PUERTO RICAN TERRORISTS ALSO THREATEN REAGAN ASSASSINATION

Document Type: 
Collection: 
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
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
December 19, 1981
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410090-9.pdf102.68 KB
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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