Faln

aka Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional; Armed Forces of National Liberation

Between 1974 and 1983, the Puerto Rican nationalist group commonly known as the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional) perpetrated more than 130 bombings in the United States, mostly in New York City and Chicago.

Like other anti-imperialist groups founded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the Black Panther Party, the FALN was committed to the revolutionary ideal of “armed struggle.” The FALN [Page 129]wanted to win Puerto Rico's independence from the United States and to end “Yankee imperialism” in the Caribbean. The FALN, along with other Puerto Rican militant nationalist groups, quickly became the second most important focus of the FBI's Cointelpro division, which was created to investigate and infiltrate leftist groups.

Unlike other Puerto Rican nationalist groups, such as the Macheteros, the FALN focused on urban areas in the continental United States. In ...