Stop the FBI's War on the Puerto Rican Community!

              In the 1960's, the FBI established a covert operation called COINTELPRO.  The stated purpose of COINTELPRO was the neutralize progressive movements developing across the country at that point, particularly movements by colonized peoples for community self-determination.  The FBI considered these movements to be threats to "national security."  The Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, the Chicano/Mexicano movement, and the Puerto Rico independence movement were primarily targets of COINTELPRO.  To achieve the objective of neutralizing these movements, the FBI utilized a combination of tactics:  political assinations, e.g. Fred Hampton and Mark Clark; frame-ups and incarcerations, e.g. Leonard Peltier and Geronimo Pratt; the dissemination of misinformation to the larger public via media manipulation in order to discredit progressive movements.  To implement COINTELPRO, the FBI enlisted the cooperation of local law enforcement officials and right-wing interest groups, creating a nexus of federal and local forces.  In the 1970s, a federal-level investigation exposed COINTELPRO to the larger public and allegedly resulted in the termination of the covert program.  Reforms were enacted that restricted the powers of the FBI.  However, these reforms were soon dismantled by the Reagan Administration and evidence accumulated during the 1980s that COINTELPRO was alive and well.  Political prisoners—men and women who were targeted for incarceration by COINTELPRO—were subjected to long-term, arbitrary confinement wihtin the new "supermax" prisons, such as the Marion and Lexington Control Units, wehre they were subjected to physical and psychological torture.  Moreover, progressive organizations such as the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) experienced surveillance and disruptions of their activities by the FBI.