Raimundo Díaz Pacheco

Raimundo Díaz Pacheco (1906 - October 30, 1950) was a political activist and the Treasurer General of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was also commander-in-chief of the Cadets of the Republic, the official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. This quasi-military organization was also known as the Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico (The Liberation Army of Puerto Rico).

On October 30, 1950, a series of revolts occurred in scattered locations in Puerto Rico in opposition to U.S. colonial rule. These were known as the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts. On that day of October 30, Díaz Pacheco led an armed attack on La Fortaleza, the residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico in San Juan, with the intent to assassinate Governor Luis Muñoz Marín. Díaz Pacheco was shot dead in the unsuccessful attempt.

Early years Díaz Pacheco was born in the barrio of Carraízo in the municipality of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, where he received his primary and secondary education. Díaz Pacheco and his five siblings were believers in the cause of Puerto Rican independence and, in 1924, joined the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico.

1924 was also the year that Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos joined the party and was named vice-president. By 1930, there were disagreements between José Coll y Cuchí, founder of the Nationalist Party, and Albizu Campos as to how the party should be run. Coll y Cuchi and his followers abandoned the party and on May 11, 1930, Albizu Campos was elected president.

Under Albizu Campos's leadership during the years of the Great Depression, the party became the largest independence movement in Puerto Rico. However, by the mid-1930s, after disappointing electoral results and strong repression by the territorial police authorities, Albizu Campos opted against electoral participation and advocated direct, violent revolution. Title 18 of the United States Code is the criminal and penal code of the federal government of the United States. It deals with federal crimes and criminal procedure. Carlos Torres Morales, a photo journalist for the newspaper El Imparcial, was covering the march and took this photograph when the shooting began. The photo was sent to U.S. Congress.

On March 21, 1937, a Palm Sunday, the cadets were to participate in a peaceful march scheduled in the city of Ponce. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873. The march was also protesting the imprisonment, by the U.S. government, of Nationalist leader Albizu Campos on alleged sedition charges. Díaz Pacheco, who by then was the Comandante (Commander) of the Cadets of the Republic, and his brother Faustino were present when this peaceful march turned into the bloody police slaughter, which became known as the Ponce massacre.

Several days before the scheduled Palm Sunday march, the organizers received legal permits for a peaceful protest from José Tormos Diego, the mayor of Ponce. However, upon learning of the planned protest, the colonial governor of Puerto Rico General Blanton Winship, who had been appointed by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the permits.

As La Borinqueña, Puerto Rico's national song, was being played, the demonstrators - which included the cadets, led by Tomás López de Victoria, the Captain of the Ponce branch and the women's branch of the Nationalist Party known as the Hijas de la Libertad (Daughters of Freedom) - began to march. Empowered by the North American police chief, and encouraged by the governor, the police fired for over 15 minutes from four different positions. They fired with impunity on the cadets and bystanders alike - killing men, women and children. Nineteen people were killed, and about 235 were wounded. and for sentencing the Nationalist leadership to long prison terms. Díaz Pacheco and his comrades were found guilty of the charges against them and were imprisoned.

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts of the 1950s

Various incidents between the government and the party led to call for an armed revolt by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party against United States Government rule over Puerto Rico.

The revolts specifically repudiated the so-called "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado) designation of Puerto Rico - a designation that the nationalist considered a colonial farce.

The revolts began on October 30, 1950, upon the orders of Nationalist leader Albizu Campos, with uprisings in various towns, among them Peñuelas, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo and Ponce. The most notable uprisings occurred in Utuado, Jayuya, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

San Juan Nationalist revolt Díaz Pacheco was in charge of the San Juan revolt. The objective of the revolt was to assassinate the Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín, at his residence La Fortaleza. They got out of the car with a submachine gun and pistols in hand and immediately began firing at the mansion. Díaz Pacheco headed towards the mansion while the others took cover close to their car, and fired pistols from their positions.

The Fortaleza guards and police, who knew of the planned attack thanks to a double agent named E. Rivera Orellana, were already in defensive positions and returned fire.

Hernández, who was also severely wounded, continued firing at the police from under his car. A police officer and a detective from La Fortaleza with submachine guns approached the car and fired upon Hernández, Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina. Both Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina were killed, and their motionless bodies were by the right side of the car.

Hernández was believed to be dead, however he wasn't, and he was taken to the local hospital along with the wounded police officers where they were operated on for their respective wounds. The battle lasted 15 minutes and at the end of the battle there were five nationalist casualties (four dead and one wounded) plus three wounded police officers.

Betrayal by his own brother According to the FBI Files: Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico (1952), Díaz Pacheco's brother Faustino (1903–2003) cooperated with the FBI, and was one of their primary informants regarding the Nationalist Party, the Cadets of the Republic, and the entire Puerto Rican revolution.

For nearly twenty years, Faustino Díaz Pacheco provided the FBI with detailed information about the structure, funding, leadership, weapons, recruitment activity, and strategic planning of the Nationalist Party and the Cadets of the Republic. In providing the FBI this information Faustino betrayed his own brother, the Nationalist movement, and the people of Puerto Rico.