April, 1999
Solís sham conviction a wake-up call
by Gerard Emmett
"I will continue to struggle whether it be from behind a desk at the
University of Puerto Rico or at home with my family, or whether it be from
behind prison bars. I am a free man. They can't take that away from me."
-José Solís
Chicago-In the most significant political trial in a long time, shock and
outrage filled the courtroom here as a verdict of guilty on all counts was
handed down March 12 against Prof. José Solís Jordán. He was convicted, in
a travesty of justice, of conspiracy, of destruction and attempted
destruction of government property, and of possession of illegal
explosives. All this was allegedly part of a plan to bomb a military
recruitment center here in 1992.
This trial had a number of farcical elements and moments, including the
alleged motive for the bombing itself: to free Puerto Rican political
prisoners. This was patently absurd, but the federal government did its
best to stage-manage an atmosphere of clandestinity, tension, and implied
potential violence. Solís supporters, mainly Puerto Rican youth who filled
the courtroom benches for both weeks of the trial, were forced to undergo
an extra, intrusive search of bags and pockets and pass through a second
metal detector at the courtroom door.
TISSUE OF FBI LIES
Once inside, there was quite a political education to be had. Because there
was no real physical evidence linking Prof. Solís to the bombing, the
government's case against him depended upon the word of the FBI's paid
informer, Rafael Marrero, and Marrero's friend and alleged accomplice,
Eddie Brooks. Brooks claimed to have been a member of a secret organization
along with Solís and Marrero, the Frente Revolucionario Boricua (FRB). But
when asked, he couldn't remember what FRB stood for:"I don't know,
fronterio something or other...Something about Puerto Rico."
When Brooks admitted that he had no real knowledge of who may have planted
bombs, since he claimed to have dropped out of the group before anything
happened, that left Marrero as the only real witness to anything. His
testimony was a tissue of far-fetched tales about testing explosive devices
on the Chicago lakefront and in Humboldt Park, both open, heavily
trafficked areas. This was pretty funny, but it was not at all funny to
hear that Marrero had been paid $119,000 by the FBI for his cooperation in
various show trials directed against the Puerto Rican independence movement.
In the end, the government was left with arguing trivial points ("Where
were you standing when you asked for a lawyer?") and relying upon the
testimony of a handful of FBI agents who claimed that an unsigned
"confession" had been dictated by Solís. Aside from this, the case was a
pure effort to demonize the admitted politics of Prof. José Solís Jordán, a
proud independentista, and anyone else who held such views.
ASSAILING CIVIL LIBERTIES
The FBI's use of paid informants should make anyone concerned with civil
liberties take notice, and the attack on the Puerto Rican movement should
make it of vital concern to all internationalists in the U.S. There was an
astonishing lack of publicity, though, perhaps because the government knows
that such travesties of justice are best performed in secrecy.
This wall of silence has to be broken down. The evening after the verdict
came down there was a candlelight protest outside the Metropolitan
Correctional Center where Prof. Solís is being held pending sentencing. The
crowd of 200 chanted "José! José!" and were answered by the prisoners
inside who knocked on their windows and, with blankets, flashed their
lights on and off. It was a moment of human connection that needs to grow
into a national consciousness of this case, which will be appealed on a
number of grounds.
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