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JUDGMENT OF THE GRAND JURYby Carlos Noya,Liga Socialista Puertorriquena

Carlos Noya is a leading member of the Liga SocialistaPuertorriquena (LSP), a public revolutionary organization inPuerto Rico. For 20 years the LSP has argued for the necessityof a protracted people's war to achieve independence and social-ism on the island. Today this strategy is being led and carried outwith growing effectiveness by the Puerto Rican armed clan-destine movement. The inability of the U.S. state to uncover anddestroy the underground forces has made public supporters ofthe armed struggle the targets of repression. For refusing tocollaborate with a federal grand jury investigating the clan-destine organizations, Comrade Noya was exiled andimprisoned in the U. S. After serving 17 months, he was releasedin March, 1982. This essay first appeared in Correo de laQuincena, organ of the political bureau of the LSP, in VolumeXIX, March to September, 1982.

The grand jury is the form of judicial terrorism used byimperialism to jail activists in the independence strugglewhenever they want to do so. The grand jury, as Corretjerhas described it so well, is the reception room for theprison, an illegal mechanism within their illegal legality.It is the arm of the FBI—more specifically of the "TaskForce," comprised mainly of agents of the CIA, FBI andNavy espionage, set up for this purpose and others:

• To obtain information on activists and organizationsthrough the use of intimidation and the threat of jail.

• To threaten activists and organizations throughimprisonment or threat of imprisonment, attemptingto influence some organizations to take more andmore reformist positions.

• To recruit informants who could be planted in, or whoare already within, organizations; to sabotage thework of these organizations and help to fabricatecharges against their leadership.

• As we already said and will expand later, to jailactivists whose work of organizing, propaganda andagitation is effective and anti-imperialist in character.

• And, of key importance, to test the attitude of theactivists and organizations in regard to this body—which is, after all, a measure of the general attitude ofstruggle—for purposes which we will explain later,near the end of this essay.

In the U.S., the grand jury has been used against thePuerto Rican independence movement, about which wewill speak more fully later, and against the Mexicano

movement, the Black movement, the Indian movement,the movement against the war in Viet Nam, the labormovement, and the feminist movement. At present it isbeing used against the Black movement and the white anti-imperialist movement.

In Puerto Rico the grand jury was first used against theindependence movement in April of 1936, when theysubpoenaed the entire leadership of the Nationalist Party.its National Junta and its Municipal Juntas, to appear andsubmit the records of the Party. The information in these

Don Juan Antonio Corretjer, shown here in 1936, when,as a leader of the Nationalist Party, he refused to turn partyrecords over to a grand jury. He was jailed for 14 months.His action set a standard for the Puerto Rican Indepen-dence Movement of total non-collaboration with grandjuries. Corretjer is currently Secretary General of the LigaSocialista Puertorriquena.

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records was a matter of public knowledge, but to turn themover was to surrender. This is also how Albizu and Corret-jer understood it. On the day of the subpoena, as both ofthem had agreed, Corretjer, then Secretary General of theParty, informed the court that the documents were in hispossession and that he refused to turn them over to thecourt, whose jurisdiction he did not recognize since it wasa foreign court. As expected, Corretjer was imprisoned,sentenced to one year for contempt.

The process that brought about the establishment of thisgrand jury was the execution of Colonel Riggs in Februaryof 1936, which was provoked by the massacre of fourNationalists four months earlier. Two lessons were learnedfrom this process. The first is that resistance to the grandjury is, in itself, a victory. In this specific case, the positionthat Corretjer took prevented the imprisonment of dozensof Nationalist Party leaders at that time.

The second lesson is that the grand jury arises as aninstrument of judicial terror to punish the punished; or, inclearer terms, to punish the people's self-defense againstofficial terrorism, against murders of independence activ-ists carried out by order of the U.S. imperialist govern-ment. Beyond these two lessons, it established aprecedent: non-collaboration is a complete position; it cannot be divided into testimony and physical evidence whichthey have or could obtain through other means.

Let us keep all this in mind as we analyze later experi-ences.

In 1977, a number of revolutionary Puerto Ricans,Mexicanos and one Venezuelan comrade were imprisonedin the U.S. for refusing to collaborate with a grand jury!

that was investigating the FALN—specifically the FALNbombing of Fraunces Tavern. This action was in responseto a bomb that gusanos, acting on the orders of the CIA,had placed in a restaurant in Mayaguez on Hostos' birth-day in 1975, a few hours before a pro-independenceactivity was to take place. This bomb took the lives of twoPuerto Rican workers and wounded many others, includ-ing a child. The comrades who were imprisoned, 11 in all,included Jose Lopez, now the National Coordinator of theMovimiento de Liberacion Nacional, sister organizationto the Liga Socialista Puertorrequefia; Pedro Archuleta,Mexicano; Ricardo Romero, now Coordinator of the Mex-icano Commission of the MLN; and the Rosado brothers,Julio, Luis and Andres. Julio is now the Coordinator of theEastern U.S. region of the MLN. The comrades decided toturn what looked like a defeat—their imprisonment—intoa political and organizational victory.

Effectively maintaining their political principles of non-collaboration and full support for independence andsocialism for Puerto Rico, and recognizing that the armedstruggle is the only means that can achieve it, these com-rades concretized in practice the bonds of solidarity

between Puerto Ricans and Mexicanos. They also changedfrom a group of activists with a revolutionary politicalline, organizing themselves and others into a NationalCommittee Against Repression, parts of which were con-solidated into the MLN and part of which still exists in itsoriginal form in the Southwest of the U.S. In this periodalso grew the seeds that later became the National Com-mittee to Free the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War.

And most important, the Movimiento de LiberacionNacional is, in fact, the organization that is carryingforward the public struggle in the U.S. for independenceand socialism for Puerto Rico, a fact that reformistshaven't the slightest chance to deny. And this is very, veryimportant and beneficial.

Moreover, it is very important to point out that thesecomrades carried out an extensive and intensive campaignto denounce the judicial terrorism of the grand jury and itsimperialist character in opposition to Puerto Rican inde-pendence. This campaign paralyzed the repressiveactivity of the grand jury and the comrades were freed bydefeating their respective grand juries. The comrade whoserved the most time was comrade Archuleta, who wasimprisoned for 13 months.

The victory of these comrades was so complete thatwhen another group of comrades was called before anothergrand jury after the marvelous and stimulating escape ofPrisoner of War William Morales in 1979, the campaignthat was generated froze the action of that body and no onewas imprisoned. An organization had been built that wasable to mobilize the masses against the grand jury.

And even more important, less than a year ago, anothergrand jury called five comrades from the MLN and fromthe National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners ofWar, four of whom, Maria Cueto, Andres and JulioRosado and Ricardo Romero had been imprisoned pre-viously by a grand jury. The campaign generated in sup-port of these comrades was very powerful. On December16, 1981, more than 5000 people were mobilized through-out the U.S., Puerto Rico and northern Mexico (the north-ern part of the territory of Mexico that is not occupied bythe U.S.). In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 3000 people cametogether in a militant protest in front of the yanqui embassyand burned the imperialist U.S. flag as a warning.

The comrades were brought before the grand jury, andall refused to collaborate. But the U.S. government, inorder to avoid a worse defeat than they had already suf-fered, opted not to jail them. The political line was main-tained, the principles were upheld, and the massesresponded.

Let us now return to Puerto Rico, to the grand jury wesee in operation now; and to begin where we should, wewill start with Vieques.

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The straggle to drive the Navy out of Vieques beganwith militant action and that is the direction it took forsome time. It began with the brave ocean blockades thatstopped, actually stopped, the practice of environmentalgenocide, the bombing practice. The logic of the strugglebrought this defiance to the shore, to land used as abombing target and/or amphibious landing practice. Inthis, the most difficult of the confrontations, AngelRodriguez Cristobal shined more than anyone. Angeldefended the soil of Vieques to the highest level as a man,and at the highest level of the Liga Socialista Puertorre-quena, at the level that frightened the enemy, that scaredthem because of its potential to spread to others.

The rest is known to all. The enemy cowardly assassi-nated him in prison, in solitary. And in a genuine andfeeling expression for all decent and sensitive people, thecombatants of the Resistencia (FARP), the Voluntaries(OVRP) and the Macheteros (EPB-PRT) avenged themurder through the heroic ambush of Sabana Seca.

What remains is also known to all. The enemy respondswith terrorism, from murder to the judicial terrorism of thegrand jury. Under the distracting mantle of the colonialelections of 1980, Carlos Rosario Pantojas was imprisonedagain, and I was imprisoned also. Using the ambush of thePensacola sailors as an excuse, they imprisoned comrade

Ricarte Monies. And after having to drop a fabricated caseagainst comrade Norberto Cintron Fiallo, the enemyretaliated by jailing him, too. All through the grand jury.

Other things have happened but I will limit my exposi-tion to final points: non-collaboration; and one furtherpoint on the grand jury.

Non-collaboration is a totality; it can not be divided intotestimony and physical evidence. At the beginning of thisessay, we mentioned that one of the reasons for the exis-tence of the grand jury is to measure the attitude of activ-ists and organizations with respect to that body, which is,after all, a test of the general attitude of the struggle.

When activists and organizations call for collaboration,for submitting physical evidence "already in possessionor easily obtained by the enemy," or actually do collabo-rate with the grand jury by surrendering such evidence,imperialism uses this to split the independence movement,as a depressant and as a justification for the jailing of allwho refuse to cooperate, and to strengthen the state andlegitimize terrorism and repression.

The independence straggle, since Montebello—morespecifically, since Fraunces Tavern—has won an impor-tant series of victories, political-military victories, andimportant, although limited, outbreaks of mass struggle:the case of Vieques, the case of major mobilizationsagainst the grand juries in the U.S. and Mexico. Imperial-ism has sought and continues to seek a way to limit orsabotage support by the most conscious elements for therevolution, expanding the political sphere of reformism,thus isolating the most serious, advanced forces, whichmakes it easier for them to be hit.

The incorrectly named "third alternative," which doesnot really exist, falls within this scheme. Cooperation withthe grand jury strengthens it, since it creates in publicopinion an image of effectiveness, a justification for itsexistence, a justification of the allegation that it is notpunitive but coercive, which is a huge lie that collabora-tors give credence to. The enemy uses the example of thecollaborator to justify repression against comrades whostraggle, trying to create an image of the person who doesnot surrender, who does not submit physical evidence,because he/she can not, not because he/she refuses.

The enemy must not be allowed to set up a situation likethis.

To say there is nothing wrong with submitting physicalevidence is to sow demoralization. It is a failure of a basicfundamental of consciousness-raising—to provide anexample. After all, what does the word submitting mean?

And also, what is the guarantee that the enemy, seeingthat people are submitting to the demand for physicalevidence, won't extend the demand to testimony? Thereisn't any.

fWhat the incorrectly named "third alternative" has

done, as has been well said, is "to recover and mobilizethe support of reformist sectors of the independence move-ment" and help imperialism "to launch a campaign ofconfusion and division in the heart of the patriotic forces."

At a time when a sector of the independence movementhas been subjected to the repressive action of addingprestige to the position of autonomy, to submit to theorders of the "Task Force" by way of the grand jury wouldbe to graft itself on to the global process of surrenderingindependence for opportunism.

Let us put a stop to that now.The grand jury is a form of judicial terrorism which

allows yanqui imperialism to do things as they are done inoccupied Ireland and South Africa—to jail activistsbecause they feel like it. The fact that the grand jury'is aninstrument of enemy espionage to imprison activists atwill, the reception room for the prison, and that there is noway to avoid it except in mass struggle, is what brought ourvaliant comrade Ricarte Monies to denounce them, as heshould, without a lawyer, without recognizing the author-ity they have only through their power—power they havenow, but which they will lose someday. The character ofthe grand jury as a secret political tribunal was provenwhen, at the appeal of comrade Norberto Cintron Fiallo,the government refused to answer such basic questions as:when did this grand jury begin? What is it investigating?

The reach and the political weight of the grand jury inPuerto Rico right now is evident. We must prepare our-selves to combat it with the example of those of us who didnot collaborate and will not collaborate, with the experi-

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ence of how to fight it, with firm principles and mobiliza-tion for independence and socialism.

NO COLLABORATIONWITH THE FEDERAL GRAND JURY!

TO THE STREETSAGAINST THE FEDERAL GRAND JURY!

Since this essay was first published, the U.S. government hasaccelerated its use of the grand jury as a political weapon. OnSeptember 24, 1982, the MLN grand jury resisters were simul-taneously arrested in four cities by teams of FBI agents. Theywere charged with criminal contempt for refusing to testifybefore a grand jury nine months earlier. All five activists hadbeen visibly organizing in their communities and had neverfailed to appear in court. Yet, the FBI seized them in their homesand on the streets as if they were dangerous fugitives.

At a press conference following their arrests, the FBIdeclared that they had captured the last remaining leaders of theFALN. The sensationalism of this charge and of the arrests waspart of a campaign to criminalize and discredit the five resistersin the eyes of the public.

The charge of criminal contempt, conviction for which car-ries an indeterminate sentence, is meant to put the MLN grandjury resisters in jail for many years. But the government movedso sloppily in putting together their case that the presiding judgewas obliged to point out that the obvious political motivation ofthe prosecution would make it difficult to obtain a conviction.Rather than risk losing, the Justice Department in Washingtondropped the criminal contempt charges on November 15 andthen promptly resubpoenaed the five Puerto Rican and Mex-icano activists to appear before a new grand jury. As we go topress, the government is moving forward with deliberation tobuild a stronger criminal contempt case against the five.

—Eds.

Ricarte Monies Garcia, aleading member of the LigaSocialista Puertorriquena,expatriated and imprisoned inNew York for resisting thefederal grand jury in PuertoRico.