The Nation - News from Aug. 27, 1989

A federal jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, acquitted independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Rios on all charges in connection with the shooting of an FBI agent during his arrest in 1985. Ojeda Rios, who acted as his own lawyer, claimed he acted in self-defense when he opened fire with his Uzi submachine gun, alleging the FBI agents who raided his home shooting their weapons intended to kill him. “I could reach no other conclusion,” Ojeda Rios told the jury. “They tried to assassinate me.” The 12-member jury issued the verdict after four hours of deliberation. Ojeda Rios faces robbery charges in the 1983 robbery of $7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Conn. He is expected to stand trial on those charges later this year. Ojeda Rios is the self-proclaimed leader of the pro-independence Los Macheteros underground group.