There was concern about the circumstances of the fatal shooting by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents of prominent independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in September. A member of the nationalist group "Los Macheteros" (Cane Cutters) accused of involvement in a 1990 robbery in the USA, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was shot after agents surrounded the farmhouse in which he and his wife were staying. His family accused the FBI of initiating the shooting, then leaving him to die. Separate investigations were being carried out by the US Department of Justice and the Puerto Rico Justice Department with the results still pending at the end of the year.

Federal death penalty

The second death penalty trial in Puerto Rico for more than 75 years took place in March, resulting in life sentences for Hernando Medina Villegas and Lorenzo Catalán Román, who had been convicted of the murder of a security guard. Pursuit of the death penalty in the case by the US federal authorities sparked protests in Puerto Rico which has been abolitionist since 1929. The US federal authorities said that they would continue to seek the death sentence for federal capital crimes in Puerto Rico.

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