Steven Guerra
Steven Guerra
Controversy
In September 2007, controversy erupted in Chicago when it was discovered that Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich had hired Steven Guerra as an $120,000 deputy chief of staff for community services.
In September 2003, the governor included Guerra among a group of his top Latino appointees and said they were "the best people who could bring new ideas and valuable experience to state government."
Gubernatorial spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Guerra disclosed his conviction when he was hired in May 2003 by the Department of Human Services, a post he held until his May promotion to the governor's office.
Steven Guerra spent nearly two years in a federal prison for refusing a federal judge's order to testify before a grand jury investigating a wave of FALN bombings that terrorized Chicago and New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. Guerra chose to be convicted of contempt even though he was offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony.
In 1983, Guerra, now 53, was among five people convicted in New York of contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the group. The felony conviction resulted in a three-year prison sentence for Guerra, who was released in 1986 after serving 23 months.
Federal prosecutors labeled Guerra and his four co-defendants "a danger to the community," and said they advocated armed violence, kidnappings, hijackings and prison breaks in the name of a "free" Puerto Rico[1].
The disclosures this week brought demands that he either explain his refusal to cooperate with federal investigators or leave his high-paying state job.
Blagojevich spokesman Abby Ottenhoff said Guerra did not testify before the federal grand jury in New York because "he did not have any knowledge relevant to the investigation, and he believed the process had devolved into a McCarthy-like witch-hunt." She said Guerra "clearly and unequivocally condemns the violence attributed to FALN."
A government informant who was a self-described FALN member allegedly recruited by Guerra told prosecutors that Guerra had been described as "one of the leaders of the resistance in the United States," seeking independence for Puerto Rico[2].
Alleged terrorism
Steven Guerra, second right, in 1985. Inset photo from left: Ricardo Romero, Julio Rosado, Maria Cueto, Steven Guerra and Andres Rosado[3].
Guerra, who is of Mexican descent, spoke about attempts to break FALN members out of prison and attended a Puerto Rican meeting of "terrorists" where "the ambush of police officers and the destruction of dams" was discussed, the informant alleged in a pre-sentencing document[4].
Guerra was never charged with any of the violence FALN perpetrated.
The accusations against Guerra came largely from an admitted FALN member, Alfredo Mendez. He grew up with Guerra, became a government witness and is living under the witness-protection program.
Mendez told investigators Guerra was a member of FALN and recounted a June 1982 trip Guerra took to Puerto Rico to attend "a meeting of a cross section of terrorists." Guerra was identified at the meeting as "one of the leaders of the resistance in the United States," the government memo said.
"The discussion at the meeting included detailed plans for the ambush of police officers and the destruction of dams through the use of explosives," the memo stated.
Mendez also said Guerra and others told him about "a breakout that was planned for the FALN members when they were housed at the Dwight, Illinois prison facility" but it ultimately never happened, the memo said.
"As a back-up to the plan for an actual breakout, plans were also discussed to demand release of the FALN by hijacking a plane or kidnapping either a politician or a politically connected millionaire," the memo stated.
Mendez described how Guerra spoke of efforts to "break . . . out of prison" another FALN member, Marie Haydee Torres. She is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Florida for murder. Torres placed an explosives-laced umbrella in a coat rack that exploded inside the New York offices of Mobil Oil, killing a company executive in August 1977.
Finally, Guerra "advocate(d) the violent overthrow of the United States government" in Puerto Rico during a speech before a university audience in California, the memo stated.
"The right of our country to its independence was not to be discussed with words but with bullets. For believing this, we came to be branded as terrorists''," the memo quoted Guerra as saying, citing a principle he said he had been taught[5].
Friend of Gutierrez
The politician who recommended Steven Guerra for his state job, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), lavished praise on a longtime acquaintance who "made what he considered a principled decision, and he paid a heavy price for that decision."
"I have known Steven for a long time. He is a good man who cares about making our state a better place to live," said Gutierrez, who persuaded President Bill Clinton to grant clemency to 11 imprisoned FALN members in 1999[6].
References
<references/.
- ↑ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/steven-guerra.htm
- ↑ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/guerra-five.htm
- ↑ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/guerra-five.htm
- ↑ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/guerra-five.htm
- ↑ Chicago Sun Times September 7, 2007
- ↑ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/guerra-five.htm