Federal Jury Examines Puerto Rican Slayings

October 13, 1983

Federal Jury Examines Puerto Rican Slayings

(SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) A Federal grand jury probe began today in a possible coverup in the police slaying of two men the police said were terrorists.

The investigation is the latest development in the Cerro Maravilla case, which may be endangering the 1984 re-election chances of
Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo, who favors statehood for Puerto Rico.

The police contended they fired in self-defense to kill Carlos Soto Arrivi and Arnaldo Dario Rosado at the Cerro Maravilla mountain
July 25, 1978. They charged that the two men were pro-independence terrorists planning to destroy a television tower.

Senate hearings begun in July reopened the case, which the Federal authorities closed two years ago. The new hearings produced
testimony charging the two men were lured to the site and ambushed by the police and that witnesses were pressured to support a
police coverup.

Mr. Romero, who originally called the policemen in the case heroes, recently modified that statement to say he had to wait to see what
the new investigations disclosed in the police actions.

November 28, 1983

Puerto Rico's Probe

Special prosecutors, changed testimony, witnesses granted immunity, special investigating committees, calls for resignation,
whispers of impeachment--we're talking not of Watergate, but of recent events in Puerto Rico. In 1978 two young advocates of
independence for Puerto Rico were killed while being arrested for apparently attempting to blow up the television relay tower at Cerro
Maravilla. Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo called the policemen who made the arrests "heroes," and denied charges, aired during his
1980 reelection campaign, that they had acted wrongly. But last Tuesday Mr. Romero announced that two of the policemen, granted
immunity from prosecution, said that the two independentistas had surrendered before they were killed by the police.

That announcement stunned Puerto Rico--and is worthy of attention here on the mainland. The confessions were obtained through
investigations conducted by the state senate, which is controlled by the main opposition party, the Popular Democrats. They
compound the governor's political problems, already severe because a former political ally, the popular mayor of San Juan, has formed
his own party and is expected to run for governor next year. Who wins and loses elections in Puerto Rico is not of great moment to
most mainlanders. What is important is the integrity of the political process of which 3 million Americans in Puerto Rico are a part.

The way the Cerro Maravilla incident has been handled shows the strength of Puerto Rico's political institutions and its attachment to
democratic values. It has been a difficult and lengthy controversy. Facts embarrassing to the Romero administration have evidently
been uncovered by the orderly operation of political institutions. Inevitably there is speculation on the effect of the unfolding scandal
on the question of status. Should Puerto Rico seek statehood (as Gov. Romero has advocated), or independence (as only a few Puerto
Ricans now advocate), or should it maintain or modify its current commonwealth status? The way that Puerto Ricans have handled
the Cerro Maravilla case shows that they know how to choose.