FALN

abbreviation of Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacin Nacional (Spanish: Armed Forces of National Liberation), militant nationalist organization formed about 1974 to agitate for Puerto Rican independence from the United States. It has engaged in bombings and other terrorist acts. The antecedents of the FALN trace back to the 1930s, when the violent Nationalist Party under Pedro Albizu Campos provoked riots, assassinations, and other acts of protest and bloodshed. In Washington, D.C., on Nov. 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists tried but failed to assassinate President Harry S. Truman; and another group, on March 1, 1954, sprayed gunfire into the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. In 1971 bombs were set off in San Juan and other Puerto Rican cities, and in 1973 a Puerto Rican group calling itself Furia (Fury) placed incendiary devices in New York City stores. The name of FALN first surfaced on Oct. 26, 1974, when five big bombs exploded in Manhattanin the Wall street area, in Rockefeller Center, and on Park Avenuecausing considerable property damage but no injuries. The FALN claimed responsibility for this series of acts as it did later for bombings in Puerto Rico itself. In the course of 1975, the FALN boasted of a series of bombings, beginning on January 24 with a Wall Street bombing killing three persons and injuring 40 and climaxing on October 27 with nine nearly simultaneous explosions in New York City, Washington, and Chicago, producing only property damage. Bombings continued sporadically thereafter. In April 1980 a group of 11 FALN terrorists were arrested in Evanston, Ill. on such charges as robbery, conspiracy, and weapons violations and were later convicted in both state and federal courts and sentenced to prison terms as long as 50 years.