Yeah, right .....
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a sweep in the US Caribbean commonwealth of Puerto Rico, saying it was needed to stop a "potential domestic terrorist attack."
In the operation Friday, in which authorities said no arrests were made, six federal search warrants were executed "aimed at preventing a potential domestic terrorist attack and the gathering of evidence related to an ongoing domestic terrorism investigation," said Luis Fraticelli, Special Agent in Charge, San Juan Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"Investigation by the FBI has revealed that this potential attack, where explosives devices were to be utilized, was directed at privately owned interests in Puerto Rico, as well as the general public," he added after the warrants were executed at a business and fives residences in San Juan, Trujillo Alto, San German, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, and Isabela.
Some critics scoffed at the claim saying it was a clear move by US federal officials to crack down on lingering support for pro-independence forces on the island of more than four million US citizens.
Political discourse there centers around whether the island, a former Spanish colony, should remain a US commonwealth, become a 51st US state or seek independence. Polls usually have shown a preference for the status quo.
Puerto Ricans are US citizens but cannot vote for president, have no voting representatives in the US Congress and pay no federal taxes. The United States invaded and occupied Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Though independence supporters have long been a tiny minority in Puerto Rico, the fatal shooting of a 72-year-old Puerto Rican nationalist during his arrest by FBI officials late last year is widely seen as having injected new public sympathy, if not support, for the "independentista" cause.
Filiberto Ojeda had been sentenced to 55 years for a 1983 robbery in Hartford in the northeastern US state of Connecticut. He was released on parole, but slipped into hiding, in 1990, triggering an FBI search.
He was the leader of a clandestine group supporting independence for Puerto Rico. The group, the Boricua-Macheteros Popular Army, has taken credit for numerous bombings at US military and government sites on the island.
In September, he was shot in the collarbone at his home in the Puerto Rican town of Hormigueros. The site was immediately sealed; local police and relatives were denied access. Ojeda died from his wounds the next day.
The FBI said that Ojeda had opened fire on federal agents who came to arrest him and that one agent was wounded. His wife, Elma Beatriz Rosado, gave a different account, saying the FBI shot first.
A doctor designated by Ojeda's family to monitor the autopsy, Hector Pesquera, alleged the FBI had denied him medical aid and left him to bleed to death. Thousands of mourners turned out in San Juan to pay respects.
Authorities pepper-sprayed members of the media in San Juan on Friday outside one of the locations that was searched, media reported. And a demonstration outside the federal building drew about 100 people.
Fraticelli said "it appears members of the media and the general public attempted to cross the established law-enforcement perimeter, and the use of non-lethal force was utilized.
"The FBI is committed to aggressively investigating all matters related to national security and the safety of the citizens of the United States, to include Puerto Rico," Fraticelli added.
Norberto Cintron Fiallo, a human rights activist who was in charge of organizing Ojeda Rios' funeral in September, told the daily El Nuevo Dia: "This was an operation to crack down on the surge of pro-independence sentiment on the island after the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios."
For Luis Abreu Elias, a former defense attorney for Ojeda Rios, "it is absurd for them to say they are investigating a terrorist plot. They are trying to turn public opinion against the pro-independence forces," he told the daily.
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