by Nun Andrade

Dylcia Pagan stood proudly behind the podium, speaking to the packed room of New York University students that had come to see her. Far from timid, her voice was that of a woman whose resolve could not be diminished. Her very posture was a rebellion against the 19-year prison term that could not break her. To the attendees of the OASIS-sponsored event, April 12 was most likely just another day; to Pagan, sentenced in 1980 to 55 years in prison, April 12 was another welcome day of freedom.

Dylcia Pagan was arrested on April 4, 1980 for conspiring against the United States government. A former member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of Puerto Rico (FALN) — an armed, clandestine organization that operated within the U.S. — Pagan was one of 11 Puerto Ricans imprisoned for “seditious conspiracy.” The objective of the FALN, which was responsible for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. between 1974 and 1983, was to gain the independence of Puerto Rico and create an independent island nation.

Although none of the 11 were ever convicted of the actual bombings, their sentences ranged from 35 to 90 years. The United States government was never able to prove that any one of us were involved ... in any political-military acts,” she said. Pagan attributes the length of their prison sentences to the group’s refusal to recognize the United States judicial system’s legitimacy.

“We were basically put inside [prison] for such long sentences because of our [political] position,” she said. “Eleven Puerto Ricans [stood] before the Federal courts and [said], ‘We do not recognize the jurisdiction of the United States courts, we refuse to participate in this trial.’ ... The government, [in order] to [save] face, had to give us these long sentences.”

Proclaiming themselves prisoners of war (POWs) in a battle between the U.S. and the FALN, the group refused to participate in court proceedings.

We took positions [as] prisoners of war, because according to international law, if your country is a colony, and Puerto Rico definitely is a colony of the United States, ... there is either a declared or non-declared war,” she explained. “If you are captured by your enemy, you have the right and duty to declare yourselves prisoners of war.”

Although Puerto Rico is officially considered a “commonwealth” of the United States, according to Pagan, the island nation remains a colony. We have been under colonial rule. First we were a colony of Spain and then ... a colony of the United States,” she said.

Spain colonized Puerto Rico until 1897, when it granted the island powers of self-government. Only a year later, the U.S. government imposed martial law, leading Pagan to feel that Puerto Rico never achieved its independence.

As a result, Pagan believes that her actions were justified: “If your country is a colony, be it a declared war or undeclared war, you have the right to pick up arms, and that is what I chose to do,” she said during a prison interview.

She was referring to United Nations Resolution 2621, which “affirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination recognized as being entitled to the right of self-determination to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal.”

The resolution is part of the reason why, although the U.S. government has branded her and her comrades terrorists, many view them as patriots, brave participants in the Puerto Rican independence movement.

The real terrorists, according to Pagan, are the U.S. government.