![]() The FBI recounted the incident in a press release where it emphasized the participation of the San Juan field office. The HRT had recently received commando training in Iraq. On September 23, 2005, Ojeda Ríos was surrounded in his home in the outskirts of the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and fatally shot. Death View of the front of the house, as it would have appeared to the FBI agents when they approached In July 1992, Ojeda Ríos was sentenced in absentia to 55 years in prison and fined $600,000 for his role in the Wells Fargo heist. On September 23, 1990, the anniversary of the Grito de Lares, Ojeda Ríos cut off the electronic tag that had been placed on his ankle as a condition of his release, and became a fugitive. In 1989, a jury of 12 found Ojeda Ríos “innocent of all charges filed against him for shooting at FBI agents during his 1985 arrest.” He was released on bond after his attorneys successfully argued he had been denied a speedy trial, although the delay in bringing him to trial was largely the result of defense motions. On September 12, 1983, Los Macheteros stole approximately US$7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. The group was responsible for nearly 120 bombings in the United States between 19, including the 1975 bombing of the Fraunces Tavern in which four civilians were killed. The group was involved in the killing of a Puerto Rican policeman who refused to surrender his car. In the 1960s, he founded the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement, aka MIRA ( Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado). He joined La Sonora Ponceña, a salsa band from Ponce, Puerto Rico where he performed both instruments. As a child, he played the trumpet and guitar. Ojeda Ríos entered college when he was fifteen years old and was described as having an "engaging intelligence". Ojeda Ríos was born on April 26, 1933, in the barrio of Río Blanco in Naguabo, Puerto Rico to Inocencio Ojeda. ![]() The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission subsequently conducted its own investigation of the incident and issued a report on 22 September 2011 wherein the Commission called Ojeda Ríos's death an "illegal killing". ![]() The resulting report concluded that "the FBI agents’ use of force in the Ojeda operation did not violate the Department of Justice Deadly Force Policy" and that Ojeda Ríos had initiated the exchange of gunfire. In response to questions raised in media accounts and by public officials in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, FBI director Robert Mueller requested an investigation by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. The killing of Ojeda Ríos resonated throughout the Puerto Rican community around the world. ![]() The FBI operation in Hormigueros was questioned by local Puerto Rican authorities as well as international organizations. On September 23, 2005, he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. In 1990, Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ojeda and the second or maternal family name is Ríos.įiliberto Ojeda Ríos (Ap– September 23, 2005) was a Puerto Rican independence activist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN).
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