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PUERTO RICO
U.S. intelligence agents running security forces
Jean-Guy Allard
FOLLOWING the release of a
devastating report on police corruption in Puerto
Rico last year, the United States government has
sent intelligence specialist Joseph S. Campbell to
run the San Juan office of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), and Héctor Pesquera,
controversial former FBI agent, to take charge of
the island’s police force. The result: all of Puerto
Rico’s security forces are today in the hands of two
U.S. intelligence agents.
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Campbell, in
charge of sensitive
investigations, and Pesquera, former
head of the FBI in Miami. |
September 8, 2011, the governor of
this U.S. colony, Luis Fortuño, began preparing the
public for the presentation of a report from the U.S.
Justice Department which asserted that Puerto Rico’s
police force was plagued by corruption, carried out
illegal searches and seizures, discriminated against
foreigners and abused its power.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General for
Civil Rights Thomas E. Pérez was on the island in
person to present the document which holds the
police responsible for a number of deaths, resulting
from their violent practices.
In the presence of Governor Fortuño,
the U.S. Attorney announced that his department has
proposed that Puerto Rican police "modify procedures,"
stating that the force had violated the Fourth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for years, by
resorting to excessive force and illegal search and
seizure operations.
As if such violence and abuse did
not occur on the U.S. mainland. Just to cite one
example, a recent investigation in New York City
revealed that police had made more than 600,000
arrests in 2010, twice as many as in 2004.
"It will not be easy. Things don’t
change from one day to the next," Pérez, of
Dominican descent, said in dubious Spanish during a
press conference, while arrogantly warning, "The U.S.
Constitution must be respected in Puerto Rico."
The island country has been
subjected to U.S. control since 1898.
CAMPBELL, IN CHARGE OF "SENSITIVE
INVESTIGATIONS"
Just three weeks after the
scandalous report, FBI director Robert Mueller,
named U.S. citizen, special agent Joseph S. Campbell,
to head the agency’s San Juan office.
Campbell has a degree in Political
Science and until recently has been in charge of "sensitive
investigations" at FBI headquarters.
In November, 1998, Campbell was a
special agent supervising the Counter-terrorism and
Weapons of Mass Destruction unit, at the national
headquarters and in February, 2001, was promoted to
take charge of the Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force,
where he later took on responsibility for
intelligence in the struggle against terrorism and
for counterintelligence.
PESQUERA, "DIRTY TRICKS" EXPERT
The Puerto Rican operation was
completed this past March 28 when Governor Fortuño
announced that he had chosen Héctor Pesquera as
Police Superintendent. Pesquera, former head of the
FBI in Miami, is well known for organizing the
arrest of the Cuban Five who were monitoring anti-Cuban
terrorist groups in South Florida.
The outcast of a Puerto Rican family
long-committed to the struggle for the island’s
independence, Pesquera is a specialist in
intelligence "dirty tricks" and known in Puerto Rico
for his handling of the case of Cuban-American
terrorists on the La Esperanza yacht, who
were eventually absolved of any crime.
His participation in a meeting in
Panama to plot the assassination of Venezuelan
Attorney General Danilo Anderson has been exposed;
as well as his conspiracy with José Guevara, a
former Venezuela agent, in Peruvian Vladimiro
Montesinos’ extortion.
Pesquera was head of the FBI in
Miami and pursued the Cuban Five who were attempting
to stop anti-Cuban terrorism, while the perpetrators
of the September 11 attack were training a few
kilometers away.
Shortly after the announcement of
Pesquera’s appointment as Police Superintendent,
which the Puerto Rican Senate quickly approved, the
University Pro-Independence Federation (FUPI)
organized a picket line in front of police general
headquarters and the underground Ejército Popular
Boricua (EPB-Macheteros) issued a communiqué
denouncing the repression which is sure to be
unleashed by the new police chief.
The group said, with the arrival of
Pesquera, the Puerto Rican police will criminalize
the struggle for Puerto Rico’s independence.
Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony and
Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, who cannot, however,
participate in Presidential elections, though they
are allowed to join the U.S. Army.
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