View source for Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña

{{short description|Puerto Rican nationalist paramilitary organization}}{{More citations needed|date=March 2023}}{{Infobox War Faction
| name             = ''Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña''
| war              = [[Independence movement in Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican independence movement]]
| active           = 1960–1983
| ideology         = [[Marxism-Leninism]]<br>[[Puerto Rican independence]]<ref name=Guerrilla>{{cite book |last=Calderón |first=Fernando Herrera |date=2021-07-19 |title=Twentieth Century Guerrilla Movements in Latin America: A Primary Source History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AiAwEAAAQBAJ&q=Twentieth+Century+Guerrilla+Movements+in+Latin+America |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=170 |isbn=978-1317910312 |quote=The Armed Forces of National Liberation was a nationalist organization founded by Filiberto Ojeda Rios in the early 1970s in the United States. [...] The nationalist, pro-independence movement entered a new phase after Albizu Campos’ death, with new personalities assuming leadership positions. In 1974, Ojeda Ríos formed the FALN and inaugurated a new armed struggle in Puerto Rico and the United States. |access-date=2025-08-13}}</ref><br>[[Nationalism]]<ref name=Guerrilla /><br>[[Anticolonialism]]<ref name=Guerrilla /><br>[[Anti-imperialism]]<ref name=Guerrilla />
| position         = [[Far-left politics|Far-left]]
| leaders          = [[Filiberto Ojeda Ríos]]{{KIA}}
| area             = [[United States]]
| successor        = [[Boricua Popular Army]] (Macheteros)
| opponents        = [[Government of the United States]]
}}
The '''Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional''' (English: ''Armed Forces of National Liberation'', FALN) was a Puerto Rican clandestine [[paramilitary]] organization that, through [[direct action]], advocated [[Puerto Rican independence movement|independence for Puerto Rico]]. It carried out more than 130 [[bomb]] attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1983, including a 1975 bombing of the [[Fraunces Tavern]] in New York City that killed four people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lambert |first1=Laura |editor1-last=Martin |editor1-first=Gus |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Second Edition |date=2011 |publisher=SAGE Reference |location=Thousand Oaks, Calif. |isbn=978-1-41-298016-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_jh4VBi_HYC&dq=%22fuerzas+armadas+de+liberación+nacional%22&pg=PA193 |pages=193–4 |chapter=FALN}}</ref>

The FALN served as the predecessor of the [[Boricua Popular Army]]. Several of the organization's members were arrested and convicted for [[sedition|seditious conspiracy]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/August/352dag.htm |title=News Advisory #352 |publisher=United States Department of Justice |access-date=2021-03-11}}</ref> conspiracy to commit [[robbery]] and for firearms and explosives violations. On August 11, 1999 [[United States President]] [[Bill Clinton]] offered [[clemency]] to sixteen of the convicted militants under the condition that they renounce any kind of violent manifestation. This decision drew criticism towards the [[Clinton administration]] from figures including the [[United States Attorney|Office of the United States Attorney]], the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and the [[United States Congress]].<ref name="Hillary">{{cite news |author=Chris Black |title=First lady opposes presidential clemency for Puerto Rican Nationalists |url=http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/09/05/senate.2000/hillary.puerto.rico/ |date=1999-09-05 |access-date=2007-06-09 |publisher=CNN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303215333/http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/09/05/senate.2000/hillary.puerto.rico/ |archive-date=2006-03-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Philosophy==
The group was a 1970s [[Marxist–Leninist]] militant group which fought to transform Puerto Rico into a socialist-communist form of government.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3CuViIjqj8C |title=Terrorism in America: Pipebombs and Pipedreams |page=114 |year=1994 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-079141-759-1 |author=Smith, Brent L.}}</ref>

==History==
The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional was founded in the 1960s. It was one of several organizations established during that decade that promoted "clandestine armed struggles" against the United States government that the movement described as the "colonial forces of the United States".<ref name="1960s">{{cite web |url=http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2006/09/76140.html |publisher=New York City Independent Media Center |title=A Nation Will Rise |date=2006-09-18 |access-date=2007-09-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116015647/http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2006/09/76140.html |archive-date=January 16, 2009}}</ref> The group was founded following decades of persecution by the FBI, including illegal imprisonments and assassination against members of the [[Puerto Rican independence movement]].<ref name="1960s"/> The group was part of a movement that included other clandestine organizations, including the ''Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado'', ''Organización de Voluntarios por la Revolución Puertorriqueña'' and ''Los Comandos Armados de Liberación'', and served as predecessor for what would become the [[Boricua Popular Army]].<ref name="1960s"/> The organization's intention was to draw attention to what they described as the "colonial condition" of Puerto Rico through armed action against the [[United States government]] and [[Military of the United States|military]].<ref name="1960s"/>

The [[modus operandi]] of the FALN was to perform bombing and incendiary actions and then admit responsibility through press releases. The first of these news releases announced the group's intention; in this document they admitted responsibility for attacks on several locations in New York to weaken the "[[Yankee|Yanki]] capitalist monopoly", and demanded the release of five political prisoners, these were: [[Lolita Lebrón]], [[Oscar Collazo]], [[Rafael Cancel Miranda]], [[Andres Figueroa Cordero|Andres Figueroa]], and [[Irvin Flores]]. In this communique, the organization warns that they had opened two fronts, in Puerto Rico and the United States respectively, the goal of which were to organize a People's Revolutionary Army which they expected would "rid Puerto Rico of Yanki colonialism". Both fronts were supported and maintained by allies within Puerto Rico and North America.

===FALN pardons of 1999===
On August 11, 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered [[Bill Clinton pardon controversy|clemency to sixteen members]] of the FALN convicted for seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to commit robbery, and conspiracy to bomb-making, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/August/352dag.htm |title=News Advisory #352 |publisher=United States Department of Justice |access-date=2007-06-09}}</ref> None of the sixteen were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, and all of the sixteen had served nineteen years or longer in prison which, according to the White House, were longer sentences than such crimes typically received.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/final_faln_rpt2.htm |title=Findings of the committee on government reform |access-date=2007-10-10 |author=Rep. [[Dan Burton]] |date=December 12, 1999 |publisher=[[United States House of Representatives]]: Committee on Government Reform}}</ref> President Clinton offered the clemency at the appeal of 10 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureates, President [[Jimmy Carter]], the [[Diocesan bishop|Archbishop]] of New York, and the [[Archbishop]] of Puerto Rico, and it was conditional on prisoners renouncing violence. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] and criticized by many including former victims of FALN [[terrorist]] activities, the [[Fraternal Order of Police]],<ref>Press release: Gallegos, Gilbert G., [http://www.grandlodgefop.org/letters/ltr990818.html "Letter to President William Jefferson Clinton"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041021212508/http://www.grandlodgefop.org/letters/ltr990818.html |date=2004-10-21 }}, [[Fraternal Order of Police]] Grand Lodge, 1999-08-18</ref> and members of Congress. [[Hillary Clinton]] in her [[United States Senate election in New York, 2000|campaign]] for Senator also criticized the commutation, although she had earlier been supportive.<ref name="Hillary"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120277819085260827 |work=The Wall Street Journal |title=The Clintons' Terror Pardons |first=Debra |last=Burlingame |date=2008-02-12}}</ref><ref name="12 Accept">{{cite news |title=12 Accept FALN Clemency Deal |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-accept-faln-clemency-deal/ |work=CBS News |date=September 7, 1999}}</ref> FALN prisoner [[Oscar López Rivera]] rejected the 1999 Clinton pardon. U.S. president [[Barack Obama]] later commuted his sentence, and López Rivera was released in May 2017 after 36 years in prison. He had been incarcerated longer than any other member of the FALN.

==Major incidents==

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left"
|-bgcolor="#CCCCCC"
! Date !! Description !! Reference(s)
|-
| <span style="display:none">1974-26-10</span>October 26, 1974 ||NYC FALN's 5 bombs in Manhattan ||<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/27/archives/terrorists-here-set-off-5-bombs-at-business-sites-window-walls.html |title=Terrorists Here Set Off 5 Bombs at Business Sites |first=Will |last=Lissner |date=October 27, 1974 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>
|-
| <span style="display:none">1977-6-4</span>June 4, 1977 ||FALN set off a bomb on the fifth floor of the Cook County Building in Chicago. The explosion occurred near the offices of Acting Mayor [[Michael A. Bilandic|Michael Bilandic]] and of [[George Dunne]], the president of the [[Cook County Board of Commissioners]]. It was Saturday, and no one was in either office. Although 250 election judges were attending a meeting on the fourth floor no one was harmed.||<ref>{{cite news |last1=Delaney |first1=Paul |title=LOOTING, VANDALISM FOLLOW CHICAGO RIOT |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/06/archives/looting-vandalism-follow-chicago-riot-police-strength-stepped-up-in.html?_r=0 |access-date=7 April 2017 |work=The New York Times |date=June 6, 1977}}</ref>
|-
|<span style="display:none">1977-3-15</span>March 15, 1980 ||Armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]]-[[Walter Mondale|Mondale]] in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of [[George H. W. Bush]] in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN. On April 5, 11 members of FALN were arrested for attempting to rob an armored truck at [[Northwestern University]]; three were linked to the raid on the Carter-Mondale campaign headquarters.||<ref name="Government Reform p16">{{cite book |author1=United States Congress House Committee on Government Reform |title=The FALN and Macheteros Clemency: Misleading Explanations, a Reckless Decision, a Dangerous Message: Third Report |date=1999 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=16–17 |id=House Report 106-488 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-106hrpt488/html/CRPT-106hrpt488.htm}}</ref>
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Puerto Rico}}
* [[Boricua Popular Army]]
* [[Intelligence Directorate|General Intelligence Directorate]]
* [[List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* James, Daniel (December 19, 1981). ''Puerto Rican Terrorists Also Threaten Reagan Assassination''. Washington, D.C.: ''[[Human Events]]''.
* Mahony, Edmund (1999). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040113061447/http://courant.ctnow.com/projects/victor/ Puerto Rican Independence: The Cuban Connection]''. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut (USA).
* Mahony, Edmund (1999). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20030910121650/http://courant.ctnow.com/projects/victor/victor1.stm The Untold Tale Of Victor Gerena]''. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut (USA).
* [[Edward Mickolus|Mickolus, Edward F]]., Todd Sandler, and Jean M. Murdock (1989). ''International Terrorism in the 1980s: A Chronology of Events – Volume I: 1980-1983''. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa (USA).
* [[Edward Mickolus|Mickolus, Edward F]]., Todd Sandler, and Jean M. Murdock (1989). ''International Terrorism in the 1980s: A Chronology of Events – Volume II: 1984-1987''. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa (USA).
* [[Edward Mickolus|Mickolus, Edward F]]. (1980) ''Transnational Terrorism: A Chronology of Events 1968–1979''. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut.
* {{cite web |last1=Pérez |first1=Gina M. |title=Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/489.html |website=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |date=2005}}

{{PRIndependence|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena}}

[[Category:Defunct American political movements]]
[[Category:Defunct communist militant groups]]
[[Category:Guerrilla movements in Latin America]]
[[Category:Left-wing militant groups in the United States]]
[[Category:National liberation movements]]
[[Category:Nationalist terrorism]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1960s]]
[[Category:Paramilitary organizations based in Puerto Rico]]
[[Category:Terrorism in the United States]]