Boricua Popular Army - Notable Incidents

Notable Incidents

• In August 1978, the group accepted responsibility for the murder of San Juan police officer Julio Rodríguez Rivera while attempting to steal his police car.

• In 1979, two attacks were made on unarmed US Navy technicians. In the first, on December 3, Macheteros opened fire on a bus carrying sailors to Naval Security Group Activity Sabana Seca, killing CTO1 John R. Ball and RM3 Emil E. White, as well as wounding nine others. A second attack, on off-duty sailors returning from liberty, killed one and wounded three. The attack was in retaliation for the murder in a prison of a member of the Macheteros by the prison guards who were retired Marines.

• On January 12, 1981, in the 1981 Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport attack, Machetero commandos infiltrated the Puerto Rico Air National Guard's Muñiz Air National Guard Base, located on the northeastern corner of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. The infiltrators destroyed or damaged ten A-7 Corsair II light attack aircraft and a single F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter-interceptor aircraft. Total damages were estimated to be in excess of $45 million in 1981 US dollars. The subsequent investigation concluded security at the base was so lax that the attackers managed to enter and depart the base without ever being detected. The attack later served as the basis for upgrading base security, especially flight line security, at all Air National Guard installations on civilian airports in the United States to the same level as active duty U.S. Air Force installations.

• On September 12, 1983, in an operation entitled Águila Blanca (White Eagle) the group assaulted the Wells Fargo depot located in West Hartford, Connecticut stealing a total of seven million dollars. After the robbery, the Macheteros threw some of the stolen money into the air from high floor buildings and used most of the remaining sum to fund their continued operations. According to a written statement from the Macheteros, the action was a symbolic protest against the "greed-infested men and mechanisms which strain our elected officials, government agencies, and social aspirations in this country, as well as in Puerto Rico." Under Puerto Rico, US and international law, the act was categorized as terrorism due to the way it was executed, the organization's stated motives and the trauma suffered by the Wells Fargo security guards. The criminal charges filed against the participants in this robbery include: Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Robbery of Federally Insured Bank Funds, Armed Robbery, and Conspiracy to Interfere With Commerce By Robbery.

• In 1998, Los Macheteros claimed responsibility for an explosion at a small power station in the San Juan metropolitan area. The explosion caused limited power outages.

• On September 23, 2005, the anniversary of "el Grito de Lares" ("The Cry of Lares") members of the FBI San Juan field office surrounded a modest home in the outskirts of the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, where Ojeda Ríos was believed to be hiding. The FBI claims that it was performing surveillance of the area because of reports that Ojeda Ríos had been seen in the home. In their press release, the FBI stated their surveillance team was detected, and proceeded to serving an arrest warrant against Ojeda Ríos. The FBI claims that as the agents approached the home, shots were fired from inside and outside the house wounding an FBI agent. The FBI alleges it then returned fire fatally wounding Ojeda Ríos. A subsequent autopsy of Ojeda's body determined that he bled to death over the course of 15 to 30 minutes. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission started an investigation of the incident shortly after Ojeda Rios' death. Their report was due out on December 31, 2009.