PUERTO RICAN TERRORISTS ALSO THREATEN REAGAN ASSASSINATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410090-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 90
• Publication Date: December 19, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410090-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
Oil PAGE r
7 cape Cuban Connection'!
San Juan, Puerto Rico:-Now it is
Puerto. Rican terrorists who may pose a
threat to President Reagan's life, ac-
cording to intelligence officers here and
judging by public evidence. Unlike
Muammar Qaddaft's pitmen, as U.S.
citizens the Puerto Ricans need not risk
crossing borders since they are already ?
here. Also,'they are indistinguishable
from millions of other Puerto Ricans
and Hispanics living stateside and thus
can move about freely.
Furthermore, the Puerto Rican ter-`
rorists are as well-trained and as
fanatical and reckless as their Libyan or
other foreign counterparts.' They have announced publicly their
intention to "get". the.President and
'top aides in?a recent speech by,their:
reputed "godfather," 72-year-old Juan:
Antonio Corretjer (the last syllable is
pronounced like the German guttural
"ch"). A revolutionary, firebrand for
-half a century,. Corretjer, lauding ? 11,
members of the Armed Forces of Na-
tional Liberation (FALN) found guilty
of seditious conspiracy by a federal jury
in Chicago, charged President Reagan
personally with -"bribing" and 1
"torturing" one of them, Alfredo
Mendez, into betraying his comrades..,
He then thundered:
"Who deserves contempt? - Who
deserves punishment? Poor Alfredo;
Mendez? No!. The President of the;
United States, the CIA chiefs, the FBI
chiefs, the ? warden . of Pontiac [Ill]
prison, the public prosecutors Margolis
and Sullivan in the federal office of they
Chicago district attorney, and thef
detectives and police of Chicago!" - I
19 Dece- ber .1.98''1
By DANIEL JAMES
`' .-,
The President is "humanity's worn the firebombing, which was carried out
~, in only seven minutes, 40 seconds-am-
enemy, Corretjer pronounced.
timony- to the -ierrorists' high
pie tes
Intelligence officers here regard level of precisionand efficienel..
the Cormtjer speech as ?a call to 1975; .Puerto Rican terrorist
-Puerto Rican terrorists to literally Since groups f 197.perpetrated 26C acts of
"punish'' the President and the col-ehce on the island, according to of-
law enfo*eement officials involved fcia1 count: These. range from bomb-
in prosecuting the F~-I-N ings of banks, post offices and U.S.
"Chicago ll," a case Full on the business enterprises to blowing up etec-
books. There is more than ample tric power plants and Gssautting
evidence of acts of vengeance corn- m litany installations and personnel.
milted by them over the years. An estimated 10 or more violent ;:t
In December 1979, three terrorist tacks were. committed on the mainland
groups ambushed a U .S. Navy bus ,e ' during the same period, mostly by the
route to Sabana Seca Communication FALN. ? Federal" authorities have re-
Center, near this capital city, shootin vived their investigation into 31 un-
two petty officers to death and wound solved bombings -in New York City
ing 10 other naval personnel. In a coon atone; based on new information sup-
munique they issued taking responsi-. plied by Alfredo Mendez.
bility for the attack, the terrorists said The_FA:LWis the only Puerto Rican
they were avenging the alleged murder group ope+atirt~g in'`.`er~emy territory"--
-of a comrade,- Angel Rodriguez'
Cristobal, who was found hanging in a
Tallahassee, Fla., prison cell and listed-
a "suicide." Corretjer exulted, after
.the sailors were-killed, "his [Rodriguez.
Cristobal'sl death is avenged.?-, N
Only last January, the same three ter-
rorist groups-the Maeheteros, Armed
Forces of Popular Resistance (FARP), I
and Organization of Volunteers for the.'
Puerto Rican Revolution (OVRP)-
joined in firebombing nine Air Na- I
tional Guard jets worth $45 million at
Isla Verde Air Base, also near San
Juan. This was a deliberately selected'
military target in their ongoing
"people's war of national liberation"!
against "Yankee imperialism."
. The writer has-seen a Macheteros-
produced videotape of preparations for
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410090-9