STILL BASHING BORICUAS—Part II
José Angel Gutiérrez
joseangelgutierrezbooks.com
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Puerto Rico was an independent nation as of November 25, 1897. The Spanish government granted the Puerto Rican people independence in its Carta de Autonomia. From that day forward the Puerto Ricans would form an Insular Government that would govern the inhabitants of the island country. They would form a legislative branch that would sit with the Spanish Cortes and a Governor General would be appointed by the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII under the Regency of his mother, Maria Cristina de Austria. On February 10, 1898, no sooner was the ink dry five days later on the Carta de Autonomia that the US had sent the USS Maine into Cuba’s Habana harbor which mysteriously blew up. That was the beginning of the US war against Spain which resulted in the taking of all Spanish possessions previously held by the US. This included Puerto Rico under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The Insular Government of Puerto Rico was not made a party to this treaty. Two major signers, the US and Spain, no longer had any legal claim to Puerto Rico.
Among many who protested this illegal occupation was Pedro Albizu Campos and other Independistas. (Read Part I of this essay) J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI then, in the 1950s began two programs of surveillance that included Puerto Ricans both on the island and in the US, COMINFIL and COINTELPRO. The first was to ferret out and convict any communist in the US government and community organizations. The second was to maintain surveillance on any activist promoting independence for Puerto Rico. On October 25, 1997, a group of New York- based Young Lords took peaceful possession of the Statue of Liberty for a few hours to protest the continued illegal hold and control of the island by the US military, FBI and local police. Hence, the FBI surveillance of Puerto Ricans in the US and on the island continues. However, it has taken on a new dimension and a new target as of 2018, the Jornada Se Acabaron Las Promesas (JSALPPR); a new pro-independence activist group started around 2016. Jocelyn Velásquez, founder of this organization has protested the FBI’s categorization of their peaceful group as a “terrorist organization.” Another new group as of 2014 is led by Black Puerto Rican women is La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (La Cole) which is also under FBI surveillance. According to two leaders of La Cole, Shariana Ferrer Núñez and Zoán Dávila Roldán, they have also been made part of the “terrorist” groups monitored by the FBI and local police. Among the many protests these two groups have launched besides demanding independence has been against fraud and corruption at the highest levels of government. The former governor Wanda Vazquez has twice been convicted of bribery was forced out of office but pardoned twice by President Trump. Her successor, Jennifer González Colón, was now also under investigation until the DOJ ordered the investigation stopped. Allegedly, she had drugs handed out to prison gangs in exchange for their vote for her as governor. She won the election with 41% of the total vote and 87% of that vote came from prisoners. She was head of Latinos for Trump and will also be pardoned if the investigation is resumed and she is found guilty.
Meanwhile, the US military and FBI are wasting no time in improving their surveillance apparatus. The US Coast Guard has received over $16 million to conduct aerial surveillance with drones over the Caribbean including Puerto Rico. The V-BAT is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can fly for 12 hours operated by a 2-person team. This drone component is a small part of a larger contract of $229.3 million with Shield AI. This contractor also had another contract to fly missions over Ukraine in 2025. These drones are now equipped with 6-pound guided missiles. Those were used to destroy the small boats the US said were drug traffickers and televised the world over. Since 2025, 57 such persons have been killed in those waters on those small boats by US drones. Now, the FBI is requesting that surveillance missions include the protests by La Cole and JSALPPR. , .
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