A member of Puerto Rican nationalist group los macheteros pleaded not guilty to an armed robbery in 1983. Avelino Gonzalez Claudio proclaimed his innocence to several charges relating to the $7 million heist of a West Hartford Wells Fargo armored car depot which was supposedly masterminded by los macheteros.Last Friday, we mentioned how attorneys tried to avoid Gonzalez Claudio’s extradition from Puerto Rico to Connecticut on the grounds of the island’s “colonial status with the U.S.” Gonzalez Claudio had been arrested by the FBI earlier this month, and according to the Associated Press:
Authorities have long suspected that Los Macheteros used proceeds from the robbery to finance attacks aimed at forcing the U.S. to grant Puerto Rico independence. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but cannot vote in presidential elections and have no voting representative in Congress.
The Macheteros, whose name is variously translated as the "Machete Wielders" or "Cane Cutters" are suspected in a series of such bombings and attacks staged throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Their alleged leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed in a 2005 shootout with the FBI at a remote farmhouse in Puerto Rico.
Sources- International Herald Tribune, WFSB, The Latin Americanist, Associated Press, Wikipedia, newsday.com
Image- tkb.org (Insignia of los macheteros)
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