Bombs Left at 8 U.S. Facilities in Puerto Rico

Bombs went off Tuesday at two U.S. military facilities, and explosives were found and defused at half a dozen other U.S. installations on this Caribbean island, authorities said.

A passer-by reportedly was slightly injured by flying glass at the Army recruiting office in Fajardo, 25 miles east of San Juan. The other explosion, at a military warehouse in the suburb of Buchanan, did no damage to the building but wrecked a military pickup truck.

The Macheteros (Machete Wielders), a Puerto Rican independence group that has used violence in the past, claimed responsibility for the blasts.

“We attack today a series of enemy military objectives throughout our occupied country,” the Macheteros said in a statement. They also hinted of targets on the U.S. mainland, but FBI special agent Diader Rosario said he knew of no such attacks.

A telephone caller who claimed to speak for the Macheteros said the bombs were planted to protest an alleged U.S. plan to train Nicaraguan rebels in Puerto Rico.

Scattered U.S. Targets

Bombs were found and deactivated at armed forces recruiting offices in Cayey, about 25 miles south of San Juan, in the Santurce and Bayamon suburbs, at two sites in Aguadilla, 75 miles west of San Juan, and at a National Guard office in Mayaguez near Aguadilla, police spokesman Joseph Cortes said.

Rosario said that seven explosive devices and one incendiary device were deactivated. Police also investigated several postal packages described as suspicious, but they proved to be harmless, Cortes said.

Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth nation, has many federal offices and U.S. military installations.