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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Puerto Rican fugitive killed by FBI


Supporters of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios take part in a vigil outside the FBI offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico, late Saturday. The FBI shot and killed Ojeda Rios on Friday after he opened fire as they came to arrest him. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Manuel Ernesto Rivera Associated Press

HORMIGUEROS, Puerto Rico – A Puerto Rican nationalist wanted in a 1983 robbery of an armored truck in Connecticut was shot and killed by FBI agents in a shootout, ending the fugitive’s 15 years on the run, the bureau said Saturday.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios, 72, fired on the agents Friday from a farmhouse in the western Puerto Rican town of Hormigueros, wounding an agent, said Luis Fraticelli, the special agent in charge of the FBI for the U.S. island territory.

“He opened the front door of his house and opened fire on the agents,” Fraticelli said at a news conference amid protests from pro-independence Puerto Ricans who accused the FBI of mishandling the arrest.

“We went to arrest him but when the gunfire started we had to defend ourselves,” he said.

The agents waited until midday Saturday to enter the farmhouse because they were unsure if there were explosives inside, Fratecelli said. The agents, who had been staking out the farmhouse for four days, waited for a team trained in detecting explosives to arrive from Virginia.

Fraticelli said the FBI tried to persuade Ojeda Rios to surrender but negotiations fell apart. He said the nationalist had demanded that a reporter be present, but the FBI refused, fearing the journalist could be taken hostage.

The armored car robbery of 22 years ago is considered an act of domestic terrorism because the money was used to fund activities by the Puerto Rican nationalist Macheteros, or Cane Cutters. Only about $80,000 of the $7 million has been recovered.

Ojeda Rios had been on the run since 1990 when he cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet and went into hiding while awaiting trial for the robbery of $7.2 million of the Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Conn.

A hero in the independence movement, Ojeda Rios was convicted in absentia in 1992 on charges of robbery, conspiracy and transportation of stolen money and sentenced to 55 years in prison.

The FBI agents also arrested Ojeda Rios’ wife, Elma Rosado Barbosa, who was unharmed. She was released without charge Saturday evening from a federal prison outside the capital of San Juan, said her lawyer, Julio Fontanet.

Puerto Ricans who have argued for decades about their island’s relationship with the United States were unified in criticizing the FBI’s handling of the arrest.

“I always said that when they went to arrest him, they would have to kill him,” said Juan Mari Bras, a veteran independence leader.