The Assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Rios by the FBI.

As we approach the 15th anniversary of the political assassination of El Comandante, Machetero Filiberto Ojeda Rios, we uphold his example as part of the history of resistance of the people of Puerto Rico. The FBI pursued Filiberto relentlessly for more than 40 years. Biding its time, the FBI waited until El Grito de Lares in 2005, an annual affirmation of our people's fights for independence, to assassinate him in his hometown of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios organized and fought by all the means at his disposal, like generations Puerto Rican freedom fighters have done for over 500 years. Taino warriors fought against the imperial empire of Spain. The resistance of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898 and our former and current political prisoners are a testament to our resistance. Today, this struggle continues and will continue until a truly independent Puerto Rico is a reality.

In 1990, Filiberto testified before the United Nations Decolonization Committee hearings on Puerto Rico. He denounced Puerto Rico’s colonial status, affirmed the inalienable right of the Puerto Rican people to fight, by any means necessary, for our independence and national sovereignty. Filiberto also spoke of the historic bonds of international solidarity with the people of the world, especially with the peoples of Latin American and the Caribbean.

Despite the ongoing lies and deception of Puerto Rican Revolutionaries like Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Pedro Albizu Campos, and others, we must stay vigilant and always remember these fallen souls that fought for independence.

I find it disgusting that we (US Citizens) continue to praise our so-called founding fathers of the United States but not fully examining the historical context behind it. Let’s not forget that many of our found fathers were slave owners, property owners, and simply racist individuals that had no empathy for any other race except for the Anglo-Saxons.

The American notion of a Manifest Destiny rested on a belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and its right to rule the Western Hemisphere, especially the Caribbean and Latin America. During the US Presidency of William Howard Taft he made the following statement:

“The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”

I guess in their eyes, they view Puerto Ricans, Blacks, and People of Color as “incapable of self-government” or “hostile to Christianity”!

Fast forward to the current day, has anything changed under the US rule? Look what is happening in other Latin America because of US Hegemonic Ideology being brutality imposed in these countries.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios will never be forgotten, and I encourage those who are reading the post to do some research on these revolutionary figures I mentioned above. History is a Weapon and we must utilize it to combat ignorance and fascist ideologies that are creeping up today.

FILIBERTO VIVE! LA LUCHA SIGUE!

Reference:

Juan A. Ocasio Rivera, Elma Beatriz Rosado. Five Years Later: Remembering Filiberto Ojeda Ríos. NACLA.org Retrieved from: https://nacla.org/news/five-years-later-remembering-filiberto-ojeda-r%C3%ADos

Denis, A. Nelson. War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony. Bold Types Book, NYC. 2015. p.254



by César Omar Sánchez. Community organizer, New York/New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, Advisory Board Member of ProLibertad: Free All Political Prisoners Campaign.

The End of US Failed Puppet: Juan Guaidó

By César Omar Sánchez

In the spring of 2019 at the Second Annual Lati Colloquium event at NJCU (New Jersy City University), I gave a presentation on US Imperialism and the role it played throughout Latin America. Giving the circumstance occurring in Latin America, I felt it was necessary to try bringing this out onto the discussion table for everyone to participate in. On one of the slides of my presentation, I gave a strong argument against US Interventions and possibly military attack strikes in Venezuela.

Flyer designed (front side)

by César Omar Sánchez

So, who is Juan Guaido, the so-called "interim president" of Venezuela?

Juan has graduate degrees from prestigious DC university George Washington, where he studied under a former IMF (International Monetary Fund) director, as well as attended private business school in Caracas, Venezuela. Yes, no doubt an elitist who surrounds himself with rich powerful individuals in the United States. However, he was better known on US soil than he was in his home country of Venezuela.

Guaido’s roots are in the militant right-wing of the opposition as an organizer in the violent street protests known as Guarimbas. These fascist protestors were responsible for numerous deaths, especially burning alive a black Venezuelan which resulted in his death.

Deeply connected to US regime change front groups like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, Juan Guaidó mission was to overthrow the socialist government by any means necessary. By 2010, international agencies were generously pouring up to 50 million dollars per year into funding the Venezuelan opposition movement. It sounds like a pretty open and shut case of a US/CIA regime change plot. All their rhetoric is about the “restoration of democracy”, the same narrative the mainstream media continues to repeat.

Sanctions on Venezuela, but why?

Flyer designed (back side)

by César Omar Sánchez

One part of my PowerPoint presentation I talked about the illegal and unethical sanctions against the sovereign country of Venezuela. These sanctions imposed by the United States and its junior partners against countries that resist their agendas. They are a weapon of Economic War, resulting in chronic shortages of necessities, economic dislocation, chaotic hyperinflation, artificial famines, disease, and poverty. In every country, the poorest and the weakest – infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly – suffer the worst impact of sanctions.

Jeffery Sachs who is a leading economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University said the following regarding the sanctions on Venezuela: 

“More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions”

Juan Guaidó approved these same US measures (sanctions) against his own people in Venezuela. 

Venezuela’s Oil

Since the illegal invasion of Iraq predicated on lies from our government and the cheerleaders at FOX, CNN, MSNBC and basically all mainstream media, we now know it was all about the oil. Like Iraq, Venezuela has a huge oil reserve which the United States will do anything to take control of it. After a failed coup (attempt overthrow of a government) in 2002 which the US was trying to oust out the democratically elected leader Hugo Chavez, US top officials are still trying to get their hands on Venezuela’s Black Gold...Oil

US Puppet “Juan Guaidó” Failed Miserably.

On January 5th, 2019, the Venezuelan National Assembly gave Juan Guaidó the final blow which ultimately was removed as president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. Even among his opposition party threw him under the bus after Juan Guaidó is being charged with numerous corruption allegations. These series of scandals include his role in the alleged embezzlement of “humanitarian aid” and links to Colombian paramilitaries. On the day of the vote at the National Assembly, Guaido never entered the legislative palace, claiming he was barred from doing so by security forces. A video circulated on social media even showed the opposition politician making a dramatic scene by trying to climb over the secured gates.  

However, his version of events has been called into question by other opposition deputies, who did take part in the session and suggested Guaido could have simply walked through the front door. AD Deputy William Davila, a staunch Guaido loyalist, was seen freely entering the chamber, and later told reporters that all but a handful of lawmakers were allowed to do so with NO PROBLEM. This is just another pathetic last attempt to try to win over his supporters in Venezuela.

This can possibly be the beginning of the end for Juan Guaidó, but make no mistake, the US Empire has many tricks up their sleeves.

North of Havana...A must read!

By César Omar Sánchez

This past holiday season, I met and spoke with author, lawyer Martin Garbus on his new recent book “North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secrets Diplomacy, and The Trial of The Cuba Five”. The book exposes the lies, deceptions, and ongoing Anti-Castro propaganda that still exists today in Miami and throughout the US. It tells the story of how since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Cuban exiles and the US have not forgiven Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba to retake what was rightfully theirs…their own country.

Fidel Castro passed away in 2016 and his brother Raul Castro who stepped down as president, and yet many Anti-Castro extreme right-wing Cuba exiles are continuing to destabilize the country using all types of methods for so long now. 

Martin mentions how the mainstream media, along with the US Government continues to fund journalists to undermine Cuba's government by distorting the facts about US secret involvement in Cuba. He also exposes the US support of terrorist individuals like Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch who were responsible for many deaths, especially a bombing of an airliner. All this information was taken from CIA’s own heavily documentation which broke the story to the public. Other methods of undermining the Cuba Revolution are the funding of organization like CANF (Cuban American National Foundation) that continues to use their financial power to influence the US government to impose an illegal economic blockade. At the time CANF pressured both political parties, Republicans and Democrats on tightening up the economic Illegal blockade like the Helms-Burton act with hopes the people of Cuba will rise-up and overthrow their socialist government out of desperation, but their plan failed. 

Other terrorist organizations like the Alpha 66 who were constantly attacking Cuba from the coast of South Florida also failed as well. It is important to point out, as Martin Garbus’s book brilliant does, it is that over the years militant exiles have been linked to everything from downing other airliners to hit-and-run commando raids on the Cuban coast to hotel bombings in Havana. They've killed Cuban diplomats and made numerous attempts on Castro's life in the past.

Martin Garbus speaking at the People's Forum at the anniversary and celebration of
the freedom of the Cuban Five

Flyer designed by César Omar Sánchez

Other organization provocateurs like “Brothers to the Rescue” led by Cuban exiled José Basulto was used to provoking the Cuban Government after illegally flying into Cuban Airspace. This provocation was against International Law that ultimately led to the shootdown of two of his aircraft by the Cuban Government who were just defending their nation. 

The Cuban Five, who were sent by the Cuban government to spy on these organizations based in Miami were arrested in September 1998 from US officials. The story of the Cuban Five by Martin Garbus is, in my opinion, is close and accurate of what occurred during the trial of these five brave souls who were defending their country from US Imperialism. 

There is so much information on this book I just don’t want to give it away. This new year take a trip to your local bookstore or simply just download the digital book. No doubt, this is a book worth reading!

by César Omar Sánchez. Community organizer, New York/New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, Advisory Board Member of ProLibertad: Free All Political Prisoners Campaign.