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Colonial State Terror in Puerto Rico: A Research Agenda
Abstract
This article puts forth the concept of colonial state terror as a category for the analysis of political violence in the Puerto Rican colonial conflict by US and Puerto Rican governments and pro-state organizations. To this end, the article is divided into four parts. First, it provides a short historical overview of Puerto Rico's colonial history; second, it explores US colonialism through the concept of the colonial state of exception; third, it explicates the concept of colonial state terror; and fourth, it develops a brief history of the uses of colonial state terror in the long history of US colonialism in Puerto Rico. In doing so, this article seeks to contribute to the development of a more nuanced research agenda focused on the relationship between colonialism, political violence, law and processes of depoliticization.
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I will follow Bill Rolston's ( 2005, 2006) definition of pro-state terrorism for the description of the Puerto Rican and Cuban extreme right-wing organization in Puerto Rico.
By colonial conflict, this article will be referring to a very limited experience of the colonial history of Puerto Rico. The use of the concept of colonial conflict allows me to restrict the research area and the agents studied here. Thus, this article will be confined to an analysis of the processes of legal, political and violent opposition between anticolonial movements and the US and Puerto Rican governments and extreme right-wing organizations. The article aims to re-politicize the language and description of 118 years of US state colonial violence and terrorism in Puerto Rico.
For a detailed analysis of the state of exception and its development in colonial contexts, as well as an analysis of the state of exception in anticolonial literature, see Atiles ( 2015).
I will follow Scott Poynting and David Whyte's ( 2012) description of counter-terrorism terrorism.
I have studied the role of Puerto Rican and Cuban extreme right-wing and paramilitary groups in my previous work (Atiles 2012b, 2012c). It is important to note that these groups were financially supported (and in some cases founded) by both US and Puerto Rican governments, and that they were able to mobilize sectors of Puerto Rican civil society. That is, they were effective in mobilizing not only members of the US and Puerto Rican security agencies, but also Cuban émigrés and Puerto Ricans from conservative ideologies. That shows that the Puerto Rican colonial conflict was a multidimensional conflict where many actors and sectors were involved and not just a conflict between governments and anticolonial movements.
Foraker Act of April 12, 1900 (cap. 191, 31 Stat.77).
US Constitution Article IV-3, Clause 2: This clause established that “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.”
As Rivera Ramos ( 2001) explains, the Insular Cases were a series of nine decisions rendered in 1901 concerning the status of territories acquired by the US after the Spanish-American War, seven of them from Puerto Rico, one from Hawaii, and one from the Philippines.
Public Law 600, 81st. Act of Congress, provides for the organization of a constitutional government by the people of Puerto Rico (3 July, 1950, cap. 446, 64 Stat. 314.).
For a good analysis of the relation between the state of exception, the war on terror, colonial and neo-colonial practices and US global hegemony, especially in Iraq, see Whyte ( 2010).
For an analysis of processes of the technification and depoliticization of politics, see Brown ( 2006).
I am following J. Burnett and Whyte ( 2005) definition of orthodox studies on terrorism.
A telling example of colonial state violence can be found in Fanon's ( 1999, 2009) critical analysis of the anticolonial struggle in Algeria and the way in which the French government addressed that struggle.
A telling example can be found in the processes of criminalization of environmental movements as result of their opposition to mining projects and other industrial projects proposed by different international and national corporations (see Atiles 2014).
Puerto Rican's colonial subordination and conflict have involved various social sectors, among the US, the Puerto Rican government, sectors that advocate annexation to the US, a sector that supports the status quo (the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico), the independence sectors, and the various sectors (environmental, gender, labour, student, religious, and so on) traditionally known as “civil society”.
Carpeteo was a surveillance program developed by the Intelligence Division of the Polices of Puerto Rico between 1930 and 1990, consisting of the continued vigilance of members of anticolonial movements and other social organizations (such as the environmental). In addition to this monitoring, there was a process of profiling and writing down a dossier of all personal information of the monitored, including photos and information provided by informants and neighbours. This operation was similar to the COINTELPRO Paper that was established by FBI. For a detailed discussion, see Bosques and Colón ( 2007).
For a detailed chronology of the repression against the movement for Puerto Rican independence, see Paralitici ( 2011).
For example, the Gag Law, the reuse of the Seditious Act and penal categories of criminal law.
For a chronology of the great number of people jailed during the independence struggle in Puerto Rico, see Paralitici ( 2004).
Although, there were processes of criminalization and political persecution before the 1930s, for purposes of this article I will start the historical analysis of the practices of colonial state terror with the PN and Albizu Campos. For an exceptional analysis of the processes of criminalization in the early years of US colonialism in Puerto Rico, see Santiago-Valle ( 1994). In regard to the Nationalist Party, this party was a relatively small party (composed mainly of professional, merchants and petty bourgeoisie) that became more important between the 1930s and 1950s. For a depiction of the PN, see Rosado ( 2007).
18 US Code § 2384 Code – Seditious conspiracy. This code establishes that if two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the US, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the US, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the US contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Act 53 of 1948. For a detailed analysis, see Acosta ( 1998).
The leadership was sentence to 10 years in a US Federal Prison in Atlanta. For an analysis, see Paralitici ( 2004).
For a detailed analysis of this uprising, see Moraza Ortiz ( 2001) and Seijo ( 1989).
Armed Forces of National Liberation comes from Spanish Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN).
Puerto Rican Workers Revolutionary Party – Puerto Rican Popular Army – Macheteros comes form Spanish Partido Revolucionario Trabajadores Puertorriqueños – Ejercito Popular Boricua – Macheteros (PRTP-EPB-Macheteros).
Those aspects of the experience of Puerto Rico political prisoners in the US are derived from interviews conducted between March 2010 and November 2012 as part of my doctoral dissertation. I interviewed 45 members of different Puerto Rican anticolonial movements and followed a standard qualitative methodology for both interviewing (semi-structured interviews) and analysing (content analysis) the data collected. In addition, interviews were subjected to a process of triangulation with official documents and secondary literature (such as articles and books on the Puerto Rican colonial and socio-political history).
The denial to participate in the Federal Grand Jury has led to the incarceration of many anticolonial members ( Paralitici 2004).
For a detailed analysis of the armed or terrorist actions conducted by the Cuban exiled and Puerto Rican right-wing groups, see Atiles ( 2012b, 2012c).
For a detailed analysis, see Pérez Viera ( 2000).
Armed Commandos of Liberation comes from Spanish Comandos Armados de Liberación (CAL). For a detailed analysis of this organization, see Irizarry ( 2010).
Armed Revolutionist Independence Movement comes from Spanish Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado (MIRA).
Armed Forces of Popular Resistance comes from the Spanish Fuerzas Armadas de Resistencia Popular (FARP).
Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution comes for the Spanish Organización de Voluntarios para la Revolución Puertorriqueña (OVRP).
New Progressive Party comes from Spanish Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP).