New Video: La Corriente #2


Come out to denounce grand jury repression


Monday, July 28, 2008 @ 9:30am

All to Federal Court, 225 Cadman Plaza East at Tillary St, Brooklyn, NY

Hostos Jan 11 Grand Jury Resistance Campaign


For more information: resistgrandjury@gmail.com

http://www.geocities.com/resistgrandjury


Take the A, C or F train to Jay St.-Borough Hall; M or R train to Court St.-Borough Hall;

2,3, 4 or 5 to Borough Hall; or G train to Hoyt-Schermerhorn and walk 7 block




STOP GRAND JURY REPRESSION  

STOP FBI HARASSMENT OF THE PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITY!!!

FBI OUT OF PUERTO RICO!!!

UNITE AGAINST REPRESSION

ALTO A LA REPRESION DEL GRAN JURADO


Support Jose Diaz, another independentista residing in Puerto Rico that was subpoenaed.

Elliot Monteverde Torres,  a Puerto Rican independentista, is the fourth person to be subpoenaed to the Federal grand jury at the  Brooklyn Federal Courthouse on May 23.  His lawyer, Roger Wareham, has informed us that  the court date has not been postponed by the DA.  Elliot's family is coming from Puerto Rico and Elliot is coming from Texas to denounce this grand jury harrasment on May 23rd at the Brooklyn Federal Court at Cadman Plaza at 9:30am.


Elliot lives with his wife and daughter in Texas. He was a student leader in the U.S., a lawyer and a distinguished leader of the movement in solidarity with Vieques in New York.


This is a call for a picket before the Courthouse on May 23 to support Elliot and his family.  All out to the Court House on May 23rd.  Mobilize to protest grand jury repression.  


Simultaneous pickets will take place in Puerto Rico and Chicago denouncing grand jury repression and supporting grand jury resisters.


We will continue with the letter campaign and the educational teach-ins and other events.


We must stay Vigilant.


Hasta La Victoria



NEWSBRIEF:


Elliot Monteverde Torres refused to colaborate with Federal Grand Jury. A new

date has not been set for his return to court, thus case has been postponed indefinately.


Another Puerto Rican pro-independence, this time from Puerto Rico,  has been subpoena to the Brooklyn Federal Court on June 13th, 2008. All out to picket on June 13.



OTHER ARTICLES:

Por The Associated Press May 30 mayo

Protests against the fedsIndependentista groups criticize the subpoena of a Puerto Rican to a grand jury in New York By The Associated Press May 30, 2008  http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/puertoricohoy/noticias/protestas contra_federales/412110


SAN JUAN - A resident of Puerto Rico was subpoenaed to appear in June at a grand jury in New York, denounced today a coalition of independentista organizations.


Michael González Cruz, spokesperson for the coalition Table of Solidarity, indicated that the Puerto Rican, whose name will not be divulged at the moment for personal reasons, was subpoenaed to appear June 13. "As far as we know, it is the first subpoena in Puerto Rico related to this case," he told the Associated Press in reference to the violent death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos at the hands of an FBI agent in an operation to arrest him at his residence in Hormigueros in 2005.

Table of Solidarity is comprised of representatives of eleven independentista organizations which on Friday carried out protests to condemn what they call the continuous intervention of the FBI into the lives of those who struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico.

According to the coalition, the FBI's interventions are part of a pattern of

harassment of independentistas since the federal operation in which an agent shot Ojeda Ríos to death on September 23, 2005, the day the Grito de Lares is commemorated. Protests in San Juan, Mayagüez and Ponce were carried out on the occasion of the subpoena of a Puerto Rican resident of Texas, Elliot Monteverde, to appear Friday morning before the Grand Jury in New York. "Monteverde was accompanied by his attorney, Rutgers [sic] Wareham, who took a document positing that his client did not recognize the authority of the grand jury and that he was invoking the Fifth Amendment, and the prosecutor, given this situation, decided to indefinitely postpone the subpoena," explained González.  He detailed that Monteverde was raised in Mayagüez and studied law at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and that during the struggle to oust the Navy from Vieques, he served in New York as coordinator of a coalition of people and organizations united in that struggle.  Monteverde's case is added to that of the young independentistas Tania Frontera and Christopher Torres, whose appearances in January before a grand jury in New York were also indefinitely continued.  The organizations that form the coalition include the Puerto Rican Independence Party, the National Hostos Independentista Movement, The New School, the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico, the Socialist Front, the Federation of Pro Independence University Students, and the National Coordinating Committee of Vigils for Dignity Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, among others.

Hostos

Grand Jury Resistance Campaign

Press Release:


Judicial Hearing on Motion to Quash Grand Jury Subpoenas



This Friday, June 27, 2008, at 2:00pm attorneys Martin Stolar and Susan Tipograph will present a motion in court in New York City to quash the Grand Jury subpoenas of two young independentistas. Attorneys Stolar and Tipograph, of the National Lawyers Guild, represent Tania Frontera and Christopher Torres, whose subpoenas to appear before a federal Grand Jury in New York had been postponed by the federal prosecutor on more than one occasion.



The motion, called Motion to Quash Grand Jury Subpoenas, will be presented in court in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of New York, asserting that:


1. The FBI should state whether the subpoenas or grand jury questions are the product of illegal electronic interventions.


2. The Grand Jury is a secret mechanism where the press and the community are not permitted, and there is no proper legal representation, given that the attorney is also not permitted to be present during questioning.


3. The Grand Jury has been used against the independence movement in Puerto Rico and the United States for the purpose of political repression since the 1930's, when the grand jury subpoenaed the Nationalist Party for its membership list, and the federal prosecution has used it as a tool to persecute political activists.


4. U.S. law requires the Grand Jury to respect the freedom of association guaranteed by the First Amendment, especially in the face of the history of harassment that exists against the independence movement. The subpoenas of these young independentistas violates their freedom of association.



The young subpoenaed independentistas are conscious of how the U.S. government has repressed the independence movement using the Grand Jury, police surveillance and even extralegal measures such as the execution of independentista leaders.


On Wednesday June 25, at New York City Hall, New York City legislators Melissa Mark Viverito, Leticia James and Rosie Méndez publicly condemned the FBI's persecution of the activists. The legislators, friends and family members came together in support of the independentistas subpoenaed to the Grand Jury.


In New York, on Friday June 27 at 1:30 p.m., the organization Hostos One Eleven Grand Jury Resistance Coalition will convene a demonstration of support while the motion is presented in court.



In San Juan, independentista, human rights and socialist organizations will wait for the results of the hearing to announce their activities in support of the subpoenaed independentistas.

www.geocities.com/resistgrandjury <http://www.geocities.com/resistgrandjury> ; resistgrandjury.gmail.com; despiertaboricuadefiendealostuyos.blogspot.com



Letter Campaign:

On February 13 we are calling on all supporters and concerned citizens that are outraged about the Grand Jury being used as a tool of repression and harassment against the Puerto Rican community to Fax the District Attorney Benton J. Campbell


Letter


Download flyer


English PDF


Español PDF (coming soon)


English JPG


Español JPG (coming soon)



Links

  1. American Civil Liberties Union

  2. National Lawyers Guild

  3. El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños

  4. FBI Files on Puerto Ricans

  5. Prolibertad

  6. National Boricua Human Rights Network

  7. The Militant



  8. Events In Other Cities