Clinica Pila Massacre by Carlos Torres Morales of "El Imparcial", 1937
Ponce, Puerto Rico, March 21,
1937 — This Palm Sunday turned into a bloody day of terror for peaceful
marchers who had gathered in Ponce, Puerto Rico to protest the imprisonment of Puerto
Rican independence activist Pedro Albizu Campos.
Campos had been imprisoned for
conspiracy and sedition against the United States after the assassination of police
commander Colonel E. Francis Riggs, a former United States Army officer who was
killed by nationalists. Although there was no evidence of Albizu Campos’ involvement
he was a marked man for his nationalist and union activities. Most importantly when he had led an island-wide strike by sugar cane workers which had paralyzed the U.S. sugar production.
Albizu Campos had won a great victory for the workers getting a guaranteed wage
increase from 45 cents to $1.75 per 12-hour day.
Before the protest organizers had
gotten legal permits from Ponce Mayor José Tormos Diego. These were not
required permits based on a 1926 Puerto Rican Supreme Court Ruling, but as a
courtesy to Tormos Diego, they had requested the permit.
However, upon learning about the
planned march U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton
Winship decided it could not be permitted. The U.S. Government did not think Puerto
Rico's independence was in the national interest, and he personally thought it
his mission to crush any nationalist activity and their leadership. He had personally
directed the island’s Insular Police force to use intimidation activities
against the rank and file of the nationalist groups. To this end, he had militarized
them and put American Riggs in charge.
The demonstrators had decided on
Ponce for their march because there was already a parade to honor the 1873
outlawing of slavery on the island. Ponce was full of many planned celebrations
on March 21 and Winship had used his authority to cancel them all.
An hour before activities began,
he issued this order, and further ordered Insular Police Chief, Colonel
Enrique de Orbeta to increase police presence in Ponce and stop the demonstration
by “any means necessary.” de Orbeta took this seriously and brought in additional
forces from across the island and armed them with riot gear and machine guns.
The parade started with a playing
of La Borinqueña (the Puerto Rican national anthem). Marchers had not been
notified that Winship had canceled the parade. They were all dressed in their holiday
dress and held palm fronds.
Guillermo Soldevilla, police
chief of the municipality of Juana Díaz, and 14 officers had taken a
position in front of the crowd. They were armed with Thompson submachine guns and
tear gas bombs. 11 other policemen armed with machine guns were just to the
east on another street and on the west were 12 police armed with rifles. There
were at least 200 officers armed with riot clubs.
Before La Borinqueña had finished
playing shots hit the gathered crowd. They fired on them for at least 15 minutes,
not allowing anyone to break away. Once this mass firing ceased the protesters
tried to run. They were chased down alleys and blocked from leaving the Clinica
Pila, which was the heart of Ponce. Once the fire of the guns had finished the
police chased people with the clubs and beat them severely.
At the end of the assault 19 were
dead, including a 7-year-old girl. Over 200 were wounded either by the heavy
gunfire or the clubbing. Many never recovered from their injuries. During the
massacre survivors witnessed a young Nationalist named Bolívar Márquez use his
own blood to write "Viva la República, Abajo los Asesinos" (English:
"Long live the Republic, down with the Murderers!") on the wall of
the Hospital Metropolitano Dr. Pila.
Chief de Orbeta immediately realized
that the events had gone wrong and grabbed Ángel Lebrón Robles, a photographer
for the newspaper El Mundo. The chief used the photographer to stage some
photos that made the massacre look necessary, using his own dead officers.
This didn’t work at all. All the
newspapers on the island wrote the truth but several in mainland American
cities printed misinformation provided by Winship. In those stories, he claimed
all the deaths were caused by Nationalists.
This attempt at a cover-up partially
failed when reports kept coming out of the level of violence by the police on
Palm Sunday. The United States Commission on Civil Rights led by
the ACLU's Arthur Garfield Hays, together with Puerto Rican citizens
found that events on Palm Sunday constituted a massacre and mob action by the
police.
However, there were never any
convictions of any police involved. Winship continued to put pressure on the
nationalists. He survived an assassination attempt in 1938 that made him even
more brutal. There was one lone voice demanding justice in the mainland, New
York Congressman Vito Marcantonio had thousands of Puerto Rican immigrants in
his district and refused to let the incident go. Assisted by Minnesota Congressman John
T. Bernard he pressed on until President Roosevelt replaced Winship in 1939.
Yet like so many other events in
U.S. History, there were never any official consequences or sanctions against
the police or any authorities who committed mass murder of unarmed citizens.
The message "Viva
la República, Abajo los Asesinos" (English: "Long live the
Republic, Down with the Murderers!") was written in blood by cadet Bolívar
Márquez Telechea before he died.
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