August 10, 2004
FEAR vs. HISTORY : Which will win?
by Liza Sabater
When we have this: JuliusBlog; how can we seriously consider this : MSNBC - FBI: Al-Qaida could use helicopters, limos?
The level of hysteria and paranoia vented through the media is getting out of control. Here were I live, in my slice of the East Village, "code orange" means security guards are now posted at the entry ways of our middle class "housing project"; not letting any car without their trunk being unturned. Meanwhile, every single man, woman and child carrying all sorts of obnoxiously sized carry accessories can go into the complex with no questions asked.
Am I asking for more security checks? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
What I want to bring to light is the "spectacle" of security; the badly directed and performed theater of anti-terrorism that is sweeping New York City.
Friday we rented a car to visit with some friends in New Jersey. Take the Holland Tunnel? Wrong way to go. The police was not just putting on a show of anti-terrorism detailing, they were not contented until they turned all of lower Manhattan into a parking lot. Slightly battered SUVs driven by dark-skinned men were being diverted to Vandam Street whereas everybody else on Broome Street and just a half a block away from the tunnel entrance was forced to go all the way down to North Moore Street --basically 1/4 mile away to come back to the other side of that half a block away entry to the Holland.
We bailed and ended up at the Botanical gardens.
I am absolutely furious with the media. As Christopher Hitchen's says at Slate.com, "[u]sually, the intelligence "community" prefers not to disclose what it knows, lest it tip people off as to how it has found out. Where's the reason, apart from PR, to abandon that useful principle in this case? Wouldn't you rather have the counterterrorism team where you couldn't see it, and nor could the perps? But then, where's the political "bounce" in that?
Chris, the bounce is at JuliusBlog. Go check it out.
My mother left New York City in '69 with her two kids in tow after our apartment on 13th Street came under gun fire from what was most likely from gang related activity. We ended up at her parents' home and my father followed a year later. During the '70s, Puerto Rico saw a lot of freedom fighting (if you were from the left) / terrorist (if you were from the right) activity. Bombs would go off in the middle of night at federal buildings or, even worse for the US government, Air Force or Army infrastructure would be blasted to pieces without nary a warning. There were Che-looking revolutionary wannabes and then there were the real McCoy, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (FALN) and the Boricua Popular Army or Macheteros .
My parents still felt Puerto Rico was much safer than 13th Street, between 2nd and 1st.
Even with all the bombing going on (which was not a lot but enough to keep people's attention), nihilism, skepticism and a good dose of paranoia did not settle in my psyche until the '80s. During the era of little red corvettes, feeling it like a virgin and culture clubs, Puerto Rico was witness to one of the most infamous cases of abuse of power in the island. The Cerro Maravilla cover-up is considered as Puerto Rico's 'Watergate' --and to this day many questions have been unanswered about this case, in particular, how high up in the government did the cover-up go.
The short part of the story starts with two revolutionaries / terrorists (take your pick), Arnaldo Darío Rosado, (25 years old at the time) and Carlos Soto Arriví (barely 19 years of age); who allegedly were going to blow up the the Cerro Maravilla "twin" (radio) towers. What they did not know was that their third wheel, Alejandro González Malavé was an undercover agent who had allegedely infiltrated their terrorist group. When they reached the hill, they supposedly were confronted and killed in a hail of bullets.
It was not until the mid-80's and after an investigative report published by the island's only English-language newspaper at the time (and a rather conservative newspaper at that), The San Juan Star, that the attack was revealed as a police planned counter-terrorist terrorist attack. Yes, I have not made a mistake so let me write it again : counter-terrorist terrorist attack.
- The evidence suggests González Malavé was to talk Soto Arriví and Darío Rosado into going to the hill to blow up the towers but before anything happened, they would be ambushed and arrested. What were their weapons? Contrary to the official government story, they had no weapons --amazingly, they took a taxi cab to the hill and the cabbie saw a lot of what had happened. From evidence and eyewitness reports, all they had was a lighter, matches and some coal. These would be used for blowing up butane tanks used for maintaining the towers.
- It is suggested in the reports that part of the police operatives were spying on other operatives due to corruption cases that were dividing the force; meaning that those awaiting to ambush were not "on the same page" with the commands they were to follow. Somewhere along the line a gun went off killing Dario Rosado. Soto Arrivi was killed shortly after. Two years after the criminal investigation started, González Malavé was misteriously murdered in a drive-by shooting that, incredibly, had no witnesses.
The question that begs to be asked is why go through all this trouble?
People, want to live in a safe country and "the people" will clamor for more funding for the police and kinds of government paramilitary groups, to ensure public safety. The Puerto Rican police, with what strongly looks like a nod from the governor's mansion and aid from the local branch of the FBI, would spy on, entrap and even kill revolutionaries by aiding, abetting and in the case of Maravilla, brain-storming terrorist activities that then they would "counter" with their undercover operatives. The more terrorists they "caught" this way, the more money, prestige and power would trickle down from Washington. At the time of Cerro Maravilla the police officers were all promoted and hailed as heroes by the then governor. And the island got more funding for their counter-terrorist operatives.
In other words, Cerro Maravilla was good PR for the "national safety" money machine.
I see history repeating itself.
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On the Cerro Maravilla case:
Romero-Barcelo v. Hernandez-Agosto
FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code
PUERTO RICO CASE STIRS NEW APPEAL
Comisión por la Verdad y la Justicia
The movie Show of Force, A (1990) was based on the book Murder Under Two Flags: The U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-Up
EL VOCERO de Puerto Rico, which is like the Puerto Rican NY Post, won a journalism award for their 1995 investigative re-examination of the case : Pulso: Articulos Anteriores: ¿Qué pasó en el Cerro Maravilla?
OMFG! I had totally forgotten about Roy Brown! Las Carpetas de Roy Brown
Posted by Liza Sabater in History, New York City, Politics, Puerto Rico, War
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Say it loud, say it proud!
Hi!
In reference to the "Cerro Maravilla" case, I would like for you to be "The Judge" in the information I will supply:
Year 1967, I was working for the Communications Division that was adscribed to the div. of the intelligence office of the Police of Puerto Rico. In that year I received a call from the secretary of Justice, Mr. Rafael Hernandez-Colon who wanted to communicate with the Intelligence office. On finding out that he had been communicated with the wrong office, he immediately hung up the phone without excusing himself and proceeded to report me to the office of the Superintendent of hanging up the phone on him. In those days, the Intelligence office was dedicated to persecuting the pro-independence followers. In 1969 he was elected senator and in 1972 he was elected governor of Puerto Rico. First, as secretary of justice, then as senator and finally as governor, he knew of the persecution by the Intelligence division. In 1976 he loses his bid to the governorship to Carlos Romero-Barcelo, a statehooder. In 1974 he signs a law making the governor of Puerto Rico commander in chief of the police. In july 25, 1978 the "Cerro Maravilla" case occurs. The police that were involved in this case, were all employed under governor Rafael Hernandez-Colon's party, including the infamous agent, Alejandro Gonzalez-Malave (1973). In the middle 90's, police Coronel Melia, who had been named under governor Hernandez's party and under oath, said: On july 26, 1978(the next day after Maravilla) I informed Mr. Rafael Hernandez Colon all that had really occurred in Cerro Maravilla, but the truth, even though it was known by Rafael Hernandez-Colon the next day it had ocurred did not b ecome official until 1984 when the Senate by Hernandez-Colon's party was in power. In 1984 the truth surprisingly arose, that the police had murdered the pro-independence victims. The question is, why did governor Rafael Hernandez-Colon hide this fact for all those years until he eliminated the Intelligence division around 1987 after winning the governorship in the 1984 elections?
You be the judge!
Ricardo
1
Comment by: Ricardo Marrero at April 28, 2005 10:27 PM