In a January 1981 attack, Macheteros commandos infiltrated a Puerto Rican Air National Guard base and blew up 11 planes, causing approximately $45 million in damages.

The Machatero Struggle

The Boricua Popular Army (EPB) known as the Macheteros wage a guerrilla struggle against United States occupation of Puerto Rico, an island originally known as Borinquen. The explicitly Marxist group is most active in the 1970s and 1980s, waging campaigns of bank robberies, bombings on military and business targets, and guerrilla attacks. It is still claimed to have a committed force of a few thousand today. One of the founders, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, is discovered and killed by FBI agents at his rural home on September 23rd, 2005. This is the Grito de Lares, the island's most potent nationalist holiday, and demonstrations across the Puerto Rico unite people on every side of the independence debate. Masked members of the Macheteros openly walk the streets.