Torture of Machetero denounced
MINH alleges that the "different treatment" Gonzalez Claudio is receiving is intended to "soften" him.
By The Associated Press
February 11, 2008 El Nuevo Dia
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/not...chetero/361230
SAN JUAN - The co-chair of the National Hostos Independence Movement, (MINH), Hector Pesquera, denounced today the fact that federal prisoner Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, linked to the clandestine group The Macheteros, is supposedly being tortured in the federal detention center in Guaynabo where he has been confined since he was arrested on Wednesday [sic].
"We have information that they have already started to torture him, covering up the windows so he cannot know whether it's day or night," said Pesquera in a radio interview (WSKN).
Pesquera, a doctor by profession, said that the supposed "different treatment" Gonzalez Claudio is receiving in the jail is meant to "soften him, preparing to break his will."
Asking about the matter, governor Anabal Acevedo Vila said that any allegation of mistreatment must be "immediately" taken to the highest levels of federal jurisdiction by Gonzalez Claudio's attorneys.
However, he said that in Puerto Rico, "let's not fool ourselves. Here, historically, federal and state authorities... the way they treated independentists was very different from the way they treated other citizens."
Immediately, Migdalia Torres, public information officer at the federal jail in Guaynabo, said she had no information about Pesquera's allegations, but promised to investigate and get back to the Associated Press.
"I've just arrived; I don't have any information," said Torres.
Pesquera pointed out that Gonzalez Claudio, while clandestine for 22 years, was a teacher of computer science for the musician and comedian Silverio Perez and a president of the Supreme Court who could not be identified.
"We know that Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, during the life he lived under another name, was a very productive person for the Country," said Pesquera.
As for the judicial process which is to continue this afternoon, Pesquera said that Gonzalez Claudio will not recognize the jurisdiction of the federal court to extradite him.
"He is going to ask that he be judged here, in Puerto Rico," said Pesquera.
"That he be judged in his own land... anything else would be kidnap," he added.
Gonzalez Claudio has an identification hearing today before being extradited to Hartford, Connecticut, where he will face charges of bank robbery, among others, related to the robbery of $7 million of a Wells Fargo deposit in that city in September of 1982 [sic].
The clandestine organization The Macheteros claimed responsibility for this robbery.
On August 30, 1985, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), arrested 11 of 17 people related the clandestine organization which claimed responsibility for the deaths of two sailors from the Sabana Seca Navy Base and for the death of a police officer, in addition to the destruction of nine Puerto Rico National Guard airplanes.
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