3 Puerto Rican Plotters Given 35-Year Terms

Three suspected members of the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN were sentenced Friday to 35-year prison terms for plotting Fourth of July bombings of two military installations in 1983.

A fourth defendant received a suspended sentence and five years’ probation.

U.S. District Judge George Leighton, who presided over their five-week trial last summer, handed down the sentences in a tightly secured courtroom.

Conspiracy Conviction

All four--Alejandrina Torres, Edwin Cortes, Alberto Rodriguez and Jose Luis Rodriguez--were convicted Aug. 5 of seditious conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors charged that they had planned to bomb a Marine training center and an Army Reserve center in Chicago. Neither installation was bombed.

Federal authorities said all four were members of the FALN, a Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation.

The group, whose stated goal is independence for Puerto Rico, has claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings or planned bombings since 1974. Prosecutors say six persons have been killed and more than 100 wounded in FALN violence.

Stockpiling Weapons

Cortes and Alberto Rodriguez also were found guilty of planning to rob a public-transit money collector to finance their activities and of stockpiling weapons and blasting materials in “safe houses.”

Torres, Cortes and Alberto Rodriguez represented themselves during the proceedings and said they did not recognize the authority of U.S. courts. They also refused to confirm or deny that they were members in the FALN. The three were sentenced to five years’ probation in addition to the prison terms.

Jose Luis Rodriguez, who received no jail term, has denied membership in the FALN and was the only defendant represented by an attorney.