Ojeda Rios report expected by Dec. 31

Eva Llorens - Puerto Rico Daily Sun
San Juan, Puerto Rico - November 27, 2009

The Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission is slated to reveal by Dec. 31 the results of its investigation into the Sept. 23, 2005 death of Macheteros Leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos.

Elma Beatriz Rosado admires a Filiberto Ojeda's portrait by photographer Farrique Pesquera, left on this picture (Foto: Bas)

Commission Executive Director Vance Thomas said the panel is already writing the report on its investigation, which has been several years in the making.

He declined to reveal details as to the probe.

The commission’s investigation is the only active one on the case, as local and federal authorities closed their own probes several years ago.

"We hope to have [the report] by Dec. 31", Thomas told the Daily Sun.

Ojeda Ríos, who was born in 1933, headed the Macheteros, a pro-independence militant group that in 1983 robbed $7 million from the Wells Fargo in Hartford, Connecticut. He was sentenced to 55 years in jail for that crime. However, in 1990, he went on the lam after taking off the electronic bracelet used to track his movements.

After being a fugitive for about 15 years, Ojeda Ríos' life ended in 2005, after FBI officials shot him at his Hormigueros home during a raid. Ojeda Ríos' widow, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, survived the raid.

Since then, pro-independence groups have contended that Ojeda Ríos was murdered because he was left to bleed without any medical assistance. They also questioned why hundreds of FBI agents could not subdue one elderly person.

While Thomas has declined to reveal details about the probe, the Civil Rights panel has investigated several allegations as to the FBI's actions during the raid, the Daily Sun has learned.

One of the allegations is a claim that federal agents allegedly altered the scene of the bloody event in front of Puerto Rican government officials so that they could not be accused of killing Ojeda Ríos.

The Macheteros leader was shot to death by a bullet fired by an FBI agent, identified only as Brian.

The commission has sought out the help of ballistic experts to determine the trajectory of the bullets and shed some light into what happened that day.

Another allegation raised against the FBI was that agents allegedly tried to make Ojeda Ríos' death appear as a suicide to try to discredit his wife.

To this day, the FBI has maintained that the Office of the Inspector General interviewed all the officials who took part in the raid and has cleared the agency of any wrong doing.