Los 11 Secretos Más Grandes de la Historia de Puerto Rico

The United States bombed its own cities—not during a civil war not in the 19th century but in 1950 P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft attacked Hayuja and Utuado two towns in Puerto Rico And the government censored images from outside the island Two Puerto Rican activists attempted to assinate the President of the United States Harry S Truman In 1950In 1954 Puerto Rican activists carried out the only armed incident what occurred inside the U S Congress building a shooting in which seven congressmen were injured How is it possible that a dying police officer with four gunshot wounds managed to save the life of a U S president Why is there a bullet hole in a desk at the United States Congress since 1954 Today we’ ll uncover the best-kept secrets from Puerto Rico's recent history Before diving in don't forget to subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications to stay up to date with our updates Number 1 The Ponce Massacre of 1937 The Ponce Massacre was a brutal act against a peaceful demonstration and unarmed civilians in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce on the southern coast of the island of Puerto Rico On March 21 1937 Palm Sunday During the massacre 17 civilians and two police officers were killed Over 200 demonstrators were injured and it is claimed that most of the dead were shot in the back The march was organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party when the United States was exercising governance as an imperial power on the island When the lawyer Blanton Winship was governor he was a U S lawyer and military officer who had served as a veteran in the Spanish-American War and the First World War The nationalist march had been organized to commemorate the abolition of slavery on the island by the Spanish National Assembly which was in power in 1873 Likewise the demonstration protested the arrest of Pedro Albizu Campos leader of the nationalist organization charged with sedition by the local U S government A investigation led by the American Civil Liberties Union found that the perpetrator of the massacre It had been Governor Winship appointed to the position in February 1934 by U S President Franklin Delano Roosevelt The strong criticism in the U S Congress led President Roosevelt to dismiss Winship in 1939 However the governor was never prosecuted for the massacre and no police officer who admitted to the mass shooting was held accountable He was brought before the justice system It was a demonstration authorized by the mayor Several days before the march Nationalist leaders had been granted permission by Ponce's mayor José Tormos Diego for a peaceful protest Upon learning of the demonstration the governor ordered Colonel Enrique de Orbeta the island's police chief and would contact Mayor Diego to have it canceled and if necessary abort it by any means possible Orbeta moved to Ponce where it concentrated police forces from other Puerto Rican cities equipped with heavy weaponry including machine guns The permit was canceled just before the parade began and the massacre was carried out—the worst under U S imperial rule in Puerto Rico The Ponce Massacre has been the subject of numerous books articles documentaries theatrical productions and films Assassination attempt on Harry S Truman in 1950 Harry S Truman President of the United States between 1945 and 1953 was the target of an assination attempt on November 1 1950 by Puerto Rican nationalist activists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo It was a rather reckless attempt as at the moment it began Truman was side Blair House in Washington D C where he was staying while renovations were carried out at the White House The perpetrators arrived o the place firing and Truman who was napping in his bed on the second floor was awakened by the gunfire He leaned out the window He opened it and looked outside something unthinkable given the presidential security standards in place today At that moment Torresola was reloading his weapon from about 90 meters away from Truman Shortly before Torresola had delivered four shots fired at White House police officer Leslie Coffield in a police booth at the west corner of Blair House motive unknow f the Puerto Rican activist arrived to see the American president through the window unaware of the policeman whom he believed to be dead Torresola began recharging his weapon but Coffield staggered out of his booth mortally wounded and instantly killed the Puerto Rican activist with a gunshot from his revolver that pierced him five centimeters throug above an ear Coffield was taken to a hospital where he died four hours later If Torresola saw Truman leaning out At the window the president's life was likely saved by the officer Collazo spent nearly three decades in prison As for Collazo he attempted to fire shots with his back to police officer Donald Britzel but his weapon failed to fire They struggled and the Puerto Rican ma He managed to wound the American in the right knee before being neutralized by two shots fired by the agent e Secret Service agent Floyd Boren and the White House officer Joseph Davison The Puerto Rican man survived his injuries o be tried and sentenced to death a sentence later commuted to life imprisonment by Truman Jimmy Carter He was released in 1979 and moved to Puerto Rico where he died in 1994 Number 3 Lolita Lebrón the Puerto Rican nationalist who led a shooting at the United States Congress Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor more widely known as Lolita Lebrón was a Puerto Rican activist for the independence of Puerto Rico at in 1954 he led the only armed incident to have occurred within the grounds of the United States Congress On March 1s from 1954 Lebron accompanied by the nationalist activists Rafael Cancel Miranda Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero entered the headquarters of the U S House of Representatives within the Capitol Building The date was symbolic since 37 years earlier in 1917 the United States had granted American citizenship to Puerto Ricans o provide legal backing for their decision to enlist them in the First World War When they were in the visitors' gallery of the Chamber LeBron shouted Unfurling a Puerto Rican flag the group opened fire with automatic weapons unleashing nearly 30 shots Seven representatives were injured including Michigan congressman Alvin Bentley who was shot in the chest A penny-sized hole is still visible on a desk in the Congressional furniture storage room carried out by one of the projectiles When she was arrested Lebron shouted I didn’t come to kill anyone I came to die for Puerto Rico They were sentenced to long prison terms LeBron and his companions were put on trial and the prosecution requested the death penalty Although Judge Alexander Holtzhoff decided to sentence them to lengthy prison terms up to 56 years depending on behavior Under international pressure Jimmy Carter reached out to Lebron in 1979 Canel and Flores Figueroa had died in prison Lolita Lebrón upon reaching her fiftieth birthday was welcomed in Puerto Rico as a heroine by the independence advocates and continued to participate nationalist activities sentenced to two months in prison in 2001 for an incident at the U S naval base in Vieques As a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Lebron did not participate in Puerto Rican electoral processes although in 2004 she was persuaded by some independence leaders to vote for candidates who supported Puerto Rico's independence That time he stated that every independence supporter had a duty to vote for the Puerto Rican Independence Party Lolita Lebrón passed away in San Juan Puerto Rico on August 1 2010 at the age of 89 Number 4 In October 1950 the Puerto Rican National Guard backed by the United States bombed Hayucha and Utuado equipped with P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft On July 3 1950 U S President Harry Truman signed the Federal Relations Act of Puerto Rico into law approved by the United States Congress which authorized granting the Caribbean island a new political status as a freely associated state a bicameral legislature the popular election of the governor a bill of rights and executive powers similar to those of the states of the American Union The United States was required to maintain control over finances defense customs and international relations Puerto Rican nationalists considered this law a continuation of the colonial era and the uprisings led by the Nationalist Party Puerto Rican protests erupted across the island Nationalists demanded independence from U S rule as well as the implementation of the Charter of Autonomy from 1898 and Puerto Rico's international sovereignty The uprisings intensified at the end of October 1950 under the leadership of the Nationalist Party president Pedro Albizu Campos impacting Peñuelas Naranjito Ponce Mayagüez and especially Hayuya Utuado and San Juan Hayuya and Utuado were bombed by P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft supplied by the government of the United States First incident The first incident of the uprisings ationalist unrest had occurred on October 29 1950 when the police in Peñuelas circled the home of Melitón's mother Muñiz Santos head of the Nationalist Party in that locality Muñiz Santos was using the residence as a storage hub for rebel weapons and the police opened fire on the nationalists who were They were found in the house killing Arturo Ortiz José Ramos and Guillermo González Ubídez while six police officers were injured Six other nationalists including Muñiz Santos were arrested on charges of carrying out an ambush against the police In Arecibo Tomás López de Victoria subcommandant of the Cadets of the Republic joined the insurgent forces and issued an order Ismael Díaz Matos attacked the local police station Díaz Matos killed four officers before fleeing but he was captured along with other companions and the group was imprisoned by the National Guard Number 5 The Utuado massacre was a public execution In Utuado a inland municipality of Puerto Rico located in the island's central-western region the nationalists led by Capta The cadets of the Republic stationed in the town attacked the police station The National Guard arrived shortly afterward encircling the station in the small city and ordered the nine entrenched nationalists to lay down their arms and surrender Following the surrender the rebels were taken to e public square where they were ordered to remove their shoes belts and other personal belongings Five militants Nationalists Julio Colón Feliciano Heriberto Castro Agustín Quiñones Mercado Antonio González and Antonio Ramos died gunfire erupted at the back of the police headquarters while the other four sustained serious injuries The incident occurred own as the Utuado massacre In San Juan the capital of Puerto Rico on October 30 1950 The rebels attacked the Federal Court building in the old part of the city killing four nationalists in the assault Raimundo Díaz Pacheco Carlos Hiraldo Resto Domingo Hiraldo Resto and Manuel Torres Medina while Vidal Santiago Díaz The barber of independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos was attacked in his own barbershop Salón Boricua located in the Sanjoanero neighborhood of Santurce Nationalist guerrilla In the municipality of Naranjito the north-central interior of Puerto Rico the uprising was led by José Antonio Negrón a veteran of World War II The nationalists attacked the police then withdrew to the nearby mountains establishing a guerrilla unit They operated with brief incursions and then hiding again until they were surrounded on November 5 by the Guardia National in the house they occupied Negrón managed to flee to Coroza but was arrested on November 10 bringing the rebellion in this part of the island to a close In the end the uprisings of 1950 resulted in 28 deaths cluding 16 nationalist militants 7 police officers 4 civilians and one national guard there were also 49 injured of whom Twenty-nine were part of the government forces while eleven were civilians and nine were rebels The autumn 1950 uprisings failed primarily due to the opposing forces' superior weaponry officials and the support they received from the 296th Regiment of the National Guard of the United States Many nationalists were arrested and imprisoned Number 6 Puerto Rican women were used to test the birth control pill The first large-scale human trial of the birth control pill was conducted in Puerto Rico in a manner that was ethically questionable American biologist Gregory Pinkus and gynecologist -obstetrician John Rock in 1955 Before that the once the drug received safety approval from the U S government Pinkus and Rock used Puerto Rican women as laboratory test subjects of limited resources and no formal education their essays constituted an important component in the history of the development of oral contraceptives After the extensive Puerto Rican trials smaller-scale studies were also conducted among women along the eastern coast of the United States before the commercial launch of the pill Although the pill represented a pivotal moment for women' s life and independence the use of poor Puerto Rican wome For her essays she has been criticized for the health risks faced by consumers who were not adequately informed about the issue Puerto Rico was the ideal place to test the pill Researchers considered the site perfect for conducting the pill trials In Puerto Rico the first trials were conducted in the municipality of Río Piedras Three reasons led to the selection of the island Caribbean already an associated free state began conducting the tests in 1956 First of all Puerto Rico had a favorable tradition toward contraception which was socially acceptable when used for medical reasons rather than economic ones social issues despite the island's predominantly Catholic population In fact researchers from the Center for Social Science Research published various articles from the 1950s that concluded attitudes toward birth control among Working-class Puerto Rican families were extremely positive despite their predominantly Christian background The second reaso It was during the mid-20th century that Puerto Rico was experiencing a significant demographic boom occurring alongside high population growth rates unemployment and poverty making the convenient use of a contraceptive pill a solution to overpopulation although its safety as a drug had not yet been proven This also allowed the government to experiment with a population control practice federal potentially extendable to the entire nation Third social scientists of the period considered that high levels of poverty They were the result of excessive reproduction and overpopulation highlighting Puerto Rican women as prominent figures in this situation Number 7 75 000 people were monitored Aside from the military support provided by the National Guard of the United States to the governme e challenges the nationalists faced the CIA and FBI carried out intelligence operations persecution and sabotage against the rebels which produced a convergence of forces that caused the uprising to fail Critics have pointed out that American media They provided a poor coverage of the hostilities and the government 's repression on the island Even as late as the early 21st century ere were publications that characterized the uprising as an incident among Puerto Ricans the independentist idea has been gaining momentum minority in Puerto Rico in recent decades Various factors have affected the Puerto Rican independence movement cluding the COINTELPRO and CARPETAS programs The COINTELPRO program was a project of the FBI under the direction of J Edgar Hoover whose aim was to infiltrate disrupt and discredit political organizations supporting Puerto Rican independence The CARPETAS program was a massive data collection effort conducted by the Puerto Rico police targeting individuals believed to be real or suspected supporters of independence This led to the creation of thousands of files containing individuals of all genders ages and social backgrounds with around 75 000 people under police surveillance Truman promoted the first referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico Following the chaotic attempt to assinate Truman the American president insisted which a referendum on Puerto Rico's status would be held accompanied by a constitutional text Although in March 1952 82 percent of Puerto Ricans voted in favor of making Puerto Rico a freely associated state of the United States This election was misleading because independence was not offered as an option The most recent referendum on Puerto Rico's political status eld on November 3 2020 with a 54.7% voter turnout from the census In this non-binding election Fifty-two point five percent of voters favored the option to make Puerto Rico a full- fledged U S federal territory The referendum only asked voters to choose yes or no on the final annexation According to the most recent opinion polls approximately 12% of Puerto Ricans are independentists while the remaining 88% are distributed between supporters of full U S statehood and the current commonwealth status Number 8 Grito de Jayuya An important episode The Puerto Rican independence uprising of 1950 began with the Grito de Jayuya carried out in that town city at the center of the island On October 30 1950 under American colonial rule the independence leader Blanca Canales proclaimed the Republic of Puerto Rico in Jayuya raising the Puerto Rican flag for the first time accompanied by a group of nationalists armed Blanca Canales entered Jayuya and attacked the police station A fierce battle erupted resulting in two nationalist militants killed six police officers injured After taking control of the town the nationalists cut the telephone lines and set fires e post office In the town square they raised the Puerto Rican flag an act that was forbidden between 1898 and 1952 From the square Canales proclaimed the Second Republic Puerto Rican and their forces occupied the city for three days The United States sent the National Guard to Jayuya after declaring martial law and the city was partially destroyed by artillery fire and aerial bombings After regaining control of the city the governme The U S government suppressed reports of the aerial bombing and partial destruction of Jayuya while it was still on the island Many nationalists were imprisoned solely for crimes of opinion The main nationalist leaders from Puerto Rico were arrested including Pedro Albizu Campos and Blanca Canales and sentenced to long prison terms Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo independentist leaders who were found In the United States an attempt was made to assinate President Harry S Truman in Washington D C According to Francisco Escarano's account in his boo Puerto Rico five centuries of history The uprising spread to the very heart of American politics On November 1 Nationalists attacked the Blair House in Washington the temporary residence of President Harry S Truman The assault on Blair House helped o draw global attention to the situation the island was facing a controversial event from the 1950 nationalist uprising It was because the majority of the independence movement's leaders were not imprisoned for committing criminal or violent acts ot because weapons were found in their possession but due to the enforcement of the Gag Law The Gag Law had been enacted in 1948 as a tool of repression against opposition to the island's colonial status yet many independence leaders openly expressed their views in the media in communication expressing their rejection of the Puerto Rican government imposed by the United States Number 9 The mysterious case of Cerro Maravilla from 1978 The Cerro Maravilla case is the name given by the Puerto Rican public and media to an event on July 25 1978 at the mountain of that name located near the city de Ponce in southern Puerto Rico That day young Puerto Rican independence activists Arnaldo Darío Rosado and Carlos Otto Arribí were ambushed and killed on the spot by the Puerto Rican police with possible involvement from the U S CIA The incident triggered a major political scandal and several high-ranking police officials were accused of planning ordering and covering up the murders Initially the police described the young men as terrorists but the media quickly pointed out inconsistencies in the officials' statements and the sole surviving witness The Governor of Puerto Rico at the time Carlos Romero Barceló ordered an investigation requesting the cooperation of the FBI which Ultimately cleared the named officers of wrongdoing However the island's political opposition launched its own vestigations and new testimonies and evidence revealed the police's clumsy handling of the crimes' commission as well as the possibility of state and federal cover-ups New trials took place and ten police officers were found guilty of the killings The only The survivor was murdered Alejandro González Malavé an undercover agent who was accompanying the activists When they were killed he was granted immunity to testify although public pressure forced his resignation as a police officer On April 29 1986 González Malavé was shot three times in Bayamón front of his mother's residence where she sustained a minor injury A few hours later the self-proclaimed Volunteer Organization The revolution was blamed for the assination indicating that all involved police officers would suffer the same fate crimes against activists In 1979 this group had claimed responsibility for the murder of two marines in Puerto Rico who were aboard a military bus In 1992 Drew S Days III former head of the Civil Rights Division The United States Department of Justice admitted to the Senate of Puerto Rico that the department and the FBI exhibited negligent conduct during their investigations of the case 10 The death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist who first co-founded the Puerto Rican National Liberation Army and later the Popular Army Boricua also known as Los Macheteros In 1990 he became an FBI fugitive after being sought for his involvement in a warehouse robbery from Wells Fargo carried out in 1983 in West Hartford Connecticut In this operation Los Macheteros seized over Seven million dollars equivalent to over twenty-two million today September 23 In 2005 Ojeda Ríos was killed at a house he was occupying in the Puerto Rican town of Hormigueros the western part of the island The residence was surrounded by FBI agents and the independence activist died during the exchange of gunfire The legality of the FBI's operation in Hormigueros was questioned by local Puerto Rican authorities and organizations ernational human rights His death was classified as an illegal killing The assination of Ojeda Ríos echoed across the entire Puerto Rican community worldwide and as a response to the questions raised by officials in the media publics of the Free Associated State The Director of the FBI Robert Mueller requested an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of U S Justice This investigation concluded the following The use of force by FBI agents in Ojeda's operation did not violate the Department of Justice's lethal force policy and the police officers had responded to the fire as it was the activist who began shooting However the Civil Rights Commission of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico subsequently conducted his own investigation and on September 22 of that year published a report in which he characterized e death of Ojeda Ríos as an illegal assination The group Los Macheteros was involved the murder of a Puerto Rican police officer who refused to surrender his vehicle He was equally responsible of about 120 bomb attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1983 including one in 1975 at the tavern Francis in New York City where four civilians died In the summer of 2011 the New Jersey banker Maurice Spagnoletti He was murdered as he was returning home in San Juan Puerto Rico via a busy highway after a long day at work The investigatio The mysterious case dragged on for years until in 2018 federal prosecutors in Puerto Rico alleged trafficking drug trafficking money laundering and even Santería practices among the possible motives for the murder of the American banker in the Commonwealth In a formal indictment filed in Puerto Rico a grand jury charged six people allegedly involved in a large-scale drug trafficking operation that would have led to the suspected murders of three men including Spagnoletti According to the prosecution the banker had come across what he believed was a suspicious contract which involved Eudora the San Juan bank where she was then working and she decided to terminate it The case was fully resolved In 2024 in June 2024 the website of the United States Department of Justice for the district of Puerto Rico It was reported that six individuals had been sentenced for drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms of fire and murder including that of banker Maurice Spagnoletti In March 2024 Alan Lugo Montalvo was sentenced to 30 years in prison while Fabiani Almestica Monge was Sentenced to 45 years behind bars On June 5 Luis Carmona Bernacete Yadier Serrano Canales and Rolando Rivera Solís were sentenced to life imprisonment The last person to be sentenced was Alex Burgos Amaro sentenced to 15 years in prison We hope this video has been helpful to you If you have anything to add please do so share it with us in the comments section below Like this video and send the link to your family and friends your best friends so they can also learn more about the 11 greatest secrets in the history of Puerto Rico If you're new to our channel Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on all our social media platforms which you'll find below in the description Remember a people who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it