Lawyers, Guns and Money

another was arrested in Dallas, one more in Boston. Thirteen suspected members of Los Macha Tero's and their associates were arrested in connection to the Wells Fargo heist, among them Juan Zigara, who learned of the indictment beforehand and fled to Mexico with his wife and kids. It didn't work, As one explains in the Last American Colony documentary, he was arrested did on the same day at an airport in Dallas as he tried to sneak back into the

United States. This guy followed me, had a big cowboy hat and cowboy boots, you know, so it was pretty noticeable. And then all of a sudden, I sense. You know, the guy with the cowboy boots here on one side, and there's three other people, one on one female, and two other guys are on me, and he said, you're under arrest for bank robbery. Los Macha Terro's leader, Philiberto

Ojeda Rios, was met with a starkly different approach. Around six in the morning, a team of FBI agents converged on the apartment Philiberto shared with his wife in Puerto Rico. FBI records claim he emerged from the top of his staircase and engaged in a shootout with federal agents, leaving one man permanently blind in one eye. When Philiberto was forcibly taken out of his home nearly an hour later, the FBI said he was holding a pistol in one

hand and an oozy in the other. Eventually, the embattled Macha Ros leader surrendered was taken into custody. Four fugitives were also named in the indictment, including Victor Harana. The arrest would mark the start of a long and complex legal battle, one that dragged on for years and raised questions about the limits of federal law, Puerto Rico sovereignty, and the powers the President of the United States could wield.

Previously on White Eagle, we did several role plays in motels, so there was gonna be no question about him being able to mobilized the guy with the element of surprise and then take him down. They buy a loader, they basically stuck it from the cash and behind him, and they take victory and they stuffed him in a place behind the false wall. What the money did was corrupted the man terris. Some wanted to keep its money. They didn't want to send any more money to Cuba. My

name is sem William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and author of more than forty true crimes. What you were about to hear is the true story of a heist, one that funded an international independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades. This is White Eagle. From the start. The legal battles involving the Macha terrorist and their associates were contentious to this day. The Wells Fargo case is still considered one of the longest and most

complicated legal cases in the history of federal court. There was tremendous support and sympathy, or at least neutrality, so as a result, many of the big law firms in Hartford donated their lawyers to the Welsh Fargo legal team. Ronald Kobe is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney who has been practicing law for the better part of

forty years. In five, ron was fresh out of law school and off to a promising start working the Wells Fargo case and training under legendary civil rights attorney William Kunstler. Back then, Kunstler was considered one of the country's most famous lawyers, in large part because of his work representing controversial clients such as members of the Black Panther Party,

the Catonsville Nine, and the Chicago Seven. Counselor and Kubi worked together for more than a decade, representing everyone from civil rights activists two members of the Gambino crime family. The pair became so well known. Also made an unoffici show cameo in a certain nineties cult classic film at one hour forty one minutes in The Big Lebowski. In the Malibu police station scene, as the dude is slammed across the desk, he utters the greatest words ever uttered

in the in the history of cinema. I want to lawyer. I want, Bill Conster, if you can't tell already. Ron Koby is a dynamic character. He has a long gray ponytail and easy going demeanor. He loves to talk and is the kind of guy that will keep you on the phone for hours. He has a page on his legal website dedicated to his dogs, which he proudly refers to as his law dogs, but his resume speaks for itself. It would be unwise not to take Ron Kobe seriously,

Bill and up representing Philiberto ad Rios. I ended up representing Philibert's lieutenant, if you will, Louis Alfredo coldon Osorio, you know. And it was Warren Zevron who said lawyers, guns and money, and we had at least two out of the three. We had lawyers, and we had money, and probably some people had guns too, but that wasn't a part of the legal defense. So we were prepared to fight the government, and the government was not prepared

for a legal channel. It's important to note that Ron's comments are the recollections of a criminal defense attorney who argued on behalf of the macha Ros, but he provides unique and rare insight into what went on behind the scenes As those involved in the Wells Fargo heist went to trial, Ron says Day one of core proceedings turned out to be nothing short of a circus. We showed up to to the most massive military style presence I

had ever seen in any case ever. You know, they had black clad snipers on the rooftop, They had shooting positions taken up all around the courthouse. They put in brand new concrete barriers to prevent suicide bombers. Everybody had an automatic rifle. The Wells Fargo case was a big opportunity for federal prosecutors. For years, the FBI and Puerto Rico and prosecutors in the US had been trying to prosecute Los Machateros members for acts of pro state violence.

More often than not, they'd come up short. Even when the group took credit for an illegal event, agents had a hard time identifying those directly responsible. Just as former FBI agent Bob Hybel, who spent years investigating Los mach Teros, the FBI didn't have the capability to penetrate these organizations because they didn't have the sufficient bilingual agents to put in San Juan to do the job. They were going through the motions with this and leaving it all up

to the blue of Puerto Rico. In many ways, the Wells Fargo robbery changed all that. The mach Teros committing the Wells Fargo heist was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made. The reason is that in Puerto Rico, the legal system had been so penetrated by leftist attorneys that it was almost impossible to get a conviction on a perpetrator that you had cut in the act. The FBI didn't catch the group in the act, but it did collect a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including hours of

wire tapped conversations. It wasn't always easy to decipher what was said in the tapes, though. The Macha Terros used the system of code names for nearly everything, people places, operations. Here's Harford current reporter ed Mahoney. They always had crazy up missing strat things like bank robberies, were expropriations and that sort of thing. Nearly every mach Terris associate had

at least one, if not five, pseudonyms. One member went by the nickname Frank, another was known as Jumbo, Philiberto was Greco. As for its clandestine activities, The Macha Terris preferred animals for code names. La Gaviota, which translates to seagull, was the name for the Muneese air based bombing. Elchivo Spanish for goat was code for a plan to free and assassinate an incarcerated former Macha Tero who was suspected of being an informant. As for Aguila, Anka, turns out

there was more to that code name. Questioned by the government, FBI agent Jose Rodriguez testified about it in court. Now, during the course of your FBI electronic surveillance, were you able to determine where Aguila was? Yes, ma'am and where is Aguila? On July the thirteenth, four, in the vehicle of Filberto Rios, a conversation was intercepted. They were discussing Aguila and the fact that his female companion wishes to

be with him. They mentioned that the female companion is on probation, and they stayed in this conversation that Cuba is an attraction for him. It's real because he has been there. And who is Aguila? Aguila is Victor Manuel Hereina. In those wire tapped conversations, agents also learned the group was beginning to fracture. They'd hear members bickering about how to spend the money, when to take credit for the heist, or whether the Cubans took too much of the cash.

The fighting got so bad at one point during the summer of the group had split into two factions, one of which included Juanzagara and Philiberto Ojeda Rios. In one exchange, Philiberto can be heard discussing how he was actually voted out of the Macha Ros Central Committee, the internal governing

body that he helped found. And the guy he's a memory of the Cuban intelligence service, the guy that makes the whole thing work is so Hada, and they demoted him, you know, which is ridiculous because without him there's no organization, basically, an organization famous for its meticulous planning and secretive structures had devolved into chaos, and the FBI they took full

advantage of the situation. The United States of America versus Victor Manuel Harrena at All was a legal slug, a long uphill battle with twists, turns and a seemingly endless number of procedural delays. Take as an example this fact, the first hearing in the case took place on September three. As for the actual trial, opening arguments didn't happen until there was a massive quantity of evidence against the defendants in terms of sheer volume, not quality, but volume. And

what I mean by that. There were thousands of hours of wire tapped communications that had been intercepted over a period of years. There were forty five separate searches, so there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pages of documents. So there was a massive quantity of evidence, but the government was amazingly sloppy. It didn't seem like any of them were preparing to process it in a

way that would be usable at trial. Kuby says, even with the primary suspect nowhere to be found, it was still plenty to litigate. There were emotions to have the trial moved to Puerto Rico, where almost all of the defendants lived and where defense attorneys said they were less likely to face bias. Those were denied. There were issues with the nature of the material sees from the defendants homes. What was fair game under the warrant, what was personal?

What was just the FBI grabbing anything and everything it could in case it might matter lay her. They basically took everything, and some of it was was just hysterically funny out of my client's home. I think they took a tape, a video tape called Jazzer Size your Thighs, which was an exercise video like like the Macha Terro's are going to squeeze America to death between their powerful knees.

What possible evidence could this be? They took children's coloring books, and they took everything that made any reference to Puerto Rico, all the history and literature and books on or buy or about Puerto Rico, all of the Puerto Rican flags, every scrap of anything that made reference to the thousands of your history about this place. Everything was taken as evidence of terrorism. Perhaps the biggest dilemma, though, was the

issue of those wire taps. The defense filed motions to throw a large portion of that evidence out, saying it had been improperly sealed and that in some cases federal agents had listened to conversations without recording them and then they lied about it. The FBI was really, really, really good at collecting eavesdropping tapes and wire tapping and paying

attention to the tapes and collecting intelligence information. They were really bad at adhering to the requirements of the wire tapping law, which meant that at the expiration of a particular warrant, the tapes had to be sealed within thirty days. What sealed actually means is exactly that they are put in plastic bags. There is a seal put on them that contains the dates, the times, that ticulars of the tape.

You can't open the bag without breaking the seal. And the purpose is to maintain the integrity of the tapes where U s at trial, and also to make sure the FBI isn't doing what we know they did, which is sharing these things with other people who have an interest in the Macho terros who might want to listen. And the government totally screwed that up. A judge agreed more than half of the wire tap tapes were deemed it admissible, and the government's case against the number of

Los Materos was split into two. The trial for half of the group, which included Filiberto, Ojeda Rijos, was delayed while an appellate court reviewed the tapes. The trials for the other half move forward. Philiberto was let out on bail after spending thirty two months in jail. Well, the question was where is Philoberto going to go? So Richard Harvey, who at that time was serving as co counsul To Kunstler, said, well, he can live with us. He can live with the

lawyers up in Hartford in our law commune. What what could be better than living living with your lawyer, I ask you, and he did. He moved in. He's really happy to be out of prison. And he is just an amazing human being. I mean, first of all, he's a revolutionary to the marrow of his bones. He's a Puerto Rican patriot. But he can do other things. He can play the guitar, he can play the trumpet, he can do things around the house that need to be

done that he was willing to do. Because Philiberto fundamentally was also a communist in the best sense of that word. He knew that he always had to contribute through his labor to everything and everywhere he was, and he knew that all labor had dignity. And so he cooked. He cooked for the house, and he was a fantastic cook, you know, making up rice and beans and mofungo and other Puerto Rican delicacies. For me, I recognized that this

was a a great man of Puerto Rico. I had no idea how great, and I had no idea ultimately that he would have a legacy as early as he did. But I knew that, you know, this is like Cha Bavara, you know, growing up the cheeseburger. For me. The Liberto remained in that Hartford law house for several months and then returned to Puerto Rico, where he cut off his ankle bracelet and jumped bail. More on that later, Like his mentor, Juan Zagar, spent over two years in jail

before he was granted bail. Unlike his mentor, however, he stayed put his case, along with four additional members of Los MACHOs, went to trial. The trial relied less heavenly on wire tapped evidence, in part because federal prosecutors had flipped two witnesses, Kenneth Cox, a friend of One's who admitted to helping him acquire fake I d s. And Anna Gasson, wants former lover who laundered some of the

stolen money. Now, what did Mr Cigara relate to you at that time he related to me that a robbery happened in Hartford. What did he say happened to the money? The money went to Springfield in cars. Did he tell you what happened to the money after he got to Springfield? Nope? Did Mr Cigara tell you what happened to Mr Harina? Yes he did. What did he say happened to Mr Harina? Well, one time he told me Mr Harina was taken on the night of the robbery from Hartford to Springfield on

a motorcycle. And what happened after that? He told me he was taken to Boston, then to Mexico. Defense attorneys railed at the use of Kenneth Cox as a witness, calling him quote an accomplice, an addict, a man with a criminal record who's being paid for his testimony and kept out of prison for his testimony. For what it's worth, all of the above was true. Cox was arrested twenty one times in twenty five years, and actually went to the FBI about Wells Fargo the day after he was

arrested on a shoplifting charge. Juan Zigara's ex mistress, Anna Gassin, was a far more compelling witness like one. She graduated from Harvard, where she studied biology. Her testimony went on for days and reads like a novel. I would say, there's two major reasons, which for me are part and parcel of the same thing, which is that I loved this man and respect of the values that he shared with me. It was that respect which was also part of the reason why you loved him most probably, yes,

I don't know. Anna Gassin was initially charged as an accomplice in the Wells Fargo case, but was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony, and for good reason. She claimed that Juan asked her to keep about thirty five thousand dollars in a trunk under her bed, which she did. She said. One also asked her to transport money across the US Mexico border, which she didn't. Did Juan Cigara ask you to become involved in this plan to transport money to Mexico? Yes? Would you tell us please what

he wanted you to do? Well, there was a couple that was supposed to drive the camping truck across, and he wanted the couple to be non Hispanic, to be white. By a couple, you mean a man and a woman, man and woman. Yes, he had already had the man who was supposed to drive across, and there was a woman who was supposed to come from Puerto Rico to drive across, and she couldn't because of some health reasons or something. What's more, Anna testified that Juan had admitted

he was behind the Wells Fargo heist. She said he also asked her deposit cash into her bank account and write checks to people in Puerto Rico, some of whom were later found to be alias is of Matris members. Then there was his own written account of Wells Fargo, a manuscript that Juan hoped would one day be turned into a screenplay. He told us the purpose, as you understood it, for the writing was to be made into a movie. It was going to be turned into a

screenplay by someone else. So his objective was to write down what exactly had happened so that someone else who was a writer could then turn it into a screenplay. What I saw was his version, not the screenplay. Lawyers for the defense called Wan's manuscript questionable, saying it was a work of fiction and that key details didn't line up, But the testimony along with some of the wire tapped

evidence did the trick. On April eleven, Juan Sagara was convicted on eleven counts, including aiding and abetting a robbery and helping to transport stolen funds. He was sentenced to sixty five years in prison. The other men received varying sentences. Two were found guilty of conspiracy, another of conspiracy and the transport of stolen money. The last was completely exonerated. Philiberto, who was still on the lamb, was sentenced to fifty

five years in absentia. Fundamentally, the Wells Fargo case was an attempt to crown laws the Puerto Rican Arms Struggle independence movement, but to do so in a place where there would not be so many sympathizers to that movement. After the Wells Fargo verdicts, questions shifted from who was responsible and whether they'd be caught, to a debate that

has continued for the better part of forty years. Were members of the Macha terris violent terrorists who robbed the bank or were they at war with an occupying force and within their rights under international law. In most cases, the crime story usually ends with the trial and conviction, but This is unlike most cases. It's complex and politically charged.

It's not some plea about a robbery. And to truly understand the surprising fate that would befall a number of the Macha Tero's, including Victor Juan and Philiberto, we need to take a step back several decades in fact, and look at their efforts in the context of a larger movement, one of mass protests, clandestine organizations, and open rebellion in

the halls of Congress. Those movements date back to the moment of the Spanish American War, when there were already folks who wanted to seek independence in the way that Cuba was seeking independence. Dr Yari mar Boni a Ramos, who spoke in the last episode, is an expert in Caribbean politics. She also runs a center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York. That current was always sustained and always had important figures, most notably, of course,

Pedro Albizu. Compost is often called the father of Puerto Rico's moderate independence movement. He was born just a few years before the US annexed the island and spent a majority of his life either fighting for independence or in prison for his efforts. Here's retired FBI agent Bob Hybel. What happens is that a nationalist group is swarmed, was called the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. Albiscampos becomes the leader of that group. They're quite militant, They participating in

elections in they're defeated, significantly defeated. From then on they turned the violence. Lbizo compost was a man of bold action. He led a strike on Puerto Rico's Light and Power company for its alleged monopoly on the island. He was a Harvard educated lawyer who represented sugarcane workers in a lawsuit against the sugar industry. In ninety seven, roughly one year into a ten year prison sentence for a conspiracy to overthrow the US government, peaceful protests by his Nationalist

party turned deadly. The poets a massacre is one of the clear examples of criminalization and stay balanced against the pro independence movement that University of Illinois professor Dr. Jose tell us. It took place in the context of the encarceration of pederal bisup Campos and all the leadership of the Nationalist Party. The new leadership of the party organized a demonstration and the Puerto Rican State and with the support of the US, denied the permit for this public

demonstration English. You know, it was just a political rally. And when they canceled the authorization to have that rally, the insular police, now the Puerto Rican police, just started shurting and around twenty people die, around hundred were injured. No one was arrested or formally held accountable for the pont massacre. By the time albi Zoo Compost was released from prison in nineteen forty seven, tensions had started to boil over. People were angry about the ongoing police repression

as well as a controversial gag law. By October of nineteen fifty, thousands of pro independence activists had had enough in stage revolts in towns and cities across Puerto Rico. In Washington, d C, two men attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman in the name of independence. One of the men was killed, the other jailed, along with Albizoo composts

in thousands of others. Then, four years later in Washington, D C. Ruthless fanatic violence erupted in the halls of Congress three men and a woman believed to be members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist gang that in November nineteen fifty attempted the assassination of President Truman opened fire from the visitors gallery of the House of Representatives. The attack by Raphael Cancel, Irvin Flores, Andre's Figueroa and Lolita Lebron

was deemed a continuation of the revolts. Five congressmen were wounded. There were no intending to kill members of Congress, but they were aware of the possibility that they might die. So in that context, they were trying to get the international and the u S attentions to the case of Puerto Rico and what was happening in Puerto Rico with the repression and criminalization, but also with the process a sham process of the colonization. Lolita Lebron said quote, I

did not come to kill anyone. I came to die for Puerto Rico. Like Albizo composts, Lebron and her compatriots received lengthy prison sentences and these people become heroes to certain elements in Puerto Rico. And the result of this criminal activity, the nationalist parties prosecuted in court and its leaders go to prison. Albizo compost was released from prison in nineteen sixty four after being pardoned by Puerto Rico's governor. He died a year later from what many believed to

be the effects of radiation poisoning. The Nationalist Party as a party ceases to exist, However, the adherents of the Nationalist Party continue their activities relative to violent terrorist methods. Bob Bible says the nationalist movements of the forties and fifties deeply inspired Philiberto Ojeda Rios. He idolized Albizo Composts and left his career as a musician with the intention

of picking up where his predecessor had left off. Additionally, both he and Juan Sagara have said they believe that the group's violent conflict with the US government is perfectly legal under international law. That they're not terrorists, they're fighting for self determination. It's a point I raised with dr Attilus. This is a really interesting question that international lawyers would devade for hours. In theory they were in the right right.

We have the u N Resolution fifteen fourteen fifty that and recognize the right of the people to self determination. There is an old UN resolutions, a series of resolution that acknowledged the right of people on the colonial condition to pursue the self determination. Here's Dr Bonia again. I think it's hard to say how Puerto Ricans viewed loss in a kind of homogineous way, because I think there were lots of different views about them. For some folks

they were kind of like boogeymen. They were, you know, bandits hidden in the mountains and shadowy figures. For others, they were heroes and celebrated. Dr Bonia is too young to remember of the group's more violent operations, but says she always understood that there were Puerto Ricans hidden away avoiding what she called the repression of the U. S. Government. The violence that I remembered was more of the violence of surveillance, the carpet, the quintel pro politics, the FBI.

Like my memory of the independence movement is of a movement repressed, surveilled, and criminalized. And to me, that's the violence. That's that I most fervently remember. When I first heard about the Wells Fargo case as a sixteen year old, it didn't make much sense. Why would Victor Harain a steal money he couldn't keep even more puzzling, why would he agree to leave his family and live the rest

of his life as a fugitive. Years later, as I've looked into the story myself, those questions have evolved into a different frame of thinking reflecting on the facts of the case. Within a historical context, what the Macha Teros were striving for, at its core was really no different from what the forefathers of America did during the eighteenth century. Think about this. We had colonists fighting, robbing the British of arms and money, blowing things up, all in the

name of independence. It's the same ideology. And while wan Zigara has said that he knew there was a good chance they'd all end up quote in prison or dead, I don't believe for one minute he didn't think there was another potential outcome. Because in nineteen seventy nine, just a few years before Wells Fargo, then President Jimmy Carter did the unthinkable. He commuted the sentences of Lolita Lebron and three others, including Oscar Koyazo, one of the men

who attempted to assassinate President Truman. After his release, Koyazo told nbc AT decades later he had zero regrets at all fighting for the film of the country. If there's nothing to have remars off, I'm more committed than never every minute of my existence. If she would use violence again, I will do what is necessary for deliberation of Puerto Rico.

You see, clemency was an option for the Magic terrorists, and they all knew this, especially if there was someone powerful enough who found their sentences unfair and believed that their initial fight was for a just cause. And as it turns out, there was someone I William Jefferson Cletton do solemnly swear next time on White Eagle. Today we're going to focus on the President's decision to offer clemency two members of a Puerto Rican terrorist group. A presidential

order ignites a firestorm in Congress. White Eagle is written and executive produced by Me and William Phelps and I Heart executive producer Christina Everett. Additional writing by our supervising producer Julia Weaver. Our associate producer and script supervisor is Darby Masters. Audio editing and mixing by Christian Bowman, Voice acting by Daniel Cologne, Julia Weaver and Abu zafar Our. Series theme forms regal or Grant is written by Aaron Kaufman.

Thanks to Arlene Santana and Will Pearson at I Heart Radio, and a very special thank you to Northern Night Productions for allowing us to use clips from the documentary The Last American Colony. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.