September 23 marks the birth of the Puerto Rican nation, the death of a national hero, and a time for reflection and rejuvenation for the protracted struggle ahead.

The roots of our nation are in Lares. The definition of our nationality was forged by the determination to expel colonial power from our land. In the days and months preceding the 23rd of September, 1868, a conspiracy was born. A conspiracy fully aware of its driving forces: national liberation and class struggle. A conspiracy to expel the institution of slavery from the archipelago. To banish the plantation system and give life to all who labor for the riches of a ruling elite. To proclaim a free and independent republic linked arm in arm with Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic in pursuit of Caribbean unity.

Although the uprising is defeated, the spirit of Lares is immortal, a living memory which we continue to honor every year.

One hundred years later, from this very spirit emerged a clandestine force shaped by the strategic necessity of people’s war for independence and socialism. The women and men of Los Macheteros represent our people and nation in arms, modeling the very highest examples of courage and ideological clarity, laying to rest the insidious notion that our people are content to suffer in silence and docility. Our combatants endured tremendous hardships, facing capture, trial, conviction, struggling as political prisoners until their release, all the while embodying the dignity of our people and our independence struggle on the world stage. They are the backbone of our revolutionary heritage and the self-respect we must have as a people responsible for the liberation of our nation. 

On the 23rd of September, 2005, as we gathered to commemorate 137 years of persistent struggle guided by the spirit of Lares, the FBI invaded our national territory yet again to murder our elder and longtime leader of Los Macheteros, Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Evading capture since 1990, Filiberto annually addressed the public via radio and television, urging the masses of our people toward principled unity and the mobilization of all sectors of our independence movement to expel U.S. imperialism by all means available. The lives and dignity of our descendants depends upon it. For refusing to submit to the illegitimate jurisdiction of U.S. law and colonial power, Filiberto’s life was taken. Proudly defying our enemy until his very last breath, he continues to lead us by his example.

Today, history calls upon us once more to assume our place on the frontlines of our collective struggle in defense of our nation, as those very forces are undertaking the mass extermination of Palestinians and mobilizing the power of U.S. armed forces in cities across the United States.. 

In the spirit of Lares, we must be ready and willing to do what must be done to proclaim our territory a Zone of Peace, a liberated nation on the path toward socialism.