Puerto Rico: The Macheteros Reappear and Denounce Pesquera http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=7129 Yesterday the University Pro-Independence Federation (FUPI in Spanish) organized its first demonstration against the person who has been nominated as Chief of Police for Puerto Rico, Héctor Pesquera, according to reports fromEl Nuevo Día. Luis Cintrón, Communications Secretary for the FUPI described the nominee – a former FBI agent and director in Puerto Rico – as a “terrorist” who has oppressed the Cuban people since the 1970s. Héctor Pesquera “The purpose of this demonstration is to reject the nomination of Héctor Pesquera as Police Superintendent, knowing that he is a person who has links to international terrorism and crimes against humanity,” said Cintrón, accompanied by some 50 people who occupied two lanes of Roosevelt Avenue this afternoon, across from the General Headquarters of Puerto Rico’s police.According to Cintrón, Pesquera has collaborated with international terrorism. Reports appearing in leftist media which have been re-distributed by U.S. mainstream media point out that Pesquera has maintained certain links with the Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, as well as a group of individuals who planned an assassination attempt against the former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, at Isla Margarita, Venezuela. Pesquera has not troubled himself with the details of these complaints and has said simply that they are all “fabricated news.” This afternoon, Carrión, who promised that the FUPI would oppose Pesquera’s nomination during his confirmation hearing on Monday, pointed out that these stories have been published by media without leftist connections, like the Miami Herald and the Washington Post. He accused Pesquera of criminalizing the political struggle, based on Pesquera’s political career of collaboration with the extreme right-wing Cuban émigrés, openly challenging the Puerto Ricans who are struggling for independence. The Macheteros Reappear “It’s time to put an end to things whose only purpose is to divert attention from our natural destiny. Independence. They want to mix criminality with the political struggle, and that we shall not allow. That’s why Héctor Pesquera was brought in,” said the Macheteros in a press release sent to the InterNews Service (INS). “We call on all the rest of the organizations in struggle, to create a Large Front, to block the realization of this plan. It’s time for us to show the power of unity, the same way the Puerto Rican people have demonstrated in the past when they have put their differences to one side in order to confront the common enemy. The Macheteros will do our duty,” it added. The press release said that “[As] the Popular Boricua Army – Los Macheteros – we have warned the authorities that this nomination, which is a provocative action, may cause repercussions.” The group indicated that it is very much alive and willing to take the necessary steps to put an end to Puerto Rico’s current colonial status. The Macheteros include Pesquera on a list that includes José Figueroa Sancha and Luis Fraticelli as oppressors of the Puerto Rican people who have persecuted and attacked its citizens. The group cites reports from El Nuevo Herald about Pesquera, where he is linked with controversial cases such as the arrest of the Cuban Five who were accused of spying in Miami, the murder of a Venezuelan prosecutor, and the protection of the well known Cuban émigré terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, among other. The Governor of Puerto Rico was involved in a corruption scandal with Mafia-connected Pesquera http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=7127 Luis Fortuño, the Governor of Puerto Rico who recently nominated Héctor Pesquera as Chief of Police for the island, was involved in a corruption scandal in 2004 along with the former Cuban American Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart, an associate of Pesquera’s. Pesquera is the former FBI official who has been repeatedly denounced for his Cuban American mafia connections. Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset, the current Governor of Puerto Rico, head of the New Progressive Party (PNP) and a member of the U.S. Republican party, was Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in 2004 when he made a special trip to Florida, accompanied by the Puerto Rican Senator Jorge de Castro Font, in order to deliver “some checks” to the mafioso Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart. The checks were illegal campaign contributions. Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner is an elected member of the U.S. Congress, but without voting privileges. Castro Font himself denounced the affair in 2008 when he was arrested for corruption. “Luis and I went to Miami to deliver a few checks that some friends in Puerto Rico delivered to us to hand over to Lincoln Díaz-Balart,” the Puerto Rican senator said in a radio interview with station WKAQ. FBI and IRS agents raided Castro Font’s home and Senate offices on August 24, confiscating documents and weapons, according to the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora. Castro Font later faced 32 federal charges of corruption for presumably soliciting money in return for approving projects dependent on legislation. Despite Castro Font’s statements, the FBI apparently did not bother to include Fortuño in the dossier. For many years, Senator Castro Font was linked to Cuban émigrés in Puerto Rico and maintained close relations with Cuban American ringleaders, the Díaz-Balart brothers among them. Jorge de Castro Font Lincoln Diaz-Balart Lincoln Díaz-Balart was forced to step down from the U.S. House of Representatives due to the heavy suspicions of corruption swirling around him. Among other things, he was accused of having directed millions of dollars in federal contracts toward two defense contractors located in Miami-Dade: Locust USA and Mark Two Engineering. Unfortunately, another member of Fortuño’s PNP, the Senator Roberto Arango, was simultaneously forced to resign after having posted nude photos of himself on the Internet. He was the main Puerto Rican supporter of U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Díaz-Balart’s colleague. Héctor Pesquera, the former FBI official who headed the federal police in both Puerto Rico and Miami, has spoken on numerous occasions about how he carried out the arrest and investigation of the Cuban Five, a group of Cubans who had come to Florida and infiltrated the Cuban American terrorist groups located there. Lincoln Díaz-Balart provided direction to Pesquera in the case against the Five, and Pesquera in turn, kept Díaz-Balart constantly informed. On September 12, 1998, after spending the night directing his agents’ operation against the Cuban Five, Pesquera reported first to Díaz-Balart, before notifying senior officials at the FBI, including Director Louis Freeh. In order to carry out this highly political operation, Díaz-Balart, Pesquera, and the CIA network that supported them had forced the hand of Attorney General Janet Reno along with her collaborators who resisted the initiative, which had been directly inspired by the most hard-line sectors of the Miami mafia. Fortuño is the same Governor of Puerto Rico who, in 2010, ordered hundreds of police to enter the University of Puerto Rico, where they engaged in numerous violent actions against the students, setting off protests. The New Progressive Party promotes Puerto Rico’s annexation by the United States.