Avelino
González . . . A Tireless Fighter
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
A Report from El Comite de familiares
y amigos de Avelino Gonzalez Claudio
Friends and Family of Avelino González Claudio,
Puerto Rico
March 6, 2008
Avelino González Claudio was transported to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and
immediately appeared in court for identification and upon declaring himself indigent was appointed a public defense attorney.
A new bail hearing was set for last March 4th and was
postponed so that his friends and family members could prepare for this hearing. He was imprisoned at the state penal institution
in Connecticut.