Puerto Rican independence leader Jorge Farinacci-Garcia died on Saturday after a yearlong struggle with cancer. He was 56 years old. Farinacci was a leader of the militant group Los Macheteros and later became a prominent labor attorney. He served three years in U.S. prisons after his conviction on conspiracy charges in connection with the 1983 robbery of seven million dollars from a Wells Fargo depot in Connecticut. He was a close associate of Filberto Ojeda Rios, the Puerto Rican independence leader who was shot dead a year ago by FBI agents. Farinacci condemned the killing during an interview on Democracy Now.

• Jorge Farinacci-Garcia: “This murder has shown very clearly to all Puerto Ricans and many people around Latin America and the United States the real character of the relation of Puerto Rico with the United States.”