Machetero Leader Arrested + Updates!

[Kefentse_Bandele]

By EDMUND H. MAHONY |
Courant Staff Writer
2:55 PM EST, February 7, 2008


FBI agents in Puerto Rico said Thursday that they arrested Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, a fugitive member of the Puerto Rico pro-independence group Los Macheteros who is charged in the 1983 robbery of more than $7 million from a West Hartford armored car depot.

An FBI spokesman in San Juan said agents apprehended Gonzalez Claudio, 65, without incident at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at a housing development in the north coast city of Manati. Gonzalez Claudio has been a fugitive since jumping bail in 1986 to avoid trial on charges associated with the robbery.



Gonzalez Claudio's apprehension appears connected to renewed law enforcement interest in Los Macheteros, which the FBI considers a potential domestic terror threat.


U.S. marshals and a Hartford police officer stand guard outside U.S. District Court in Hartford in 1985 after 11 people were arrested in connection with the Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford in 1983.

Los Macheteros, which established itself in the 1970s as a militant wing of the larger Puerto Rico independence movement, had been largely quiet for decades until September 2005, when FBI agents shot and killed founder Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Ojeda, another fugitive from federal criminal charges, fired on agents when they tried to arrest him.

Since Ojeda's death, FBI agents have served search warrants on suspected Los Macheteros members or sympathizers in Puerto Rico and in New York.

In addition to the robbery of the former Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Los Macheteros claimed credit in the late 1970s and early 1980s for, among other things, eight bombings, the destruction of 11 U.S. military aircraft, the shooting deaths of two U.S. sailors and a rocket attack on the federal courthouse in San Juan.

Law enforcement and other sources believe Gonzalez Claudio was a senior member of the doctrinaire, Marxist organization, which received financial and other support from the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro. A significant amount of evidence developed through a variety of Los Macheteros investigations shows that the Cuban government received roughly half the $7 million stolen during the Wells Fargo robbery.

The sources said Gonzalez Claudio held seats on Los Machetero's two governing boards – the Directive and Central committees – and was among the senior members who voted to approve the Wells Fargo robbery, the group's most highly publicized action.

In addition, the sources said Gonzalez Claudio ran a cell that was responsible for the organization's military activities.

Ojeda and former Machetero Juan Segarra Palmer recruited Hartford resident Victor Gerena to act as their inside man in the Wells Fargo robbery. Gerena, who worked as a Wells Fargo driver, tied up his fellow employees and delivered the money to Ojeda and Segarra.

They, in turn, hid the money and Gerena behind false walls built into a mobile home and delivered the mobile home to a camp ground in upstate New York where Gonzalez Claudio and three others were waiting. Gonzalez Claudio and the others then drove Gerena and the money into Mexico, where they were met by Cuban security forces. Gerena and the money later were transported to Cuba, according to a former Cuban security officer who was involved in the operation.

[nattyreb]

This proves better than anything we can state up here that our struggles are intrinsically linked, just as they are focusing on the SF8 and who knows who else we may never even know about!!

[nattyreb]

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.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org

[nattyreb]

Extradition ordered
Avelino Gonzalez Claudio will be tried in Connecticut where the incident occurred
By Daniel Rivera Vargas
February 11, 2008 El Nuevo Dia
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/not...adicion/361339

Magistrate Marco Lopez today ordered the extradition to Connecticut of the presumed Machetero leader Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, in spite of his desire to be tried in Puerto Rico.

"As a political prisoner, Mr. Gonzalez Claudio invokes his rights under international law to remain in his homeland," said attorney Juan Ramon Acevedo, citing some of his client's written statements.

Ramon Acevedo asked for additional time for the bond hearing, given that they will ask that
Gonzalez Claudio remain free pending trial.

Additionally, the attorney denounced the alleged inhumane treatment his client is subjected to. He assured that he is held in solitary, in isolation, and that they have denied him access to sunlight. Including, he indicated they have not even allowed an adequate meeting with his attorney.

Outside Federal Court, various independentist organizations shouted slogans in support of Gonzalez Claudio.

He faces charges including bank robbery and others related to the theft of a $7 million deposit of Wells Fargo in Hartford Connecticut in September of 1982 [sic].

The clandestine organization The Macheteros claimed responsibility for this theft.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org