony documentary, he
Speaker 1: was arrested did on the same day at an airport
Speaker 1: in Dallas as he tried to sneak back into the
Speaker 1: United States. This guy followed me, had a big cowboy
Speaker 1: hat and cowboy boots, you know, so it was pretty noticeable.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, I sense. You know,
Speaker 1: the guy with the cowboy boots here on one side,
Speaker 1: and there's three other people, one on one female, and
Speaker 1: two other guys are on me, and he said, you're
Speaker 1: under arrest for bank robbery. Los Macha Terro's leader, Philiberto
Speaker 1: Ojeda Rios, was met with a starkly different approach. Around
Speaker 1: six in the morning, a team of FBI agents converged
Speaker 1: on the apartment Philiberto shared with his wife in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: FBI records claim he emerged from the top of his
Speaker 1: staircase and engaged in a shootout with federal agents, leaving
Speaker 1: one man permanently blind in one eye. When Philiberto was
Speaker 1: forcibly taken out of his home nearly an hour later,
Speaker 1: the FBI said he was holding a pistol in one
Speaker 1: hand and an oozy in the other. Eventually, the embattled
Speaker 1: Macha Ros leader surrendered was taken into custody. Four fugitives
Speaker 1: were also named in the indictment, including Victor Harana. The
Speaker 1: arrest would mark the start of a long and complex
Speaker 1: legal battle, one that dragged on for years and raised
Speaker 1: questions about the limits of federal law, Puerto Rico sovereignty,
Speaker 1: and the powers the President of the United States could wield.
Speaker 1: Previously on White Eagle, we did several role plays in motels,
Speaker 1: so there was gonna be no question about him being
Speaker 1: able to mobilized the guy with the element of surprise
Speaker 1: and then take him down. They buy a loader, they
Speaker 1: basically stuck it from the cash and behind him, and
Speaker 1: they take victory and they stuffed him in a place
Speaker 1: behind the false wall. What the money did was corrupted
Speaker 1: the man terris. Some wanted to keep its money. They
Speaker 1: didn't want to send any more money to Cuba. My
Speaker 1: name is sem William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and
Speaker 1: author of more than forty true crimes. What you were
Speaker 1: about to hear is the true story of a heist,
Speaker 1: one that funded an international independence movement and sparked an
Speaker 1: investigation spanning nearly four decades. This is White Eagle. From
Speaker 1: the start. The legal battles involving the Macha terrorist and
Speaker 1: their associates were contentious to this day. The Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: case is still considered one of the longest and most
Speaker 1: complicated legal cases in the history of federal court. There
Speaker 1: was tremendous support and sympathy, or at least neutrality, so
Speaker 1: as a result, many of the big law firms in
Speaker 1: Hartford donated their lawyers to the Welsh Fargo legal team.
Speaker 1: Ronald Kobe is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney
Speaker 1: who has been practicing law for the better part of
Speaker 1: forty years. In five, ron was fresh out of law
Speaker 1: school and off to a promising start working the Wells
Speaker 1: Fargo case and training under legendary civil rights attorney William Kunstler.
Speaker 1: Back then, Kunstler was considered one of the country's most
Speaker 1: famous lawyers, in large part because of his work representing
Speaker 1: controversial clients such as members of the Black Panther Party,
Speaker 1: the Catonsville Nine, and the Chicago Seven. Counselor and Kubi
Speaker 1: worked together for more than a decade, representing everyone from
Speaker 1: civil rights activists two members of the Gambino crime family.
Speaker 1: The pair became so well known. Also made an unoffici
Speaker 1: show cameo in a certain nineties cult classic film at
Speaker 1: one hour forty one minutes in The Big Lebowski. In
Speaker 1: the Malibu police station scene, as the dude is slammed
Speaker 1: across the desk, he utters the greatest words ever uttered
Speaker 1: in the in the history of cinema. I want to lawyer.
Speaker 1: I want, Bill Conster, if you can't tell already. Ron
Speaker 1: Koby is a dynamic character. He has a long gray
Speaker 1: ponytail and easy going demeanor. He loves to talk and
Speaker 1: is the kind of guy that will keep you on
Speaker 1: the phone for hours. He has a page on his
Speaker 1: legal website dedicated to his dogs, which he proudly refers
Speaker 1: to as his law dogs, but his resume speaks for itself.
Speaker 1: It would be unwise not to take Ron Kobe seriously,
Speaker 1: Bill and up representing Philiberto ad Rios. I ended up
Speaker 1: representing Philibert's lieutenant, if you will, Louis Alfredo coldon Osorio,
Speaker 1: you know. And it was Warren Zevron who said lawyers,
Speaker 1: guns and money, and we had at least two out
Speaker 1: of the three. We had lawyers, and we had money,
Speaker 1: and probably some people had guns too, but that wasn't
Speaker 1: a part of the legal defense. So we were prepared
Speaker 1: to fight the government, and the government was not prepared
Speaker 1: for a legal channel. It's important to note that Ron's
Speaker 1: comments are the recollections of a criminal defense attorney who
Speaker 1: argued on behalf of the macha Ros, but he provides
Speaker 1: unique and rare insight into what went on behind the
Speaker 1: scenes As those involved in the Wells Fargo heist went
Speaker 1: to trial, Ron says Day one of core proceedings turned
Speaker 1: out to be nothing short of a circus. We showed
Speaker 1: up to to the most massive military style presence I
Speaker 1: had ever seen in any case ever. You know, they
Speaker 1: had black clad snipers on the rooftop, They had shooting
Speaker 1: positions taken up all around the courthouse. They put in
Speaker 1: brand new concrete barriers to prevent suicide bombers. Everybody had
Speaker 1: an automatic rifle. The Wells Fargo case was a big
Speaker 1: opportunity for federal prosecutors. For years, the FBI and Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico and prosecutors in the US had been trying to
Speaker 1: prosecute Los Machateros members for acts of pro state violence.
Speaker 1: More often than not, they'd come up short. Even when
Speaker 1: the group took credit for an illegal event, agents had
Speaker 1: a hard time identifying those directly responsible. Just as former
Speaker 1: FBI agent Bob Hybel, who spent years investigating Los mach Teros,
Speaker 1: the FBI didn't have the capability to penetrate these organizations
Speaker 1: because they didn't have the sufficient bilingual agents to put
Speaker 1: in San Juan to do the job. They were going
Speaker 1: through the motions with this and leaving it all up
Speaker 1: to the blue of Puerto Rico. In many ways, the
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo robbery changed all that. The mach Teros committing
Speaker 1: the Wells Fargo heist was one of the biggest mistakes
Speaker 1: they ever made. The reason is that in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: the legal system had been so penetrated by leftist attorneys
Speaker 1: that it was almost impossible to get a conviction on
Speaker 1: a perpetrator that you had cut in the act. The
Speaker 1: FBI didn't catch the group in the act, but it
Speaker 1: did collect a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including hours of
Speaker 1: wire tapped conversations. It wasn't always easy to decipher what
Speaker 1: was said in the tapes, though. The Macha Terros used
Speaker 1: the system of code names for nearly everything, people places, operations.
Speaker 1: Here's Harford current reporter ed Mahoney. They always had crazy
Speaker 1: up missing strat things like bank robberies, were expropriations and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Nearly every mach Terris associate had
Speaker 1: at least one, if not five, pseudonyms. One member went
Speaker 1: by the nickname Frank, another was known as Jumbo, Philiberto
Speaker 1: was Greco. As for its clandestine activities, The Macha Terris
Speaker 1: preferred animals for code names. La Gaviota, which translates to seagull,
Speaker 1: was the name for the Muneese air based bombing. Elchivo
Speaker 1: Spanish for goat was code for a plan to free
Speaker 1: and assassinate an incarcerated former Macha Tero who was suspected
Speaker 1: of being an informant. As for Aguila, Anka, turns out
Speaker 1: there was more to that code name. Questioned by the government,
Speaker 1: FBI agent Jose Rodriguez testified about it in court. Now,
Speaker 1: during the course of your FBI electronic surveillance, were you
Speaker 1: able to determine where Aguila was? Yes, ma'am and where
Speaker 1: is Aguila? On July the thirteenth, four, in the vehicle
Speaker 1: of Filberto Rios, a conversation was intercepted. They were discussing
Speaker 1: Aguila and the fact that his female companion wishes to
Speaker 1: be with him. They mentioned that the female companion is
Speaker 1: on probation, and they stayed in this conversation that Cuba
Speaker 1: is an attraction for him. It's real because he has
Speaker 1: been there. And who is Aguila? Aguila is Victor Manuel Hereina.
Speaker 1: In those wire tapped conversations, agents also learned the group
Speaker 1: was beginning to fracture. They'd hear members bickering about how
Speaker 1: to spend the money, when to take credit for the heist,
Speaker 1: or whether the Cubans took too much of the cash.
Speaker 1: The fighting got so bad at one point during the
Speaker 1: summer of the group had split into two factions, one
Speaker 1: of which included Juanzagara and Philiberto Ojeda Rios. In one exchange,
Speaker 1: Philiberto can be heard discussing how he was actually voted
Speaker 1: out of the Macha Ros Central Committee, the internal governing
Speaker 1: body that he helped found. And the guy he's a
Speaker 1: memory of the Cuban intelligence service, the guy that makes
Speaker 1: the whole thing work is so Hada, and they demoted him,
Speaker 1: you know, which is ridiculous because without him there's no organization, basically,
Speaker 1: an organization famous for its meticulous planning and secretive structures
Speaker 1: had devolved into chaos, and the FBI they took full
Speaker 1: advantage of the situation. The United States of America versus
Speaker 1: Victor Manuel Harrena at All was a legal slug, a
Speaker 1: long uphill battle with twists, turns and a seemingly endless
Speaker 1: number of procedural delays. Take as an example this fact,
Speaker 1: the first hearing in the case took place on September three.
Speaker 1: As for the actual trial, opening arguments didn't happen until
Speaker 1: there was a massive quantity of evidence against the defendants
Speaker 1: in terms of sheer volume, not quality, but volume. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by that. There were thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of wire tapped communications that had been intercepted over a
Speaker 1: period of years. There were forty five separate searches, so
Speaker 1: there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pages
Speaker 1: of documents. So there was a massive quantity of evidence,
Speaker 1: but the government was amazingly sloppy. It didn't seem like
Speaker 1: any of them were preparing to process it in a
Speaker 1: way that would be usable at trial. Kuby says, even
Speaker 1: with the primary suspect nowhere to be found, it was
Speaker 1: still plenty to litigate. There were emotions to have the
Speaker 1: trial moved to Puerto Rico, where almost all of the
Speaker 1: defendants lived and where defense attorneys said they were less
Speaker 1: likely to face bias. Those were denied. There were issues
Speaker 1: with the nature of the material sees from the defendants homes.
Speaker 1: What was fair game under the warrant, what was personal?
Speaker 1: What was just the FBI grabbing anything and everything it
Speaker 1: could in case it might matter lay her. They basically
Speaker 1: took everything, and some of it was was just hysterically
Speaker 1: funny out of my client's home. I think they took
Speaker 1: a tape, a video tape called Jazzer Size your Thighs,
Speaker 1: which was an exercise video like like the Macha Terro's
Speaker 1: are going to squeeze America to death between their powerful knees.
Speaker 1: What possible evidence could this be? They took children's coloring books,
Speaker 1: and they took everything that made any reference to Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: all the history and literature and books on or buy
Speaker 1: or about Puerto Rico, all of the Puerto Rican flags,
Speaker 1: every scrap of anything that made reference to the thousands
Speaker 1: of your history about this place. Everything was taken as
Speaker 1: evidence of terrorism. Perhaps the biggest dilemma, though, was the
Speaker 1: issue of those wire taps. The defense filed motions to
Speaker 1: throw a large portion of that evidence out, saying it
Speaker 1: had been improperly sealed and that in some cases federal
Speaker 1: agents had listened to conversations without recording them and then
Speaker 1: they lied about it. The FBI was really, really, really
Speaker 1: good at collecting eavesdropping tapes and wire tapping and paying
Speaker 1: attention to the tapes and collecting intelligence information. They were
Speaker 1: really bad at adhering to the requirements of the wire
Speaker 1: tapping law, which meant that at the expiration of a
Speaker 1: particular warrant, the tapes had to be sealed within thirty days.
Speaker 1: What sealed actually means is exactly that they are put
Speaker 1: in plastic bags. There is a seal put on them
Speaker 1: that contains the dates, the times, that ticulars of the tape.
Speaker 1: You can't open the bag without breaking the seal. And
Speaker 1: the purpose is to maintain the integrity of the tapes
Speaker 1: where U s at trial, and also to make sure
Speaker 1: the FBI isn't doing what we know they did, which
Speaker 1: is sharing these things with other people who have an
Speaker 1: interest in the Macho terros who might want to listen.
Speaker 1: And the government totally screwed that up. A judge agreed
Speaker 1: more than half of the wire tap tapes were deemed
Speaker 1: it admissible, and the government's case against the number of
Speaker 1: Los Materos was split into two. The trial for half
Speaker 1: of the group, which included Filiberto, Ojeda Rijos, was delayed
Speaker 1: while an appellate court reviewed the tapes. The trials for
Speaker 1: the other half move forward. Philiberto was let out on
Speaker 1: bail after spending thirty two months in jail. Well, the
Speaker 1: question was where is Philoberto going to go? So Richard Harvey,
Speaker 1: who at that time was serving as co counsul To Kunstler, said, well,
Speaker 1: he can live with us. He can live with the
Speaker 1: lawyers up in Hartford in our law commune. What what
Speaker 1: could be better than living living with your lawyer, I
Speaker 1: ask you, and he did. He moved in. He's really
Speaker 1: happy to be out of prison. And he is just
Speaker 1: an amazing human being. I mean, first of all, he's
Speaker 1: a revolutionary to the marrow of his bones. He's a
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican patriot. But he can do other things. He
Speaker 1: can play the guitar, he can play the trumpet, he
Speaker 1: can do things around the house that need to be
Speaker 1: done that he was willing to do. Because Philiberto fundamentally
Speaker 1: was also a communist in the best sense of that word.
Speaker 1: He knew that he always had to contribute through his
Speaker 1: labor to everything and everywhere he was, and he knew
Speaker 1: that all labor had dignity. And so he cooked. He
Speaker 1: cooked for the house, and he was a fantastic cook,
Speaker 1: you know, making up rice and beans and mofungo and
Speaker 1: other Puerto Rican delicacies. For me, I recognized that this
Speaker 1: was a a great man of Puerto Rico. I had
Speaker 1: no idea how great, and I had no idea ultimately
Speaker 1: that he would have a legacy as early as he did.
Speaker 1: But I knew that, you know, this is like Cha Bavara,
Speaker 1: you know, growing up the cheeseburger. For me. The Liberto
Speaker 1: remained in that Hartford law house for several months and
Speaker 1: then returned to Puerto Rico, where he cut off his
Speaker 1: ankle bracelet and jumped bail. More on that later, Like
Speaker 1: his mentor, Juan Zagar, spent over two years in jail
Speaker 1: before he was granted bail. Unlike his mentor, however, he
Speaker 1: stayed put his case, along with four additional members of
Speaker 1: Los MACHOs, went to trial. The trial relied less heavenly
Speaker 1: on wire tapped evidence, in part because federal prosecutors had
Speaker 1: flipped two witnesses, Kenneth Cox, a friend of One's who
Speaker 1: admitted to helping him acquire fake I d s. And
Speaker 1: Anna Gasson, wants former lover who laundered some of the
Speaker 1: stolen money. Now, what did Mr Cigara relate to you
Speaker 1: at that time he related to me that a robbery
Speaker 1: happened in Hartford. What did he say happened to the money?
Speaker 1: The money went to Springfield in cars. Did he tell
Speaker 1: you what happened to the money after he got to Springfield? Nope?
Speaker 1: Did Mr Cigara tell you what happened to Mr Harina?
Speaker 1: Yes he did. What did he say happened to Mr Harina? Well,
Speaker 1: one time he told me Mr Harina was taken on
Speaker 1: the night of the robbery from Hartford to Springfield on
Speaker 1: a motorcycle. And what happened after that? He told me
Speaker 1: he was taken to Boston, then to Mexico. Defense attorneys
Speaker 1: railed at the use of Kenneth Cox as a witness,
Speaker 1: calling him quote an accomplice, an addict, a man with
Speaker 1: a criminal record who's being paid for his testimony and
Speaker 1: kept out of prison for his testimony. For what it's worth,
Speaker 1: all of the above was true. Cox was arrested twenty
Speaker 1: one times in twenty five years, and actually went to
Speaker 1: the FBI about Wells Fargo the day after he was
Speaker 1: arrested on a shoplifting charge. Juan Zigara's ex mistress, Anna Gassin,
Speaker 1: was a far more compelling witness like one. She graduated
Speaker 1: from Harvard, where she studied biology. Her testimony went on
Speaker 1: for days and reads like a novel. I would say,
Speaker 1: there's two major reasons, which for me are part and
Speaker 1: parcel of the same thing, which is that I loved
Speaker 1: this man and respect of the values that he shared
Speaker 1: with me. It was that respect which was also part
Speaker 1: of the reason why you loved him most probably, yes,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Anna Gassin was initially charged as an
Speaker 1: accomplice in the Wells Fargo case, but was granted immunity
Speaker 1: in exchange for her testimony, and for good reason. She
Speaker 1: claimed that Juan asked her to keep about thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in a trunk under her bed, which she did.
Speaker 1: She said. One also asked her to transport money across
Speaker 1: the US Mexico border, which she didn't. Did Juan Cigara
Speaker 1: ask you to become involved in this plan to transport
Speaker 1: money to Mexico? Yes? Would you tell us please what
Speaker 1: he wanted you to do? Well, there was a couple
Speaker 1: that was supposed to drive the camping truck across, and
Speaker 1: he wanted the couple to be non Hispanic, to be white.
Speaker 1: By a couple, you mean a man and a woman,
Speaker 1: man and woman. Yes, he had already had the man
Speaker 1: who was supposed to drive across, and there was a
Speaker 1: woman who was supposed to come from Puerto Rico to
Speaker 1: drive across, and she couldn't because of some health reasons
Speaker 1: or something. What's more, Anna testified that Juan had admitted
Speaker 1: he was behind the Wells Fargo heist. She said he
Speaker 1: also asked her deposit cash into her bank account and
Speaker 1: write checks to people in Puerto Rico, some of whom
Speaker 1: were later found to be alias is of Matris members.
Speaker 1: Then there was his own written account of Wells Fargo,
Speaker 1: a manuscript that Juan hoped would one day be turned
Speaker 1: into a screenplay. He told us the purpose, as you
Speaker 1: understood it, for the writing was to be made into
Speaker 1: a movie. It was going to be turned into a
Speaker 1: screenplay by someone else. So his objective was to write
Speaker 1: down what exactly had happened so that someone else who
Speaker 1: was a writer could then turn it into a screenplay.
Speaker 1: What I saw was his version, not the screenplay. Lawyers
Speaker 1: for the defense called Wan's manuscript questionable, saying it was
Speaker 1: a work of fiction and that key details didn't line up,
Speaker 1: But the testimony along with some of the wire tapped
Speaker 1: evidence did the trick. On April eleven, Juan Sagara was
Speaker 1: convicted on eleven counts, including aiding and abetting a robbery
Speaker 1: and helping to transport stolen funds. He was sentenced to
Speaker 1: sixty five years in prison. The other men received varying sentences.
Speaker 1: Two were found guilty of conspiracy, another of conspiracy and
Speaker 1: the transport of stolen money. The last was completely exonerated. Philiberto,
Speaker 1: who was still on the lamb, was sentenced to fifty
Speaker 1: five years in absentia. Fundamentally, the Wells Fargo case was
Speaker 1: an attempt to crown laws the Puerto Rican Arms Struggle
Speaker 1: independence movement, but to do so in a place where
Speaker 1: there would not be so many sympathizers to that movement.
Speaker 1: After the Wells Fargo verdicts, questions shifted from who was
Speaker 1: responsible and whether they'd be caught, to a debate that
Speaker 1: has continued for the better part of forty years. Were
Speaker 1: members of the Macha terris violent terrorists who robbed the
Speaker 1: bank or were they at war with an occupying force
Speaker 1: and within their rights under international law. In most cases,
Speaker 1: the crime story usually ends with the trial and conviction,
Speaker 1: but This is unlike most cases. It's complex and politically charged.
Speaker 1: It's not some plea about a robbery. And to truly
Speaker 1: understand the surprising fate that would befall a number of
Speaker 1: the Macha Tero's, including Victor Juan and Philiberto, we need
Speaker 1: to take a step back several decades in fact, and
Speaker 1: look at their efforts in the context of a larger movement,
Speaker 1: one of mass protests, clandestine organizations, and open rebellion in
Speaker 1: the halls of Congress. Those movements date back to the
Speaker 1: moment of the Spanish American War, when there were already
Speaker 1: folks who wanted to seek independence in the way that
Speaker 1: Cuba was seeking independence. Dr Yari mar Boni a Ramos,
Speaker 1: who spoke in the last episode, is an expert in
Speaker 1: Caribbean politics. She also runs a center for Puerto Rican
Speaker 1: Studies at Hunter College in New York. That current was
Speaker 1: always sustained and always had important figures, most notably, of course,
Speaker 1: Pedro Albizu. Compost is often called the father of Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico's moderate independence movement. He was born just a few
Speaker 1: years before the US annexed the island and spent a
Speaker 1: majority of his life either fighting for independence or in
Speaker 1: prison for his efforts. Here's retired FBI agent Bob Hybel.
Speaker 1: What happens is that a nationalist group is swarmed, was
Speaker 1: called the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. Albiscampos becomes the
Speaker 1: leader of that group. They're quite militant, They participating in
Speaker 1: elections in they're defeated, significantly defeated. From then on they
Speaker 1: turned the violence. Lbizo compost was a man of bold action.
Speaker 1: He led a strike on Puerto Rico's Light and Power
Speaker 1: company for its alleged monopoly on the island. He was
Speaker 1: a Harvard educated lawyer who represented sugarcane workers in a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the sugar industry. In ninety seven, roughly one
Speaker 1: year into a ten year prison sentence for a conspiracy
Speaker 1: to overthrow the US government, peaceful protests by his Nationalist
Speaker 1: party turned deadly. The poets a massacre is one of
Speaker 1: the clear examples of criminalization and stay balanced against the
Speaker 1: pro independence movement that University of Illinois professor Dr. Jose
Speaker 1: tell us. It took place in the context of the
Speaker 1: encarceration of pederal bisup Campos and all the leadership of
Speaker 1: the Nationalist Party. The new leadership of the party organized
Speaker 1: a demonstration and the Puerto Rican State and with the
Speaker 1: support of the US, denied the permit for this public
Speaker 1: demonstration English. You know, it was just a political rally.
Speaker 1: And when they canceled the authorization to have that rally,
Speaker 1: the insular police, now the Puerto Rican police, just started
Speaker 1: shurting and around twenty people die, around hundred were injured.
Speaker 1: No one was arrested or formally held accountable for the
Speaker 1: pont massacre. By the time albi Zoo Compost was released
Speaker 1: from prison in nineteen forty seven, tensions had started to
Speaker 1: boil over. People were angry about the ongoing police repression
Speaker 1: as well as a controversial gag law. By October of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, thousands of pro independence activists had had enough
Speaker 1: in stage revolts in towns and cities across Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: In Washington, d C, two men attempted to assassinate President
Speaker 1: Harry Truman in the name of independence. One of the
Speaker 1: men was killed, the other jailed, along with Albizoo composts
Speaker 1: in thousands of others. Then, four years later in Washington,
Speaker 1: D C. Ruthless fanatic violence erupted in the halls of
Speaker 1: Congress three men and a woman believed to be members
Speaker 1: of the Puerto Rican Nationalist gang that in November nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty attempted the assassination of President Truman opened fire from
Speaker 1: the visitors gallery of the House of Representatives. The attack
Speaker 1: by Raphael Cancel, Irvin Flores, Andre's Figueroa and Lolita Lebron
Speaker 1: was deemed a continuation of the revolts. Five congressmen were wounded.
Speaker 1: There were no intending to kill members of Congress, but
Speaker 1: they were aware of the possibility that they might die.
Speaker 1: So in that context, they were trying to get the
Speaker 1: international and the u S attentions to the case of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and what was happening in Puerto Rico with
Speaker 1: the repression and criminalization, but also with the process a
Speaker 1: sham process of the colonization. Lolita Lebron said quote, I
Speaker 1: did not come to kill anyone. I came to die
Speaker 1: for Puerto Rico. Like Albizo composts, Lebron and her compatriots
Speaker 1: received lengthy prison sentences and these people become heroes to
Speaker 1: certain elements in Puerto Rico. And the result of this
Speaker 1: criminal activity, the nationalist parties prosecuted in court and its
Speaker 1: leaders go to prison. Albizo compost was released from prison
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four after being pardoned by Puerto Rico's governor.
Speaker 1: He died a year later from what many believed to
Speaker 1: be the effects of radiation poisoning. The Nationalist Party as
Speaker 1: a party ceases to exist, However, the adherents of the
Speaker 1: Nationalist Party continue their activities relative to violent terrorist methods.
Speaker 1: Bob Bible says the nationalist movements of the forties and
Speaker 1: fifties deeply inspired Philiberto Ojeda Rios. He idolized Albizo Composts
Speaker 1: and left his career as a musician with the intention
Speaker 1: of picking up where his predecessor had left off. Additionally,
Speaker 1: both he and Juan Sagara have said they believe that
Speaker 1: the group's violent conflict with the US government is perfectly
Speaker 1: legal under international law. That they're not terrorists, they're fighting
Speaker 1: for self determination. It's a point I raised with dr Attilus.
Speaker 1: This is a really interesting question that international lawyers would
Speaker 1: devade for hours. In theory they were in the right right.
Speaker 1: We have the u N Resolution fifteen fourteen fifty that
Speaker 1: and recognize the right of the people to self determination.
Speaker 1: There is an old UN resolutions, a series of resolution
Speaker 1: that acknowledged the right of people on the colonial condition
Speaker 1: to pursue the self determination. Here's Dr Bonia again. I
Speaker 1: think it's hard to say how Puerto Ricans viewed loss
Speaker 1: in a kind of homogineous way, because I think there
Speaker 1: were lots of different views about them. For some folks
Speaker 1: they were kind of like boogeymen. They were, you know,
Speaker 1: bandits hidden in the mountains and shadowy figures. For others,
Speaker 1: they were heroes and celebrated. Dr Bonia is too young
Speaker 1: to remember of the group's more violent operations, but says
Speaker 1: she always understood that there were Puerto Ricans hidden away
Speaker 1: avoiding what she called the repression of the U. S. Government.
Speaker 1: The violence that I remembered was more of the violence
Speaker 1: of surveillance, the carpet, the quintel pro politics, the FBI.
Speaker 1: Like my memory of the independence movement is of a
Speaker 1: movement repressed, surveilled, and criminalized. And to me, that's the violence.
Speaker 1: That's that I most fervently remember. When I first heard
Speaker 1: about the Wells Fargo case as a sixteen year old,
Speaker 1: it didn't make much sense. Why would Victor Harain a
Speaker 1: steal money he couldn't keep even more puzzling, why would
Speaker 1: he agree to leave his family and live the rest
Speaker 1: of his life as a fugitive. Years later, as I've
Speaker 1: looked into the story myself, those questions have evolved into
Speaker 1: a different frame of thinking reflecting on the facts of
Speaker 1: the case. Within a historical context, what the Macha Teros
Speaker 1: were striving for, at its core was really no different
Speaker 1: from what the forefathers of America did during the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: Think about this. We had colonists fighting, robbing the British
Speaker 1: of arms and money, blowing things up, all in the
Speaker 1: name of independence. It's the same ideology. And while wan
Speaker 1: Zigara has said that he knew there was a good
Speaker 1: chance they'd all end up quote in prison or dead,
Speaker 1: I don't believe for one minute he didn't think there
Speaker 1: was another potential outcome. Because in nineteen seventy nine, just
Speaker 1: a few years before Wells Fargo, then President Jimmy Carter
Speaker 1: did the unthinkable. He commuted the sentences of Lolita Lebron
Speaker 1: and three others, including Oscar Koyazo, one of the men
Speaker 1: who attempted to assassinate President Truman. After his release, Koyazo
Speaker 1: told nbc AT decades later he had zero regrets at
Speaker 1: all fighting for the film of the country. If there's
Speaker 1: nothing to have remars off, I'm more committed than never
Speaker 1: every minute of my existence. If she would use violence again,
Speaker 1: I will do what is necessary for deliberation of Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: You see, clemency was an option for the Magic terrorists,
Speaker 1: and they all knew this, especially if there was someone
Speaker 1: powerful enough who found their sentences unfair and believed that
Speaker 1: their initial fight was for a just cause. And as
Speaker 1: it turns out, there was someone I William Jefferson Cletton
Speaker 1: do solemnly swear next time on White Eagle. Today we're
Speaker 1: going to focus on the President's decision to offer clemency
Speaker 1: two members of a Puerto Rican terrorist group. A presidential
Speaker 1: order ignites a firestorm in Congress. White Eagle is written
Speaker 1: and executive produced by Me and William Phelps and I
Speaker 1: Heart executive producer Christina Everett. Additional writing by our supervising
Speaker 1: producer Julia Weaver. Our associate producer and script supervisor is
Speaker 1: Darby Masters. Audio editing and mixing by Christian Bowman, Voice
Speaker 1: acting by Daniel Cologne, Julia Weaver and Abu zafar Our.
Speaker 1: Series theme forms regal or Grant is written by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Arlene Santana and Will Pearson at I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: and a very special thank you to Northern Night Productions
Speaker 1: for allowing us to use clips from the documentary The
Speaker 1: Last American Colony. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.