Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:23:49 -0500
From: james m blaut <70671.2032-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: M-I: CINTELPRO_Chicago_Puerto Ricans


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Subject: CINTELPRO_Chicago_Puerto Ricans
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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 00:54:43 EST
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Subject: CINTELPRO_Chicago_Puerto Ricans
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Stop the FBI's War on the Puerto Rican Community!


History of COINTELPRO:
In the 1960s, the FBI established a covert operation called COINTELPRO. The
stated purpose of COINTELPRO was to neutralize progressive movements
developing across the country at that point, particularly movements by
colonized peoples for community self-determination. The FBI considered these
movements to be threats to "national security". The Black Panther Party, the
American Indian Movement, the Chicano/Mexicano movement, and the Puerto Rican
independence movement were primary targets of COINTELPRO.

To achieve the objective of neutralizing these movements, the FBI utilized a
combination of tactics: political assassinations, e.g. Fred Hampton and Mark
Clark; frame-ups and incarcerations, e.g. Leonard Peltier and Geronimo Pratt;
the dissemination of misinformation within movements via FBI plants in order
to foster divisions; and the dissemination of misinformation to the larger
public via media manipulation in order to discredit progressive movements. To
implement COINTELPRO, the FBI enlisted the cooperation of local law
enforcement officials and right-wing interest groups, creating a nexus of
federal and local forces.

In the 1970s, a federal-level investigation exposed COINTELPRO to the larger
public and allegedly resulted in the termination of the covert program.
Reforms were enacted that restricted the powers of the FBI. However, these
reforms were soon dismantled by the Reagan Administration and evidence
accumulated during the 1980s that COINTELPRO was alive and well. Political
prisoners- men and women who were targeted for incarceration by COINTELPRO-
were subjected to long-term, arbitrary confinement within the new "supermax"
prisons, such as the Marion and Lexington Control Units, where they were
subjected to physical and psychological torture. Moreover, progressive
organizations such as the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El
Salvador (CISPES) experienced surveillance and disruptions of their activities
by the FBI.

COINTELPRO and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center:
COINTELPRO was largely successful in repressing the wave of movements that
developed during the 1960s for self-determination. By the late 1970s, the
Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement- to cite a few examples-
were effectively destabilized by government repression. However, some
movements survived and continued to grow. 

One of these movements was the Puerto Rican independence movement in Chicago.
Over the past 25 years, Puerto Rican independence activists in Chicago have
established the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC)- a strong, grassroots
infrastructure of community organizations, including  the Dr. Pedro Albizu
Campos alternative high school, the Family Learning Center for young mothers,
the Consuelo Lee Corretjer child care center, the Vida SIDA AIDS prevention
project, a community garden, and the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos community museum.
PRCC activists have  also joined forces with other community activists to
develop a thriving corridor of local, Puerto Rican owned businesses- Paseo
Boricua.

Under the umbrella of the PRCC, this infrastructure has engaged local Puerto
Ricans in making their own history and meeting their own needs, while
promoting national, anti-colonial consciousness. Moreover, this infrastructure
has allowed independence activists to organize broad support from the
community for other independence activists who are victims of government
repression, i.e. men and women who have spent more than 15 years in prison on
fraudulent charges. The FBI refers to these activists as the FALN (Fuerzas
Armadas de Liberacion Nacional) "terrorists".

In view of the successful organizing by Chicago-based Puerto Rican
independence activists, the FBI has targeted the PRCC from 1973 through the
present for COINTELPRO destabilization. The FBI has maintained intensive
surveillance of PRCC activists and sought to disrupt the PRCC's work through
agent provocateur activity. The FBI has even offered to pay former students of
the PRCC's alternative high school to wear wire-taps and return to school. In
addition, the FBI has consistently attempted to discredit the work of the PRCC
by disseminating to the public the misinformation that the PRCC is essentially
a "terrorist" operation run by the FALN. In 1983, the FBI raided the building
of the PRCC's alternative high school, destroying much of the school's
property, under the guise that the FBI was searching for evidence that would
substantiate the alleged link between the PRCC and the FALN. The FBI failed to
find any evidence and later issued an official apology. Unfortunately, the
apology was insincere. In 1985, the alternative high school was given an
"Excellence in Education" award by the Council on American Private Education
(CAPE), but the award was soon withdrawn after CBS mysteriously did an
"expose" that the school was an alleged recruitment base for the FALN. The FBI
continues to perpetrate the FALN myth- despite the fact that that there has
been no concrete evidence of the FALN's existence for nearly two decades now-
as a smokescreen for its efforts to destabilize the PRCC. Similarly, the FBI
utilized the threat of a Soviet Communist conspiracy to justify its all-out
assault on the civil rights movement during the 1960s.

The Current COINTELPRO Attack on the PRCC: the Chapter One Scandal and the
Dec. 10, 1992 Bombing:

On February 3, 1997, the Chicago Sun Times ran a front-page attack on the
PRCC, alleging that its activists had infiltrated Clemente Public High School
and illegally utilized Chapter One funds to promote support for "FALN
terrorists". Around the same time period, the Chicago Tribune also ran a
similar article that undermined the credibility of the PRCC. In the aftermath
of the media blitz, Edgar Lopez appointed a legislative committee to
investigate the alleged misuse of Chapter One funds. Lopez's committee
proceeded to subpoena various activists for information.

During this same period, the local Puerto Rican community was being flooded by
a well-funded publication-- "El Pito"-- the central goal of which was to
discredit the PRCC through personal and political slander. Dennis Perez, a
real estate developer in Chicago's Puerto Rican community and Gloria Chevere,
a lawyer-- both militant proponents of Puerto Rican statehood-- were some of
the key people behind the publication of "El Pito".

Then, soon after these developments, the FBI began issuing subpoenas to PRCC
activists in reference to a Dec. 10, 1992 bombing in Chicago that the FBI was
attempting to link to the PRCC. Parallel to the FBI's investigation, the
Illinois State Police was also conducting an investigation into the Chapter
One "scandal". 

The net result of these three developments within the last year is to
destabilize and discredit the work of the PRCC. Though on the surface, they
would seem to be disconnected incidents, in actuality they are bound together
by a single person: Rafael Marrero. Significantly, during the early 1990s,
Marrero used to work for the PRCC, but eventually clashed with veteran PRCC
activists for his ultra-left postures and divisive conduct. Research has
revealed that Marrero displayed the same conduct while working with the
independence movement in Puerto Rico before relocating to Chicago. After
leaving the PRCC, Marrero soon abandoned his alleged commitment to Puerto
Rican independence and began to wage war on his former "comrades" at the PRCC.
Marrero claimed to be an expert source of information on the PRCC.  What are
the facts behind Marrero's accusations and the recent developments?

Fact: 
Marrero was the main source of information that the media utilized in their
Chapter One scandal expose. Despite Marrero's allegations, there has been no
concrete evidence presented to the public that Chapter One funds were misused.
In fact, a financial audit conducted by the firm Arthur Anderson found no
wrong-doing in reference to the use of Chapter One funds, although it did
uncover wrong-doing in reference to administrative management at Clemente High
School. Despite all of the subpoenas it issued and the information it
collected, Lopez's investigative committee has been silent for approximately a
year until recently when Lopez announced that the committee would hold
hearings on the use of Chapter One funds at Clemente. Conveniently, the
hearings are scheduled for March 3-4, approximately two weeks before the
legislative elections in which Lopez is seeking re-election.  

Fact: 
What the media did not report when  they extensively quoted Marrero for their
Chapter One story is that six days prior to the story's release, Marrero was
on a mission for the FBI; he was wire-tapped while he met with former DePaul
professor Jose Solis in Puerto Rico who Marrero was attempting to entrap for
the Dec. 10, 1992 bombing. In other words, the media's main information source
on the PRCC was someone actively working with an agency that has a long track
record of attempting to destabilize the PRCC and other progressive movements.

Fact: 
Marrero is also the main "witness" to the FBI on the Dec. 10, 1992 bombing.
Marrero claims that he personally organized and carried out the bombing with
Solis and several others, but that Jose Lopez, the executive director of the
PRCC, was the "intellectual architect" of the bombing. At the time the bombing
occurred, Jose Lopez condemned
 
the act before a human rights rally as being the act of an "agent
provocateur".

Fact: 
Marrero is the central force behind "El Pito". In fact, the most recent issue
of "El Pito" highlights a photograph of Marrero holding up an FBI badge in
order to provoke and ridicule PRCC activists.

In view of the FBI's extensive history of attempting to crush movements by
colonized peoples for self-determination in general and the Chicago-based
Puerto Rican independence movement in particular, it is clear that this latest
round of attacks and the work of Marrero are current manifestations of
COINTELPRO. The FBI's involvement and manipulation of local forces-- from
local politicians such as Lopez-- appears to have reached a new level of
sophistication.  Is the FBI involved in the decision to hold the hearings on
the Chapter One scandal a mere several weeks prior to local elections? Is the
FBI involved in promoting Lopez's re-election?  As these questions hang over
the heads of concerned people, the FBI intensifies its surveillance of PRCC
activists. As recently as last week, a female FBI agent attempted to solicit
information from a PRCC activist by falsely representing herself as a relative
of one of the activist's friends.  It is clear that the FBI is attempting to
link the Chapter One scandal to the Dec. 10,  1992 bombing as part of a an
alleged "FALN conspiracy" in order to deal a death blow to the PRCC. 

It is the duty of progressive people to stand up with PRCC activists to defend
the integrity of the PRCCis work in this critical hour in which the survival
of the PRCC is jeopardized.

What You Can Do:
Come to a Press Conference and Protest Against the FBI Attack on the PRCC!
Feb. 13, 9 AM, the Federal Plaza at 219 S. Dearborn.

Get Involved with the Friends of the PRCC and Help Build a Defense Fund for
the PRCC! Contact ph:773-342-8022 for Information.



 


 


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