Los Macheteros

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Los Macheteros is a revolutionary left-wing group that operates from Puerto Rico. It was set up in the 1970s by Filiberto Ojeda Rios, Juan Enrique Segarra Palmer and Orlando Gonzalez Claudio. The group began in 1976, but it can trace its origins back to the Armed Forces of National Liberation (Sp. "Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional" or FALN).

The group attracted a wide variety of politically interested people, including some that had belonged to a group named "University Pro-Independence Federation" (Sp. "Federacion Universitaria Pro Independencia" or FUPI). FUPI was the youth arm of another group, the Movement Pro Independence (Sp. "Movimiento Pro Independencia" or MPI). Those who came over from FUPI included Marta Sanchez Olmeda and Avelino Gonzalez Claudio who used the alias of "Carmelo". Clearly, unlike Ruben Berrios' non-violent PIP party movement, the Macheteros pursue the agenda of making Puerto Rico independent by means of violence.

January 2, 1977, one day after Carlos Romero Barcelo , who looked for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the American Union, was sworn in as Puerto Rico's governor, two bombs were placed at a ROTC building in San Juan. (Barcelo is seen as a killer by most Puerto Ricans because there is a popular belief that he was the intellectual author of the murder of 2 young independentista/socialist university students in "Maravilla"). The bombs were succesfully destroyed by the police, but the Macheteros took responsibility for the incident.

The group later became expert bank robbers, as a way to finance their activities. Their famous robberies included one of a Wells Fargo facility in West Hartford, CT. in 1983. They have claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks, mainly occurring during the 1970s.

The Macheteros are considered to terrorists by some Puerto Ricans and patriotic heroes or simply patriots by others, because they seek the independence of Puerto Rico. They have pursued this goal mostly by committing acts of violence against American targets (never civilian targets).