SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - More than 1,000 demonstrators chanting anti- FBI slogans and carrying Puerto Rican flags marched through the capital of this U.S. island territory on Sunday.
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Demonstrators chanted "Respect Puerto Rico!" and "FBI get out!"
Many of the marchers favor independence for the island and accuse the FBI of persecuting the movement.
They also accuse the FBI of letting Filiberto Ojeda Rios — the fugitive leader of a pro-independence militant group — bleed to death during an FBI raid in September. Ojeda Rios was wanted for the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck depot.
Marchers later accused an onlooker of being a federal agent.
Confronting the man, demonstrators began shouting "murderer, murderer." After several minutes the man fled in an automobile and protesters banged on the car windows, cracking the glass, witnesses said.
Many of the marchers said the man had been taking photographs of the demonstration. Several witnesses said the man had been carrying a firearm.
According to police, there were no injuries in Sunday's demonstration.
Demonstrators also chanted against the FBI's tactics.
FBI agents on Feb. 10 searched five homes and a business to thwart what the agency said was a "domestic terrorist attack" planned by independence militants.
As word spread of the FBI operation, reporters gathered outside an apartment building in the San Juan area as agents searched.
A television stations broadcast images of federal agents using pepper spray on reporters and protesters — prompting complaints from journalist associations on the island.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227...YFvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
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Demonstrators chanted "Respect Puerto Rico!" and "FBI get out!"
Many of the marchers favor independence for the island and accuse the FBI of persecuting the movement.
They also accuse the FBI of letting Filiberto Ojeda Rios — the fugitive leader of a pro-independence militant group — bleed to death during an FBI raid in September. Ojeda Rios was wanted for the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck depot.
Marchers later accused an onlooker of being a federal agent.
Confronting the man, demonstrators began shouting "murderer, murderer." After several minutes the man fled in an automobile and protesters banged on the car windows, cracking the glass, witnesses said.
Many of the marchers said the man had been taking photographs of the demonstration. Several witnesses said the man had been carrying a firearm.
According to police, there were no injuries in Sunday's demonstration.
Demonstrators also chanted against the FBI's tactics.
FBI agents on Feb. 10 searched five homes and a business to thwart what the agency said was a "domestic terrorist attack" planned by independence militants.
As word spread of the FBI operation, reporters gathered outside an apartment building in the San Juan area as agents searched.
A television stations broadcast images of federal agents using pepper spray on reporters and protesters — prompting complaints from journalist associations on the island.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227...YFvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--