[Ppnews] Avelino Gonzalez Claudio - Update

[Political Prisoner News]

Avelino González . . . A Tireless Fighter

Avelino González Claudio 09873-000
287 Bilton Road
P.O. Box 665
Somers, CT 06071

In August of 1985, Avelino González, along with 
other Puerto Ricans and 2 North Americans, were 
accused of having participated in the planning 
and authorization of an operation to secure 
$7,117,000.00 from a Wells Fargo armored truck in 
Hartford, Connecticut on September 12, 
1983.  That operation was carried out by the then 
PRTP-Macheteros.  They are accused of being part 
of the Central Committee and Political Commission 
of the PRTP-Macheteros.  Avelino, his brother 
Norberto and Victor Gerena, the main person 
accused, could not be arrested at that 
time.  Norberto and Victor remain underground to this day.

The charges against those arrested that year 
ended in a trial of a group of the accused 
(Carlos Ayes, Filiberto Ojeda, Juan Segarra, 
Norman Ramirez and Roberto Maldonado) in 1989 and 
finally led to a political-legal agreement in 
1992 with the accused Orlando González, Hilton 
Fernández Diamante, Jorge A. Farinacci, Isaac 
Camacho, Elías Castro and Angel Días Ruiz and 
later led to another trial of the accused Ivone 
Meléndez Carrión.  The legal agreement reached 
recognized the Macheteros as a political 
organization that fights for the independence of their homeland.

Avelino was born in the town of Vega Baja on 
October 8, 1942.  Since his days as a student in 
the public schools of his country he established 
himself as a fighter for the freedom of his 
homeland.  Upon entering the University of Puerto 
Rico he became a member of the Pro-Independence 
University Federation (Federación Universitaria 
Pro Independencia –FUPI), a student organization 
founded in 1956 that has stood out for its 
struggle for university reforms to improve 
conditions at the university for our 
people.  Avelino became its 
vice-president.  Avelino stood out as one of its 
best militants and as a person for whom no task 
was too small or too big to take on.

Since becoming a student he embraced socialist 
ideas as his own, becoming a constant student of 
the history of our working people and their 
struggles, as well as, studying the socialist 
ideological classics.  He always stood out for 
his knowledge of the history of the workers’ 
international struggles and their revolutions.

He married in the mid-1960’s and had 4 children 
who today are part of the professional classes of 
our country.  At that time he moved to New York 
City where he lived until the beginning of the 
1970’s.  He worked in Wall Street in that city 
while he carried out political work with the 
Puerto Rican community and organized part of the 
resistance of the revolutionary forces that were 
beginning to organize themselves in “the belly of 
the Yankee beast” and had begun to stand out by 
the end of the 1960’s.  Avelino became part of 
the leadership of the Vito Marco Antonio Mission 
of the Movemento Pro-Independence (MPI) in New York.

Avelino returned to his homeland to integrate 
into the political work where he stands out as 
one of its most capable and disciplined 
leaders.  At the time of the arrests in 1985 he 
was known for his role in the administration of 
the operations of the political magazine 
Pensamiento Crítico (Critical Thought).  It is at 
that time that he becomes one of the Puerto 
Ricans most sought by the enemy and he transforms 
himself into the citizen José Ortega.

Upon getting to know Avelino as one of the 
leaders most committed with his ideas of freedom 
for our homeland and the program of struggle of 
his organization, we do not doubt that he has 
been in the heart of our people, struggling 
alongside them for their civil rights to freedom 
and social justice for its working classes.  Many 
have been the trenches of struggle of this 
well-known leader and militant of the 
revolutionary struggles of our people and its 
movement for national liberation for the past 50 years.

Following the arrests of August 30, 1985, Avelino 
became part of the struggles of our people as 
“José Ortega”.  For the past 22 years he alluded 
the enemy and was able to participate not only in 
the struggle for our peoples liberation but also 
as a worker and computer teacher where he 
realized work for the improvement of the services 
provided by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico.

Avelino is known for his calm tolerant manner but 
at the same time for his firmness in the 
expression of his positions and political 
ideas.  For him there is no room for hypocrisy 
when it’s time to combat ideas that he considers 
incorrect.  His personality, his demeanor and his 
ideas regarding the necessity for unity in the 
liberation movement led him to always espouse 
that differences should not be a motive for 
divisions. He has never been heard to make 
mean-spirited or derogatory accusations of those 
he has political differences, either in his 
organization or toward those outside it with whom 
he has differences because of their political 
practice or strategy.  He said in his first 
communication after his arrest, “ . . . Pandora 
left desperation out of her box and because of 
this they may chain and imprison my body, but never my spirit and my ideas”

Avelino today finds himself incarcerated in a 
state prison in the city of Hartford in 
conditions of “maximum security”.  23 hours in 
isolation in a jail cell, with one hour to get 
fresh air, with no access to his family and 
denied communication by telephone with his family 
members, his lawyers or friends.  They propose to 
judge him, as they have his comrades in struggle, 
faraway from his Puerto Rican homeland.

The U.S. government must recognize Avelino’s 
status as a fighter for independence and a 
political prisoner, as he demanded in its imperial courts!

We know that Avelino is man in very good health 
at the time of his arrest and we hope that he 
remains so.  Any change in his health condition 
will be the responsibility of his enemy jailers.

Let Us Support The Defense of Avelino!

Comité familiares y Amigos de Avelino González Claudio
Friends and Family of Avelino González Claudio
apartado postal #22282
San Juan. P.R.00931-2282
<mailto:avelinogonzalezclaudio at yahoo.com>avelinogonzalezclaudio at yahoo.com



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20080320/f8f870b5/attachment.htm>