Río Piedras massacre

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1935 Río Piedras massacre
Location
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Attack type
Massacre, mass shooting
Deaths5 (4 were members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party)
PerpetratorPuerto Rico Police
  • Chief Elisha Francis Riggs

The Río Piedras massacre occurred on October 24, 1935, at the

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Four Nationalist Party members were killed, and one police officer was wounded during the shooting.[1]

Prelude to the massacre

In 1931, the U.S.-appointed Governor of Puerto Rico,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, was well received and became known as Plan Chardón.[2]

Don Pedro Albizu Campos, 1936

Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s.[2]
Albizu Campos worried that Plan Chardón would strip Puerto Rico of her natural resources. He believed that Chardón had been placed in charge of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) to "Americanize" the university with the support of the Liberal Party.[2] On October 20, 1935, in a political meeting which the Nationalist Party held in the town of Maunabo and which was transmitted by radio, Albizu Campos denounced Chardón, the university deans and the Liberal Party as traitors, saying they wanted to convert the university into an "American" propaganda institution.[3]

On October 23, 1935, a group of students at the university who supported Chardón began to collect signatures for a petition to declare Albizu Campos "Student Enemy Number One." In turn, a protest against the group by the pro-Nationalist faction of students denounced Chardón and the Liberal Party as agents of the United States.[4]

Massacre

On October 24, 1935, a student assembly held at the university declared Albizu Campos as persona non grata. Chardón requested that the governor provide armed Puerto Rico Police officers on the university grounds if the situation turned violent. Two police officers spotted a "suspicious-looking vehicle" and asked the driver, Ramón S. Pagán, and his friend Pedro Quiñones, for identification. A struggle ensued, and the police killed Pagán and Quiñones. The local newspaper, El Mundo, reported on October 25 that the day before, observers heard an explosion followed by gunfire; Eduardo Rodríguez Vega and José Santiago Barea were also killed that day.[4]

An eyewitness, Isolina Rondón, testified that she saw the police officers shooting at the victims and heard one police officer screaming, "not to let them escape alive." Her testimony was ignored, and no charges were filed against the police officers. The Río Piedras massacre left four men dead.[5][6]

Casualties

The supporters of the Nationalist Party killed during the shooting were:[6]

  • Ramón S. Pagán – Nationalist Party Treasurer [7]
  • Eduardo Rodríguez Vega
  • José Santiago Barea
  • Pedro Quiñones

A bystander (not a Nationalist) who was also killed:[8]

  • Juan Muñoz Jiménez

Among the wounded were:

  • Dionisio Pearson, a nationalist youth who was later charged with murder,[9] because he participated in the Río Piedras riots.[10]
  • One police officer.

Aftermath

At the time of the massacre, the top-ranking U.S.-appointed police chief on the island was a former

organized labor movement among sugar cane workers and the Nationalist Pro-Independence Movement. Since the entire Puerto Rico Police took their orders from Colonel Riggs, the Nationalist Party considered him responsible for the massacre.[11]

military salute, moments before being shot, officially while attempting to escape, at Puerto Rico Police
headquarters in San Juan.

On February 23, 1936, Colonel Riggs was assassinated by the Nationalists

military salute for a news photographer.[1][12]

News of the assassination spread throughout the United States. The Puerto Rican Senator, Luis Muñoz Marín, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, was asked by Ernest Gruening, the administrator of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (1935–1937), to publicly condemn Col. Riggs's assassination. Senator Muñoz Marín declined unless he was also allowed to condemn the Puerto Rico Police for allegedly executing the two assassins without trial.[1]

Gruening joined US Senator Millard Tydings from Maryland, a Democrat, in a 1943 legislative proposal to grant independence to Puerto Rico. Although the measure was welcomed by every political party in Puerto Rico, including Muñoz's Liberal Party, the senator opposed the measure. Senator Muñoz Marín said that independence would hurt Puerto Rico's economy. He contrasted the proposed bill with the provisions of the Tydings–McDuffie Act, which provided independence for the Philippines after a 10-year transition period. Due to his opposition, the bill did not progress in Congress, and Puerto Rico did not receive its political independence from the U.S.[1]

In 1950, the 81st United States Congress passed legislation to enable the

people of Puerto Rico to organize a local government pursuant to a constitution of their own, comparable to those of other territories and states of the United States. From its enactment until this day, the act has served as the organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States. Muñoz Marín, as Governor of Puerto Rico, supported the measure. Muñoz Marín became the first native-born elected governor of Puerto Rico.[13]

After Col. Riggs's assassination, many Nationalist Party leaders were imprisoned. Members of the Puerto Rican independence movement came under greater scrutiny and prosecution. Among the leaders arrested were Pedro Albizu Campos, Juan Antonio Corretjer, Luis F. Velazquez, Clemente Soto Vélez, Erasmo Velazquez, Julio H. Velazquez, Juan Gallardo Santiago, Juan Juarbe Juarbe, and Pablo Rosado Ortiz. They were later released on $10,000 bail.[9] The Nationalist Rafael Ortiz Pacheco fled to the Dominican Republic.[5]

These leaders were charged with having "conspired to overthrow" the U.S. government on the island. They were tried in the U.S. District Court in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The first trial jury, which included a minority of Puerto Ricans among its members, ended in a hung jury. A second jury was picked, consisting solely of "Anglo-Americans." This jury found every Nationalist charged "guilty" except Juarbe Juarbe. The guilty findings and sentences were appealed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, MA, which affirmed the lower court's determinations.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ . Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  2. ^
  3. ^ Arrigoitia (2008), Puerto Rico Por Encima de Todo, p. 305
  4. ^ a b Arrigoitia (2008), Puerto Rico Por Encima de Todo, p. 306
  5. ^ a b Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico-FBI files
  6. ^ a b "Isolina Rondón", testimony, Peace Host
  7. ^ Marisa Rosado, Pedro Albizu Campos: Las Llamas de la Aurora, Ediciones Puerto, 2008, pp. 218-224
  8. ^ Marisa Rosado, Pedro Albizu Campos: Las Llamas de la Aurora, Ediciones Puerto, 2008, p. 228
  9. ^ a b "Prisoner Says Winship Acted in Retaliation". The Baltimore Sun. 8 March 1936. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  10. ^ "Assassins Threaten Puerto Rico Governor". Miami Tribune. 30 March 1936. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  11. .
  12. ^ The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History, Markus Wiener Publishers, 2008, p. 179
  13. ^ Arrigoitia (2008), Puerto Rico Por Encima de Todo
  14. ^ Historical Timeline, PR Dream