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Report: Freed Puerto Rican nationalists linked to Cuba
November 7, 1999 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Puerto Rican nationalists who were offered clemency by President Clinton in September were members of two groups with ties to Cuban intelligence agents, The Hartford Courant, of Hartford, Connecticut, reported on Sunday. The 11 nationalists were members of Los Macheteros, Spanish for "The Cane Cutters," and the FALN, the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation. 
The newspaper said that an FBI investigation of a 1983 Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, that involved Los Macheteros turned up evidence of Cuba's support for the Puerto Rican independence movement. The contents of FBI files on the matter have not been disclosed until now, the Courant said. A White House official tells CNN that the possibility that Cuban agents helped Puerto Rican nationalist groups was investigated but to his knowledge, no link was found. He referred further questions to the FBI. The official also could not say if the White House was aware of any direct link. FBI memo detailed connection, report saysAccording to the Courant, after the robbery, the FBI monitored conversations and meetings between Cuban intelligence agents and members of the Macheteros. "Numerous court-authorized interceptions of conversations ... have determined that the Cubans support and direct the Macheteros at a firsthand level," the FBI said in a confidential memo, according to the report. In addition to analyzing the FBI investigation of the 1983 armored car robbery, the Courant said it interviewed 50 sources, including former Cuban agents, FBI agents and congressional investigators. The FALN has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings in the United States; its 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York killed four and injured 63. Los Macheteros, with the exception of the $7.1 million Wells Fargo robbery, attacked U.S. government targets in Puerto Rico. None of the prisoners offered clemency was directly involved in violent acts, Clinton said, and he acted on human rights activists' arguments that the prisoners had paid their debt by serving an average 19 years in jail. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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